So I just put laminating resin on my board. I did the bottom fine but the top came out as a disaster. The cloth kept wrinkling and it dried really fast. This is my first time using fiberglass and I’m the kind of guy that just goes out and tries before ever really reading or watching videos etc… lol I guess it got to me this time.
Any advice as to what I should do now? Just proceed with the hot coat and then sand like crazy? I’ve tried cutting it with a razor blade, and I’m making some progress. It’s very tacky and brittle and hard to sand right now. I realize everyone will probably flame me for this but I’m a beginner really have no idea what I’m doing.
Attached are the pictures.
Please help, any advice would be appreciated.
Thats a blue resin tint by the way which never really came out even, I don’t think I mixed it long enough.
Thats not a disaster mate, still looks like a surfboard. Nice thin hotcoat, sand the s#!t out of it and then patch up any bare bits, then proceed to hotcoat and finish as normal.
I feel your pain on the first board disaster post – done that myself. You’ll be fine following the advice of these guys!
I’ve read that getting tints even is a non-trivial thing, and involves (among other things) mixing well & filtering the tinted resin through a Home Depot disposable paint strainer before adding any catalyst…
sounds good, lol my tint will give it character anyways. Who needs a nice even blue. Thanks for all your help. This has been a huge and fun project. I’ve set up shop in my parents garage since I’m back from college for the holidays. haha I’ve stunk up the house continuous times with the resin etc… but its been super fun. I’m doing the hot coat tomorrow, I wanna get it even and looking somewhat nice before I tackle the fins. I’ve got futures fins and a standard router. I’ve searched for some templates on here but I might be posting in a few days lol asking for some help on the fins.
Yeah I do think it was a little warmer when I did the top. See I haven’t been very consistent with the temperature. I’m in Oregon and it is about 40 degrees in my garage, I got some heaters going to heat it up but I haven’t been precise about anything lol.
When I look back it was pretty funny. I kinda just said f-ck it and mixed the resin and started!! ( I dont know what I’m doing) I started to panic as the resisn hardened, and I didnt mix enough, I’m running around like a mad man in my parents garage with resin all over the place, my surfboard hardening and the radio blasting. The best part about it all is when I talked to the guy where I bought my supplies, I asked him:
“what is a common mistake a newbie like me would make?”
He replies “panicking when you mix the resin”
haha this is exactly what I did. I wish I had someone here to help me. Oh well, as long as it floats.
You’re in Portland! Oh god, in a closed-up garage, with the heater on, I bet! Boy, you’ve got some tolerant parents.
Mixing the tint in thoroughly is important, but the main thing is that the blank be sanded very very smooth- any little scratch will show up, especially with blue (red and orange are about as unforgiving…so’s green… yellow’s the most forgiving)
Do you have a jig for the Futures? If not, you might want to consider glassing the fins on.
yep, I got one of those. I am smart enough to wear one of those. Closed up in my garage without one I probably would have been laying dead next to my board.
What they all said about the surform and then hot coat, sand, etc. As well as I think most people do something like that on their first board. I did. But as for the fins, I would recommend against free handing it. I made a jig out of the cheapest wood I could find at the store and it took about an hour and cost two bucks and works pretty well.
Nephty’s could you post a picture of the jig you made so I can get a general idea on how to make it. I know it’s specific to the router but still it will give me an idea in my head. I’ve read tons of descriptions on how to make one but can’t find any pictures. I’m a visual learner.
If you hotcoat real light before sanding (like Entity said), that will protect the glass you don’t want to sand through. Then hotcoat again when you’ve finished knocking things down with your choice of destruction implement. Or sand it and then hotcoat. Your choice.
As for using space heaters in a garage with lots of solvent vapors, Huie had an explosive story about this…be careful, and maybe turn the heat off a little bit before you pop open your resin and such.