Last Minute glassing questions

Okay tommorow is the day, I going to start glassing, I will laminate the bottom first. I am going to mix the opaque in the resin for tommorow so it is red on bottom. I have 1 gallon of laminating resin to do the whole board including using that same one gallon as sanding resin. its 5’2 x 22 I am using 4 oz cloth. How much resin should I use to do the bottom and how much catalyst should I mix in? Also I don’t have a respirator mask but I am doing it outside do you think a bandana will be enough for just this time? Also how much surfacing agent will I add to make the rest of the lamintating resin into sanding and how much catalyst will I need to add for the hotcoat? Also for logo paper how do you work it for printing the logo on. Thanks

  1. don’t be a moron. go buy a respirator…NOW!. $25 at home depot / lowes. a bandana might be enough to keep you from losing consciousness, but you’ll still kill off a fair amount of brain cells…and if you’re seriously considering not wearing a respirator, then you really need to save whatever brain cells you have left!

  2. how do your neighbors feel about this “glassing outside” idea? if you don’t have a good place to glass, use epoxy. glassing with epoxy is the only part of the whole process that i actually don’t wear a respirator (or at least a dust mask).

  3. if you’re glassing with poly resin, Fiberglass Supply has a handy little chart you can print out from their webpage…it shows MEKP and SA amounts. put it in one of those plastic sheet protectors and keep it pinned up in your glassing area for easy reference.

I was nervous about the no respirator but a guy at a glassing place told me its a waste to wear one if I am not sure if this will be my only glassing attempt. I will go buy one today. The neighbors dont know and they wont know, it will be done early and everything will be hosed down. What type of mask do I need.

Okay tommorow is the day, I going to start glassing, I will laminate the bottom first. I am going to mix the opaque in the resin for tommorow so it is red on bottom. I have 1 gallon of laminating resin to do the whole board including using that same one gallon as sanding resin. its 5’2 x 22 I am using 4 oz cloth. How much resin should I use to do the bottom and how much catalyst should I mix in?

Both depend on how much glassing experience you have, and I’m guessing it’s not much if you’re asking these questions. A gallon of resin sounds like very little resin to do your entire board with, again unless you’re pretty pro at glassing. You’ll just have to divide up the resin between the steps. 1/4 for the base lam, slightly more for the deck and divide the leftover for each hotcoat. Don’t forget about fin installation and a leash plug. For SA add 2-3% of the resin volume and for catalyst add 1% on the lam and 2% on the hotcoat, that should give you plenty of time to work (If you’re in extremely hot or cold temps you’ll have to adjust a bit) Add a lot of color, getting an opaque takes more than you think.

Also I don’t have a respirator mask but I am doing it outside do you think a bandana will be enough for just this time?

I don’t know is it? You can do it if you want, but is it worth it to put a price on your health, spend the $30.

Also how much surfacing agent will I add to make the rest of the lamintating resin into sanding and how much catalyst will I need to add for the hotcoat?

Answered above.

Also for logo paper how do you work it for printing the logo on.

Tape it to some paper and send it through your printer.

Thanks

You’re welcome.

Dude all this stuff is in the archives as I’m sure many people will tell you. If you want to find all the information you could ever want to know about it, do a search. It’ll blow your mind.

Aloha Drad:

You need to search this site and you will find your answers. Check out a thread I started to help make rice paper laminates. Do a search on beginner’s ink jet rice paper laminates to find it. I would recommend using UV resin to laminate your first board. You will have the time to work out the bubbles and really wet the glass. Take it out in the sun and the board will be dry in a few minutes. UV resin is the reason why I started building boards after a 20 year lay off.

Good luck on your project and really do your homework first. It will save you time, money and grief.

D

Drad,

Find a respirator. A bandana or any other similar improvised device will do nothing. You need organic vapour cartridges.

A gallon is plenty… especially if you’re on 4oz cloth.

mix about quart lam for your bottom with about 15cc cat

( HEY, COLOR RESIN FOLKS>> DOES HE NEED MORE MEKP WITH PIGMENTS? )

make sure you save some in your bucket to wet down your laps.

(let go off, cut out all your air bubbles you may have on lap and mix small !cool! batch of resin for any dry spots and sand your lap line a bit)

mix about 1.5 qt for top two layers of cloth 15-20 cc cat

slip your lam in between cloth layers

move the resin around on the board but don’t let it off the board until you’re ready for lap (that is it’s two layers, make sure it’s wet)

Fix anything that looks hosed now, before you hot coat. e.g. bubbles, strings, dry spots

grind your nose/tail/laps as smooth as poss

that leaves you with… what 1.5 quarts resin yeah? you’re all set.

mix .5 qt for top hot coat with about 60CC SA

mix .5 qt for bottom hot coat about 60CC SA

shoot those .5qts with 15-20cc MEKP

cure for a day or so

sand

fix

sand (hopefully no more fix… g’luck)

surf or gloss/sand/polish/surf

better the shape the better the glass job the easier to sand. So, before you even shape… you need to look at your blank and ask yourself “How can I make this as easy to sand as possible?” :O)

\r

first thing. especially if you are not wearing gloves. and even if you are. set your can of acetone and a rag near you. unscrew the cap from the acetone can completely. then reset it loosely back on the can.

you can thank me later.

dude I get slightly dizzy with a double respirator sometimes glassing poly. when I did my first board I didnt wear a mask I coughed up blood for a few days from the foam and killed probably countless braincells glassing, dont be stupid like me : )! epoxy is much more fun, dont even need a mask with the resin.

Just got back from home depot with a respiratorator, got one for painting rather than pesticides, I hope that was a good choice

why do I need acetone?

"why do I need acetone? "

Hello Drad ,

If you do not know about acetone you need to stop now and start over at a later date…

Spend a little more time planning your glass job… Do some searching

Update your user profile ,maybe there’s a guy in your area that’s willing to help before you make some huge mistakes.

Don’t worry…after you get into real trouble some one like DOC will give you good advice on how to fix it .

Acetone is a solvent…

Do not use acetone with epoxy resin

Ray

what if your only laminating, do you still need acetone, I know what it is I just dont know when you suppose to use it

  1. when you screw up

  2. clean squeegee

Howzit drad, I’m getting the feeling that you fairly clueless when it comes to working with poly resin. I think you need to get a glassing video before doing the board. Acetone is what you need for cleaning up anything that gets resin on it,ie:gloves,squeegee,brushes,. You should have 3 buckets with acetone in them.The first one will get the dirtiest,the second will be not as dirty and the third will be the cleaniest. I use about 2/3’s as much acetone as resin when glassing. also do like uncle D says get UV resin for laying up the fiberglass so time won’t be a factor, just remember that when using UV resin there can be no sun light(direct or indirect) entering you glassing area or the resin will start to kick before you want it to. Aloha,Kokua

Hi Drad,

Here’s a small video by Lavz to help you out. I think you need to heed the advice of the above posters and read up more. Glassing is not that hard if you’ve read up on the basics. If you’ve never had experience with resin (i.e. fixing dings, etc). you should at least play around with it to get a sense of its properties and behavior. Just know the basics like the back of your hand then proceed to glass. But please don’t go in blind thinking you can just fix the mistakes or catch up later on. The bad thing is that a bad glass job can ruin the best shaped blank. So, although it might seem like a daunting task it’s really not. Just know the steps you need to take for glassing your board. Search the archives and read up. I read the archives for a long time before I ever lammed my first board and it still came out heavy, with bubbles, and unsaturated glass. I guess that’s half the fun. Good Luck!

Cheers,

Rio

Edit: The video shows the use of epoxy. It should give you a general idea of what to do.

Thanks guys, The reason i was asking if I need everything is because I am 15 years old so I was on a tight budget. I ended up laminating the bottom this morning and it came out better than expected, not anywhere close to perfect but the opaque came out good and all the glass got saturated, there is a few blobs of color or resin (im not sure which) that are on there. How long should I wait to laminate the top?

now is good

\r

oh, and even if you’re done… keep reading! read it again. and again… and again… all of it.

drad,

STOP - LOOK - LISTEN…ever hear that?

There’s a whole bunch of VERY experienced folks here trying to help you out in this thread.

15 and first board? You deserve alot of credit for going for it - especially because you seem to be doing it alone. That’s a big deal!

Now, either fill out your user profile and/or let us know where you are located. There might be any number of Swayloholics who might be close to where you’re at who might be more than willing to give you some hands on help.

Don’t try to rush it - try to perfect it.

Pete

I live in San Diego County, I am only worried about installling a fin box. I will laminate the top on friday, the respirator worked great and I did a logo today and liked the way it looks, I am only puting one on top. I actually did a lot of researching, but I just read up on the actual shaping/ glassing process. I didnt watch a video and ya my parents are cluless about surfing/shaping, I didnt buy the videos cause I didnt wanna spend 60 extra bucks. I will keep reading and keep learning. I will post pics when everything is complete. My next board I make will be an 8’0 mini log used strictly for carving , I cant wait to do the process again.

OK…

There’s about 150,000 Swaylock members in San Diego county. Too bad we missed you at Keith’s house last weekend.

I live near Cal State San Marcos and I would be more than happy to lend you the glassing 101 video. Sounds like you glassed the bottom…Go with a little less hardener on the deck. Two reasons why. It’s going to get very hot this weekend and you will be laying up to sheets of glass on the deck. Takes a little longer.

I buy pre mixed sanding resin (hot coat)from Mitch’s in Solona Beach. The guys over there are very helpful and there’s a pro glasser that works there on Saturdays.

Sorry if we were a little harsh about the acetone questions.

Ray