I think it was Ben Franklin who said that if it were true that the best lessons come from one’s misstakes, he would be a genius. I’d be pretty smart too.
Instead, I am so depressed over screwing up a great blank I am ready to turn to the bottle.
I’ve got my hat in my hand, ya’ll. See if you can help me figure a way out of this screwup: I’ve built a special fish blank (EPS) with fish shaped balsa stringer curved to match the outline of the board, sort of a perimeter stinger. All in the shape of the Christian fish symbol. Fabulous job, balsa stringer hit the tips perfectly. ( I posted pictures a while back) After a hasty practice run on some spare foam, I thought I was ready for a resin swirl on bare foam. Alert readers will remember that this had been hinted at in other posts. Doing it on bare foam would avoid a pin line. The board was taped and covered with wax paper. Looking good. I carefully squirted epoxy resin (dark color) on the foam making a school of small fish symbols within the curved balsa stringer. So far so good. I’m feeling very smart. I let is soak in, then poured on a light color for the remainder. I’m not feeling very smart at this point. The resin wasn’t soaking in enough. I used a foam brush hoping to lightly spread the resin with length wise strokes. I’m definitely feel foolish now. The word “mud-pie” comes to mind. The foam brush wasn’t working. I’m sweating profusely now. I went to my squeegee. I pulled the resin off, leaving the fish symbols, but now I have a blotched looking surface with more zits than a teenaged chocolate abuser. I am making up cuss words now and total strangers walking by are shouting into my shop to see if I’m OK. I’m not. But I can’t let them know. I can’t let anyone know. I surpress my feelings. My stomach lining is burning. This is not working. Even a little. There is no way I can cover/hide/bury this collosal waste of foam. There is no way I can get the resin off. Ever. No mattter what. Irretreivible.
I’m better now. I made misstakes every step of the way. But the tape line held nicely and I pulled the tape like an expert. Not a drop on the foam. Insult to injury. Nice job saving a piece of crap. But despite my first thoughts, I didn’t cut it up into a thousand pieces.
I’m giving it 24 hours and hoping the board fairies will come in overnight and make it all right. In case they don’t come, is there any way to cover my mess and yank this misstake out of the fire? Maybe do a fiberglass opaque inlay over the mess? Maybe do a cloth inlay that won’t show what is beneath? Maybe cover the whole frickin thing in carbon fiber and just forget the formerly beautiful stringer? Maybe get a chainsaw and gouge out the mess and run over it with a car and never do a bare foam resin swirl again?
Any help would be appreciated. Good natured ribbing would be tolerated.
“…that which does not kill me, makes me puke…”