So I spent the day with Terry Senate last week (Thanks again Pete) going over some shaping techniques. This below board is the blank I brought down and Terry shaped. I took home to finish shape and glassed. For ease of finding at a future date I have named the thread “how to glass a board”. My imput to this is not so much about technique, as that is rather hard to capture in photos, but just a photo documentation of how the board may look at the different stages of the game and what order those stages are in. Since I did this board with Terry, I thought I would shoot for a glass job that would lend to his style. I know he likes tie-dye so that’s what I was shooting for. I have never attempted to replicate tie-dye before, but I think it turned out pretty cool. My hope is this will be a thread that others my contribute info to and it be an easy place for a beginner to get the basics of glassing in one stop. If anyone has anything to add please post away and as always, enjoy the board building process.
First I taped of my deck for my cut lap.
Next I lay out my bottom cloth, trim it and make my cuts to wrap the nose. *note if I was to be doing this with a single color tint I would not make multiple cuts in the nose because it would leave dark spots where the lam overlaps.
I then mix my colors individually and catalyze them, and then I mix them together for the swirl.
I then lam the bottom and next I cut my lap – the cleaner it is the easier it is to work with at every other stage down the line.
Since I was shooting for a tie-dye inspired board I thought I would go with a nice cloth inlay in the nose. I tape off my cloth section, wet out my cloth and then trim.
After that I tape off the bottom and then get my cloth ready for the deck and then lam it.
Next I prep my edges
And then do a baste / filler coat.
I then hotcoat the deck and bottom. I’ll run tape around the center apex of the rail (see gloss photos below) and hotcoat one side at a time, usually starting on the deck first.
Once my hotcaost is sanded I will tape off my pin lines. The below photo shows an easy way to trim down thick tape to get around tighter curves.
Since I am going with a single fin, It’s at this point I drop my box in. I just use a simple jig like the one below. I create a little dam to trap the resin and drop it in. I’ll do the same thing for the leash plug on the opposite side. This step can be done before pin lines if you’re worried about smudging them or hitting them with the sander when smoothing out the leash plug.
Once I’m done I will grind them down and sand flush with my hotcoat.
Now it’s time to gloss… I use the same process as a hotcoat. Tape down the center of the rail. One side at a time.
Once I’m done I put my trusty gloss only brush back in its bath tub.
Since this is about glassing, I’ll stop here.
Here it is.
