I’m shaping my first board and after planing and sanding I have these little divots over a decent amount of the board. If I were to glass it how it is, would I have bubbles or would it turn out bumpy or would it be ok? Should I fill with spackle? I’ll be using 6oz glass with epoxy resin if that makes any difference. Attached is a picture.
you do need to do a filler coat. without a filer coat, too much resin is absorbed into the foam. for the filler coat, you can mix Q-cell and resin, or use spackle. Q-cell can be bought from most surfboard materials supplier. If you choose the spackle route, you need to get high quality spackle and mix in some white pigment. without the pigment, it turns a little brownish yellow. My last board I used spackle. I mixed 1 quart spakle with 3/4 cup water and enough pigment to turn the spackle an even white. When spreading it, dont be afraid to glop it on. make sure you get all the divots and take out air bubbles by making multiple passes with the spakle trowel. then, sand it back down till you see the foam and the filled in divots. dont forget to tape up the stringer before the filler coat. when you have finished, the board should be as smooth as a baby’s butt. lol
remember 1 thing, using spackle causes the resin to not adhere as well as using Q-cell. and, if you do Q-cell and resin, make sure not to glop it on.
If you want good instructions on using Q-Cell, i would suggest asking Greg Loehr or Kokua
Hmm ok. Does it matter that its a Clark blank (forgot to mention that)? I didn’t think that Clark blanks needed to be sealed.
Not too familiar with clark blanks. I exclusively use Sfoam. Id ask a cali shaper. However, I should think it would still need a filler coat, if not for weight issues, but for overall smoothness and to make sure there are no air bubbles when glassing… I personally wouldnt want to look ata bunch of glassed over divots in my finished product.
http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/detail_page.cgi?ID=1029
From Swaylocks Resources: Epoxy & EPS Construction Primer
Sealing the EPS Blank:
Spackling compound: works excellent. Best base for air brush and cosmetically the best. Drawbacks: Spackling does tend to yellow a bit if you use tap water. Use purified water for better results. Also adhesion to the blank is not as good as microballoons of as no seal. These are not serious issues but as long as we’re being thorough here. To seal with spackling paste, water down the paste so it has the consistency of mayonnaise. Then squeegee it onto the blank like a foam stain. The stuff will thicken up as you work so you may have to add more water at some point. You can do both sides at once as the spackling paste doesn’t tend to stick to the rack. After the paste has dried lightly fine sand with a softpad and screen and your ready to laminate. [TAPE OFF STRINGER BEFORE SPACKLE]. [SPACKLE HAS TO DRY OVERNIGHT].
White Glue: Cosmetically not as good spackling. White glue softens with water intrusion causing delamination. This was an early method that has been discontinued by nearly everyone.
Micro and epoxy: Excellent method. Good adhesion to the blank. Fair cosmetics. Fair for airbrush. Do NOT use additive F if your going to airbrush with water based paints during this step. The paint will bead on the microballoon surface. Blush can occasionally be a problem in bad weather which can create adhesion problems between the seal and the laminate. This was an early method that is still used by many today.
No seal: This is now possible with the advent of better EPS foams. Adhesion to foam is VERY good In fact we have never broken a board built this way. Sometimes a small cheater coat is required after the lamination has set. This method requires excellent fine sanding of the blank and even with this the cosmetics are not as good as the other two acceptable methods. This method seems to lend itself to real high performance construction where performance and break strength are preferable over cosmetics. Big waves, Hawaii, Mexico, etc.
Greg Loehr
I assume Clark blanks are polyurethane in the States ?
Sand your blank smooth . If there are a few little “divots” , fill them with catalysed lam resin [add a bit of q-cell if you want it white] just prior to glassing your board . Glass as normal.
ben
clark blanks do NOT need to be sealed. just fill the certain divot with spackle or the q-cell/resin…you dont need to coat the whole thing, just fill the hole and glass it!
Really all depends on how far you wanted to take the finish of it.
First off, a poly blank does not need sealed.
If you haven’t completely finished the final sand, then you can sand out most of them.
But if your at the point where you want to glass then, you’ll need to fill them. You can use lightweight spackling. (Make sure it’s “lightwight”) to fill in the holes. Just use a small amount and a razor and fill them in and scrape off excess. Or yu can use resin with some white pigment mixed with Cbosill, or Micro ballons to do the job.
If you a re glassing clear then either method will work. A color job, or if your sprayign the board, then those areas will look slightly different when hit with paint or tinted resin.
Drew
Howzit Adamus, I see those divots and planer chatter a lot even from really good shapers and I just glass the board. Shapers are supposed to bring me a finished shaped blank and if they leave those divots in the shape then theblank gets glassed with them in it. A lot of times there's nothing the shaper can do other than try to sand them out but that thins the shape and they can only go so far before the blank is to thin. Just make sure you get enough resin through the glass to fill the divots. There are different kinds of spackle and resin won't adhere as well to some but some spackle is ok and the glass will adhere just fine, but I don't use spackle anyways. Aloha,Kokua
Thanks guys. I did a lil more sanding and got most of them pretty much gone but I don’t want to mess with the stuff, especially around the stringer, too much. I’m really not too worried about cosmetics but was more worried about having a bad bond or bubbles etc. I’ll probably spackle the bigger few and leave the rest as they are.
Listen to Kokua…
Clark blank, almost every shop made board has the little planer flaws near the stringer, especially nose and tail, or where the V is maxed.
Just glass it with a milli oz more resin, don’t squeegee the beejesus out of that area.
Go to a surfshop and look at every board. Most likely, EVERY board will have a little planer (stringer planer also) marks.
hey man,
kokua is right. i never bother with those things unless i’m doing a transparent color lay-up. you can dop a little lam resin in them before rolling out your cut and ready to go cloth to make sure you don’t get bubbles- like when you put your logos on. just don’t try and move the cloth once you unroll it onto the blank. or just be sure you work the resin through the cloth into these areas.
good luck