okay I’ve been surfing for a long time but I 'm pretty new to making surfboards and it’s going pretty good but I have some questions that I’m sure will sound a bit stupid! But if you don’t ask you don’t know!
Rocker - what constitutes a low/medium/high rocker are there any guidelines? Would a 4 1/2 " nose and 2 1/2" tail be a high rocker? And what are guidelines to a medium or low?
2 Laminating - Do you normally do laps on both the top and bottom when laminating or do you do laps on the bottom and cut mid rail on the deck?
3 What temperature is best when laminating? And how long should I wait after the laminate to do the hot coat I am currently leaving it about 24hrs.
Anything else you think a newbie might find useful I would really appreciate! Thanks for the help! Gotta start somewhere!
rocker=Can’t be just answered small-med-large. Rocker depends on a host of other things including size of wave, board, rider, blank. You would need to present more info for others to provide answers. The same goes for what type of blank (PU or EPS), which resin (poly or epoxy), etc for other build questions.
laps=more than mid rail if possible. Take a look at your other boards and pictures of other boards:
time and temp=depends on resin. For myself and epoxy upper 70’s to lower 80’s F is the sweet spot for temps and glassing when temps are stable to falling is said to reduce out-gassing of the blank. Time depends on temp, warmer temps mean faster chemical reactions means quicker ‘flip’ times. There are several threads by Stingray that show how to lam and coat epoxy where the steps come one after the other instead of 24 hours between:
Rocker - what constitutes a low/medium/high rocker are there any guidelines? Would a 4 1/2 " nose and 2 1/2" tail be a high rocker? And what are guidelines to a medium or low? if this is for a 5’6" i’d say its relatively high, if its for a 6’4" it would be low-med
I’m gunna try to do some laminating tonight or tomorrow night and the temps are expected to be 15-17 Celsius, around 60 degrees Fahrenheit, means the epoxy will take a while longer to go off but hopefully it will be ok?
Sorry to hijack but frustration is strong here, its been perfect weather for the last month or more.
The stars aligned to give me the chance to get on the shed to glass the three blanks and a massive rain front moves in and they are forcasting flooding and a stupid amount of rain.
bottom is one layer with a 1-2" inch lap depending on board type (longboard or shortboard). deck is 2 layers the first layer is cut below center of the rail. Second layer with a 1-2" lap again which wraps onto your bottom lam.
Depends on resin, with epoxy I prefer it up around the 26-30 degree range. This will make the resin thinner and easier to move but will also harden quicker. Polyester can be abit cooler as you can add more catalyst/ styrene to achieve the same result.
If possible filler coating the board once the board has gelled is ideal as there is little chance of contamination/dust falling in lam or need for keying (epoxy). In saying that 24 hours is fine. Ive filler coated boards months later. in epoxy and polyester.
Hey jrandy if possible you could try preheating your room before glassing, heat the resin with boiled water. and keep the heaters going whilst laminating. Let the board dry overnight and grind off your laps, I dont see the point trimming epoxy you have to key it up anyway and you get a nice smooth lap with no blade marks on the foam.
So it was quite cool yesterday afternoon, only about 17 degrees, made the epoxy a little thick but i got it done. I made up 400grams of resin but it wasn’t enough, ended up having to make another 100 grams.
Made the annoying mistake of not cutting a slit in the tip of the big wide tail which frustrated me no end.
Went down in the dark later that night to the shed and came face to face with a big frog mouth owl sitting about 1m from me, just eyeballing each other. SO COOL… Then he calmly flew off in utter silence, considering the size of the bird its was amazing. Sorry last comment is off topic but hey…
Good stuff Zac, thanks! The boards are looking nice and clean on your tumblr. The current board I’m doing is 11 foot so I struggled with the idea of heating the resin, thinking I’d nudge the epoxy towards setting before I had made the rounds on the rails. We are heading into the warm season here so it will not be a problem for 3 months.
Sk8, good nature story. Sometimes I give a board a last look before calling it a night too.