my first lam job

so ive successfully shaped a few boards and now im and looking into diving into the wonderful world of glassing. i was hoping that i could layout my plan and someone could shout back at me if im way off target or if they have some tips. okay here goes.

my friend had me match his 5’6" Cole rocketfish with an old blank thats been lying around, and because of his financial situation, i was able to convince him to let me glass it too. its a round nosed tri-fin with a dramatic single to douple concave and an inverted roundtail. we have a bunch of 4 oz cloth and he wants this one to last so my plan is to do three lam stages. first ill do the top. lay out the cloth and cut it so it covers about one inch of the bottom. ill need to cut notches for the nose and tail so i done have wrinkling/double layover issues. then, mix the resin and hardener with about half the recommended hardener, turn up the bluegrass and go to town with a flexable squeegy. ill let that harden and fip it over and repeat on bottom. then repeat on top so as to sandwich the bottoms cloth between the two top layers. Then ill sand off drips and excessisve material and mix up more resin, but this time with the wax sanding compound stuff. this time, ill paint on the top and bottom sanding coats with a cheap brush, let harden and do a final sand. heres where i start shooting in the dark. ill use a hole saw to drill holes in the glassed board that are about 3/16" bigger than the leash plug and fin plugs. mix resin and filler and install with the fins mounted in the plugs. ill tweak the angle and set it with some tape. i think i need some advise on that last part for sure.

so theres my plan as of now, it hard to find all the information in one place on the internet so its kindof a conglomorate of my preconceived notions and a bunch of random entrees from other first time glassers. any advise would be appreciated. thanks guys.

luketorjesen,

      do a Google search for surfboard glassing under Google video. There are some Swaylockers giving glassing demonstrations. 

Mike

If you plan on doing FCS, I highly recommend getting the install kit. Otherwise, it is likely that you’ll run into problems down the road. It is critical that the hole is the right shape, depth, and size. For example, the hole that’s bored out to accommodate the plug has to have a specific amount of space around and below it to ensure proper performance and strength. Further, a second hole must be drilled, using a saw hole bit, that creates a void in the shape of a ring that goes all the way through to the deck glass. This creates a void that’s in the shape of an H which fills with resin, and sits on a pillar of foam… very tricky to do without the proper tools. Sure, you could buy them all individually, but why not buy the kit and have everything you need, plus templates, jigs, and instructions!

Oh crap. NJ surfer, i drilled a hole and removed all the foam for my superchargers, is that a problem??

My first suggestion would be to use UV curing resin with about .5% of MEKP. The .5% will cure any drips that get on the floor and curing underneath any logos that may be on your board.

Secondly, in my opinion, cloth seems to have a grain to it. You have warp threads running the length of the board and fill threads running crosswise which is what I mean by grain. I run my squegee at right angles to the stringer, always trying to keep it as close to straight as I can. Whenever I’ve tried turning the squegee to the side a bit the cloth always bunches up.

Thirdly laps. Probably the hardest part of glassing. Start either forward or back (doesn’t make any difference in my opinion) from the warp end when tucking your laps under. After your first tuck there should be a bulge. Look at the way it curves. Try and sweep your squeege a little forward and under in the same motion as the way your bulge curves. This may not make sense at first but I think you’ll find out what I mean without too much effort. Try to make your laps not reach onto the deck otherwise sanding becomes a real nightmare. You can also brush a little bit of resin down past the lap, onto the foam once your initial lam is dried. This will give you a “buffer” to work with when sanding your lap on the deck.

What, exactly, do you mean by “superchargers?”

Unless your tinting I’d go for a more conventional layup.

  1. Do the bottom first with one layer. let it set and surform the lap.

  2. Do the top with both layers at the same time, but only lap the top one. It’s not as hard as you think and ends up with a lighter board.

I know it’s a bit daunting doing both at once but it’s not at all once you get started.

I’d go with what waveslider said about watching videos, it really cleared it up for me.

Just get the FCS hole saw if the whole kit seems a bit steep, it’s real useful.

I was going to leave this to more experienced glassers, i’ve only done two boards, then figured i’m closer to my first board than them so remember what it’s like.

There’s tons in the archives about it but don’t kick your resin to slow and don’t go under 1%. Explainations on weight and resin draining into the foam are all in there. It stops you fiddling around for ages at the laps if it kicks quickly too. I can’t see any structural advantage to sandwiching the bottom lap between two top layers.

Oh and have fun.

super chargers . . . its these small fins, search super chargers and read the posts by Herb Spitzer. I’m going to try them on #3.

thanks man, actually just got back from doing the top and bottom, i think im going to take your advise and not lap the seccond top layer, if id done them both at the same time id be done now. any note on how smoot i need to get it before adding the sanding coat?

if I understand u correctly, you’ve done the bottom layer, and the first top layer? But now you don’t want to lap the second top layer?

This is how I did it in my first 3 boards (I shaped and glassed my first three boards at the same time). First laminate the bottom, then laminate the two deck layers. The first layer (closest to the deck) with no overlap. I cut the glass at the same size as the outline of the board. After it was fully saturated with resin (not after it was cured) i glassed the second layer. This one was about 2 inches larger than the outline of the board. So only the top layer of the deck was overlapping. Seems logical to me, now you only have one lap line but two layers of cloth on the deck. And because the second layer was applied before the first one had cured, the chemical bond is better…

Anyways, good luck and show us some pics!!

i did the top first, with a lap, then the bottom, with another lap. do u think that if i dont lap the second top layer it may delam between layers? in my mind, the sanding coat should seal it well enough to avoid this. any thoughts? also, i dont think i sanded down the lap on the first top layer, if i sand it smooth and break throught the bottom cloth, will this seriously compromise the structural integrity of the bottom?

typing error: i did sand the lap on the first top layer but a slight ridge is coming through the bottom, i would be sanding to make it smooth.

Hi Luke -

One of the nice things about working with standard polyester laminating resin is that you can easily build up subsequent laminations without worrying about the timing/bonding issues associated with epoxy.

Get a file or surform and prep the high spots then lam the top with second layer and do the overlap anyway. Prep any high spots again but before hotcoating, brush a layer of laminating resin over the laps (baste) to help make everything flush.

When sanding, it isn’t the end of the world if you hit or go through a layer of cloth on the overlaps. Better if you don’t but believe me, many commercial glassers do it all the time.

If you’ve ever seen a stack of sanded boards awaiting gloss, you’d know what I’m talking about.

so im going to go work on it in an hour, anyone have an opinion if finboxes go in before or after the hotcoat? lemme know

It might be too late here… I install most types of plugs and boxes after the hotcoat. I think Futures are supposed to go under the cloth(?)

thanks for the help john, they went in, and while the board might not be pretty, i think it will work, all i can ask for on my first try. by the way, isee your from los osos, im in slo, and frequent the rock. if u see a smudgey little orange board out there. thats the one.