need some help with zebra pattern of my hotcoat

General Discussion
1

Hello swaylockers.

Does anybody know how to prevent this zebra pattern of high and low epoxy on the lamination?

i laminated the deck, and it went real well, no bubbles, squeeqeed hard towards tail and nose, so the glass was not raked

when the lam was tacky i brushed on about 3-4oz of cherry coat/hotcoat.

It looked great

but upon sanding i discovered it had a lot of high spots and a lot of low spots, so only sanding the high ones down for now.

how come?

Just dripping off?

Just use more resin?

Cheers for any insightful answers.

2 
Howzit Wouter, I am wondering why you didn't paint the zebra design on the foam? Aloha,Kokua
3

hi kokua

it is a compsand

sanded to a very flush finish length/grain wise

still think it was the balsa? i wonder, though i did discover my Straight sanding block was not so straight.

what do you use for a straight block?

Cheers and aloha

4

Howzit Wouter, So you want to paint over wood, why ruin a wooden board with a design over the wood? I use wood for my sanding blocks, I run the wood through my table saw for straightness and then sand them on a flat surface. You can make them out of Balsa or pine or any available wood. Hope this helps.Aloha,Kokua

5

What kind of cloth, and was your cloth a re-roll from a larger roll? Warp glass does wierd stuff sometimes

Was it a hand lamination or a vac bag deal? Hand lamination from tip to tail with a hard pass the first go will bunch up the glass every 2-inches of so. It kind of loads up, skips…loads up skips. And you can’t even see it as first, but when you let the cloth relax and stop working it…bang, here come the wierd designs. Best is to let the wetout take a bit longer, you might be rushing it?

I’ve had it happen too. Usually happens when it’s cooler out, and the resin is a bit thick. I now work my cloth & epoxy from the stringer out to the rails when wetting up. This lets the cloth stay in place better, plus i’m not moving the epoxy from tail to tip…bubbleville. Then when wetted out I give it a fairly firm lamination this same way, then the final pass is from tip to tail to even out.

But even with the bumps, it should come out fine on the hotcoat and sand.

-Jay

6

I’ve had this same problem once or twice. I eventually figured out that it’s from your brush out of the resin. If it took you a while to coat the whole board then the epoxy may have already started to gel. At that point it really doesn’t want to level itself well, which is why you need to coat it faster and possibly heat up the resin beforehand.

If you heat it up, mix the hardener thoroughly, brush it on quickly and then do your final brush out cross strokes right after that it should level nicely. I have yet to get perfect hotcoats but I’m getting much better. Also you have to remember to just leave it alone. It can be hard to not try to touch it up when you’re done but it will stop the epoxy from leveling.

7

that is some pretty kick ass advice really!!

thanks

8
Quote:

What kind of cloth, and was your cloth a re-roll from a larger roll? Warp glass does wierd stuff sometimes WARP CLOTH RE_ROLL

Was it a hand lamination YES Hand lamination from MIDDLE TO TAIL AND MIDDLE TO NOSE Best is to let the wetout ON LAMINATION ? take a bit longer, you might be rushing it? RUSHING< AUW, YES, I THINK I DID. Resin Research

I’ve had it happen too. Usually happens when it’s cooler out, and the resin is a bit thick. I now work my cloth & epoxy from the stringer out to the rails when wetting up. This lets the cloth stay in place better, plus i’m not moving the epoxy from tail to tip…bubbleville. Then when wetted out I give it a fairly firm lamination this same way, then the final pass is from tip to tail to even out.

But even with the bumps, it should come out fine on the hotcoat and sand.

-Jay