I just finished laminating my latest board. I did a tinted + pigment bottom ( turned out like a tint haha ), and a tinted deck patch, then a resin swirl on the second deck layer. The deck patch was tinted lightish blue, and the second layer was white pigment plus magenta ( cant see it though ). I was thinking of adding some magenta, and white pigment to the hotcoat, so i get a few different shades of purple. I know this is possible, but what are the upsides, and downsides of doing this??.
I plan on doing the nose, and swallow tip corners, and sanding the board BEFORE the hotcoat, until its flat enough that i dont need to sand much after i do the hotcoat. I dont usually sand the hotcoat that much, just some very light grit, 220. Except for the rails where the two tape lines meet.
I’ve only done what you describe on resto’s where I add shellac to the whole lam process, including gloss coats, to cover a host of nasties in a battered brown classic…
So while I speak from that point of experience only, I have a suspicion that tinted filler and gloss will vary in tone as you hit it with the sander, because, well, show me a sander who consistently sands to .2mm or what…
This variation in itself may add an interesting effect to colour swirls, but would look splotchy if its a consistent tint or pigment you want. Those inconsistencies come out in the wash with a suptle shellac tint, but, rub-outs through a red filler to a red lam would look gross…
Heck, try it…
Another thing:- I’m overcoming my aversion to test-panels with some bag tricks lately, and it occurrs to me…why not lam a small piece of something, sand it, etc, to test my hypothesis?
if you put any sort of pigment in the hotcoat it will look really dull and streaky when you sand. LeeDD is right about it looking like a bunch of sand throughs, the only way i think it could work is if you are planning on giving it a gloss coat, even then though it will likely look pretty bad.
if you want to have the look of depth in the color next time try a foam stain then do some additional color work in the lam.
Thanks guys, i might just do it clear then, sounds like a bad idea. I dont think i’ll do another board this year, and i have enough pigment and tint for a few boards, so thought…why not.
Thanks guys.
P.S im pretty erratic, so there is a chance i’ll get all setup to do the clear hotcoat, and last minute i’ll throw the tint and pigment in. Then halfway through i’ll think “F*CK, why did i do that for, idiot!”. Im really bad with things like that, even the swirl on the deck was last minute.
Upside: Gives you another layer of color depth and can give the effect that the lam swirls are “floating” as long as you don’t add too much white. If you do just a color tint, you get a “candy shell” look to it, which is pretty interesting, especially when glossed and polished. Tends to blend everything together, as long as you stick to a similar color that’s already down. You can also pour a few heavily pigmented colors in the bucket, swirl with a stick then paint it on with just a few strokes for a “rippley water” effect… it will go on thick, though, and be more opaque. Good on the flats only. The rails get muddied.
Downside: Won’t cover much in terms of hiding anything, because it will be translucent. If you go with a contrasting color, you can get some suprises, and sandthroughs will be painfully obvious. You also have to mix enough and do the bottom and top with the same tinted batch. Don’t try to match it with a second batch. You’re logo will be muted. The color will come out streaky, especially after sanding, no matter what you do. So if you’re bottom is monochromatic, you’ll see the streaks. You won’t see them over the swirl.
I think this board by Austin was done with a hotcoat dribble/drip/swirl. Not sure if a solid color turns out as nice due to factors mentioned such as uneven sanding.
Hey john, this is my first resin tint, swirl and cutlap, 4th finsihed board. Im a total backyard hack compared with those guys, light years apart. I couldnt do 1/100th the job they do.
I was just thinking, i pretty much dont sand the deck hotcoat, so i might get away with doing the deck ( its mostly covered in wax anyway, so why sand it, if im the only one riding it?. The last board i did, i got the balls up to sand the bottom, and it worked quite well. This time around, im gunna spend some cash, and get an assortment of finer pads, and get it nice and smooth, so i’ll keep the bottom hotcoat clear.
No you can’t do it. Unless you are so good that you wouldn’t have gotten into this problem in the first place.
The hot coat is a filler for the glass weave. Remember you laminate, then fill the weave with hotcoat, then you sand the hotcoat off to the top of the weave. So if you make a design on the hotcoat, then you not going to be able to sand the hotcoat much. And therefore your going to have a super heavy board…but I guess it would be pretty. Kind of like a pretty fat chick? Sort of like the one you don’t show to your friends or your mama, but you make the call too at 2:00 am when coming home from the bar.
Next time make sure you use enough color in your lamination. I’m always bitching at guys for not using enough colorant in there boards. A full lamination takes a heaping soup spoon of colorant. What looks dark blood red in the cup, will be fairy pink on the board.
What you can do is color panels on top of the hot coat but it needs to be taped off, then glossed over. Then you really need to make sure you don’t burn through the color when polishing. So that means you need to lay down an absolutely bug, zit, dog hair, gnat, brain slab, orange peel free gloss job.
There might be ways to do things with paint on the hot coat, but I’m not much of a paint on the top of my boards kind of guy. It’s all done on the foam, one shot, one try.
Kind of like a pretty fat chick? Sort of like the one you don't show to your friends or your mama, but you make the call too at 2:00 am when coming home from the bar.
Resinhead, thanks for the advice, i like your posts, no mucking around, straight to the point!!.
My deck just seems a little colourless that’s all, so i wanted to make it look a little more defined i guess. How about tracing the outline of the swirl with a black posca pen??
Here’s a pic so you get an idea of why i wanted to colour the hotcoat hahah, a little on the ugly side. I actually used magenta in the white pigment, but like you said, what it looked like in the bucket was way darker than on the deck, and you pretty much cant see the magenta at all. I was hoping for a little purple where the swirl was. Now its just blue and white, d’oh!
One of the new things the SUP guys are playing with is patterns in the placement of their traction pad material. Some of the guys are cutting the pads into little pieces and assembling a mosaic-like pattern on the deck. I think you can get the stuff in any color you like. No more wax plus it helps protect against deck dents.
