How can I blend the glass on fin patches & make them disappear. On a board with resin tint. I’ve done the butterfly style tail patch and that works but I don’t want that look anymore. Please help
Not quite sure if your asking about glass on fins or boxes but either way just glass as normal with clear resin, feather the edges and hotcoat.
That’s exactly what I did but they were still noticeable. I’m doing glass on keel fins. Two layers of 6oz cloth on each side. I’m glassing with uv resin. The extra layers darken the pigment and are clearly noticeable. I’ve only been able to hide the patches with a butterfly style tail patch. I don’t really like the look & I want to keep the tail as light as possible. Maybe it’s the uv resin keeping it’s original color. Should I try catayst next time? This is my 15th board & I’ve been struggling with this stupid prob ever since the beginning. Thank so much any help would be greatly apreciated.
Clear patches over the tinted lam is how I do it. Cant see them.
Clear patches as mentioned. Also the cloth and resin you use will have a bearing on this as well. You want water clear results. Some cloths wet out clearer than others. Silmar and Hexcel or Aerolite cloth. UV or Cat likely won’t make any difference.
Post a pic of the results you are getting.
It could be your glass or your resin. What are you using and where are you getting it from?
Thanks so much for the help. I’m using us composites brand cloth & resin. I will defintaly try a different cloth next time. I put the butterfly tail patch on top of the fin patches then I set it off in the sun. The two patches blend together & the fin patches dont show up. You only see the butterfly patch. As you can clearly tell from the pics, it darkens the area and is noticeable to the eye. The top left pic, I set it off without a butterfly patch hoping the fin patches would blend during hot coat. They didn’t blend & were noticeable. Looked like shit. I sanded it and tried to hide it with a piece of volan. Not to mention I sanded uneven spots into the pigment. Looks like shit. Damn that’s wordy. Thanks so much for the help.
a few things amigo.
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cloth layer up will always look darker or leave a shadow. it’s impossible to make it completely disappear. Either on top of the tint or on the bottom…or on the side…whatever.
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if you are looking for a good cosmetics, then never sand the patch when the resin is still green, and if at all possible…Make sure the resin is set up rock hard…I mean like let it sit a few days, not a few hours…never hit the weave. Do a cheater coat the fill the blend line…and like I said…don’t hit the weave
3). On the last top layer of cloth use 4oz, 4oz will sand and blend better than 6oz.
Or you could just do a clear board with a sanded finish and never have to worry about it.
If it’s 249 resin that’s just rebranded then it seems like it’s the cloth.
I would also second the - only sand once rock hard-
I never run into issues with blending the edge of weave but a cheater coat my help.
UV powder can sometimes leave a bit of tint - compounded with multiple layers of cloth. Herb Spitzer has warned not to use UV resin when basting laps as it can leave a dirty look.You might try standard MEKP catalyzed resin.
Any chance it’s volan cloth? That’ll leave a tint also. I’ve seen a few freelapped glass jobs with a visible ragged edge when the builder used volan instead of silane treated cloth.
Cheater coat? I’ve heard that term a few times now but I’m not exactly sure what you mean? I’m guessing you spread a little extra lam resin around the fin patch blending it into the deck. It seems like that would work & I will try that next time. Also the uv resin I’m getting is green straight out of the gallon. It leaves a greenish tint on the fin roving and drys green in a cup. Could that be the problem? Some resin is blue from the bottle and drys water clear. Any brand recommendations for water clear uv resin? I’m extreamly grateful for your guys help pointing me in the right direction. Thank you
Hi -
The uv powder catalyst I have is yellowish/green. It adds a negligible degree of tint but that might be compounded in multiple layers.
I’ve also heard of a guy who had a drum of UV resin and experienced discoloration issues as he approached the bottom of the barrel.
It might help to build up your fin attachment layers close to the base rather than carrying the flaps out on to the bottom so much. Except for a couple of layers, just cut your pieces of reinforcement so they are a couple of inches wide and position them right where the fin meets the board… slight discoloration on glass-on fin layups aren’t that uncommon.
looks like the problem is in the glass you are using. i would not hurt to also try clear catalized resin.
you should be able to put clear patches over a tint without being able to see them unless you are looking very closely
I found that I can buy hexcel cloth from shapers supply and water clear solarez us resin. Hope that combo give a clear patch for next time. I will also try a top layer of 4 oz cloth & cut my patches closer to the fin. One last question about the cheater coat can someone give a bit more detail on that process. Thanks
…I bet that the problem is that you are using Volan cloth; you should use Silane finished glass; the premium brands are: BGF (aerialite), JPS (great white) and Hexcel, but you have other good ones too.
Cheater/baste coat - just straight lam resin basted on with a brush to help put some meat on the bones of sensitive sanding areas to level everything out once you hotcoat.
Usually nose/tail and lapline/ rails. Some people do the hole board if not concerned with weight. You can then do a thin hotcoat and sand without hitting weave.
I noticed you posted a blue board that showed the patches. The stringer was visible so I think you were going for a tint instead of an opaque. Anyway, you need to test your resin first, and make sure that it mixes out clear using the right ratio of cat to resin. Second, do a test panel with an foam offcut (you can use your rail/tail cuts if you sand them down) with the cloth & resin. Make sure you have the results you want before going on to the finished blank. Different resins may have a tint (mostly blue) to appear a brighter white in the rack and if you mix them too hot they will shift color to a greyer shade and look like some of your shots. Here’s a blue free lap opaque lam with 4 boxes set after the lam and patched and then hot coated. Finish was a sanded/speed finish. There is no shadow from any angle. Good testing & selecting the right materials are important for producing the right results. If I wanted to show the laps, I would use the right combo of cloth/resin. In free laps, I would use something else. Just my 2c…
…sanded speed finish would be a matte finish and that s not what I see in that photo. A better angle to check is to not shoot with that light coming from outside…
What you say about color in the resin…the colours is to differentiate the resins but do not change anything.
I still really think that he uses a cloth with volan finish.
In two of the photos (top left & bottom right) I did use 7.5 oz volan cloth as an attempt to darken the area of the butterfly patch. I figured if I can’t hide it, I might as well try to make it look intentional. After hearing all your helpful solutions, I think the problem is my cloth. So I am following the advice from a few of you and I ordered bgf aerolite cloth for the next board and a different brand if resin. I will also apply a “cheater coat” as instructed to blend the patches. No silly butterfly patch. Hope it works. I will test it on scraps this time first…duhh. I can’t believe I never thought to do that. Weird how the simplest ideas slip the mind. Anyways, I’ll post the results in a week or so. Thank you so much for all the helpful tips.