Hello, been searching this site flat out for a couple of solid weeks, without being able to post questions due to a problem that is now fixed :)
I’m from Newcastle, Australia. Shaped two boards a couple of years ago (tinted) with limited internet help, so they turned out average but go good. Now moved into a new place with a big garage so have set up a shaping room and a seperate glassing room. Started making a new board looking on this site (great site by the way) with only learning more when I came out with problems, like I read that on a clear I should practice my cutlaps to get good for when doing tints, only to find a silver line along the cut lap… Now please correct me here, to over come this after laminating (all with PU) and I have cut the laps with the blade horizontal after it has gelled;
Brush styrene along the edge (styrene not mixed with resin)? Works Great.
Apply a cheat laminate on, over lapping past the cut lap by a inch or two. Didn’t work well.
Brush some resin on with wax and styrene but everything must be sanded to make a proper bond when laminating the deck Don’t think I’ll try this one…
Can someone please tell me if the shapers.com.au sanding pads are as good as the flex pads?
Was looking at getting a few pads, 8" hard, medium and super soft, 6" hard or should I go with this combination: 8" hard, 6" hard, medium and a super soft? Would that cover it well for shortboards?
I have searched and the recommended glassing dvds are Glassing 101 and the master glassers series but those are from old threads so is there any updated glassing dvds recommended? Is there somewhere in australia that sells the Master Glasser series because the shapersaustralia website does not work. I need to watch some glassing dvds because I didn’t know until I finished this board that I’m not supposed to squeegee all the resin out when laminating (cheat coat I think solves this or just a better technique), I think I squeegeed it too dry…
I have another board shaped that I’m going to practice one side as a cut lap and the other side as free laps to see how that looks, if I were to free lap, does a silver line show like the cut lap does or is that only because the glass has been cut? I know that I’m suppose to spread the resin one or two inches past the laps.
This time on that practice board, I’m going laminate the bottom, laminate and hotcoat the deck then route out the fcs fusions boxes and add the two glass patches over top.
Thats all the questions for now thanks in advance.
2.Some people do a cheater hot coat or fill coat over the lap line. No laminate.
You don’t use wax with styrene in your resin when laminating. You put it in your resin before the hot coat/fill coat. So you can sand it. You don’t have to sand everything to get a good bond either. Clean up the bumps and grind down your lap lines before hot coat. If you do a free lap using clear resin you should not be able to see anything. Maybe if you look really hard… Don’t know anything about Aussie sanding pads. Mike
A practice I used for cut laps, @ Surf Systems and Surfboards Hawaii, was to brush styrene on the cut lap right before glassing. While some is good, more is not better. What worked best was a 1/2 inch chip brush, with the bristles cut off to about 1/2 inch long. The bristles cut that short, are quite stiff, compared to a ‘‘normal’’ brush. And most importantly would not get sloppy wet with the styrene. You want your application to be quite localized, with just enough liquid, to make the cut ends of the fibers go clear. Dip the brush, shake off the excess, and go to work.
nice to have a Novocastrian on board[s] … on an unrelated note [to your questions ] … speaking of Newcastle … IS the great M.R. still shaping there somewhere , since ? did the shop close ?
cheers !
ben
p.s. - any waves there today ? I will be moving [from south gippsland / bass coast area ] to Sydney , in October.
Had to write two post because this forum is playing up a bit while typing from my phone…
Ben, not sure how the waves are today as I’m at work, got the next fours days off so I’ll see how they are then, last week was flat. Not Sure about MR either as I’ve only ever had Sam Egan to shape my boards
Yep. Shop’s gone - he sold that off a few years back.
Doesn’t appear to have been taking board orders for a few months now either. Am starting to wonder if he’s thinking of transitioning into an early/semi-retirement.
ok got it, tape off, laminate, cut the laps, make sure the raised bits are smooth on the nose and tail, apply styrene only to the edge in a small amount, laminate deck.
Also while I wait for the glassing DVDs to come, is there a good visual example anywhere of how much resin I’m supposed to remove while laminating?
Tried with the logo under the 1st layer and the fcs fusions to how it says in the manual but had trouble when rolling the glass back that it didn’t line up exactly where I had cut the corners, got a few bubbles around the boxes and the tail.
Because I was glassing at night, the resin was thicker then it should have been and I was not aware of this until I put the tub of resin in a bucket of warm water then used it that way (tip was from a post on this forum) :)
Nose and tail corner cuts seemed to of worked better this time
I started cutting the laps from the nose using a stanley knife blade (blade only) but it was digging in a bit and I was having trouble with holding the blade, so then I used this type of knife with blade extended right out to get nice and flat under the tape sliding along the top of the foam. It made a huge difference in the quality of cut from about mid way to tail
Will cut the strings next time on the freelaps.
The leash plug will be going in as normal, should of also routed it in after deck lamination but forgot about that one (may still add one just to see how it goes… )
Front rails of the board has had a cheat coat (what I think is a cheat coat) added to the lap edges (hard to see), I'll brush on styrene to the lap edges from mid point of the cheat coat to mid point of the free laps.
This time I’m going to route the fusion fin boxes in after laminating ( http://www.swaylocks.com/forums/installing-fcs-fusion-after-lam ) and I have also added the logos on after laminating with a patch of glass over the top
sorry I have no idea how to make the photos smaller and how to edit them so the writing is above each photo, so I’ve just put them in order of what I’ve listed.
Here’s a timelapse of me laminating the bottom of the first board:
So far the styrene has worked great (but makes it super sticky when rolling the glass up to put the logo under), adding a cheat coat to the laps did nothing really and the free laps are a pain to grind, will definitely stick to cut laps.
Tried some uv additive for the lam and added some mekp for the hotcoat, might have to close the glassing room in builders black plastic to cut out the light peeping through, I would of thought it was dark enough but the resin was starting to thicken after a while
I’ve watched this one before to try and get some tips, he does it well. How did you embed this media? I tried and mine either comes up as a link or nothing at all…
Edit: never mind, just relised that I had to reset the page after saving the post.
thanks in advance.
