K i know most of you all prob know how to glass a board and laminate it and everything and i was thinking about learning to do this my self rather than taking it somewere.
Can somebody give me a boost and give me some step by step intrutions
thanks so much
nysurf,
Grab the glassing 101 video or the Master’s Glassing video from Damascus. Spend a couple of hours in the archives and you’ll be ready. Mike
Glassing can be as equally rewarding as shaping I feel. And it is somethin that I would not want anyone else doing to a board I shaped. Unless of course the folks who glass Cooperfish are doing it.
Anyhoo. Like said above any question you might have has already been answered in the archives.
But if you have specific questions just ask them. try to be as inclusive as possible with the information you provide in he question and you’ll get very good responses.
So fire away man
Drew
Just to get you started.
Make yourself some wooden stands not too wide at about chest high. Place board on the stand hull facing up. Lay cloth on board trim the cloth so that it overlaps the rail by 1.5 inches. Mix resin 1.5-2% catylist in CC’s to weight in grams. eg 500g resin= 7cc catalyst Pour resin over board and squeegie in. Wait for it to dry. Flip board over and do the sam in the deck but trim cloth to the rail. 2nd deck layer trip cloth to 1.5 inches overlap like you did in stage one.
Last is hot coat 2% wax, 2% catalyst.
This is classing in a nutshell but at least you know where your heading. This first board might be a bit nervracking but as you get used to it, it gets more fun.
As mention above this is basic you will need to fill in the gaps by looking in the archives and glassing 101 would be a good idea.
Welcom to the fold
Yo NY,
Jump right in - I glassed my first last weekend with information off the JC 101 video and here - I am amazed at how well it’s coming out - This weekend I’m setting the fins and glossing. If you’re making it for yourself, have a place to work, and don’t mind getting some resin on ther floor, dog, etc - take it the board the whole distance. There’s nothing like the anticipation of riding your own creation.
For a first glassing, I would use epoxy (first choice for mixing and layering simplicity) or UV polyester. They’ll both take “rushing” out of the equation.
Best,
Herb
so what u basicly lay the cloth and pour the epoxy or UV stuff on in and put it in the sun (for the uv)
how does epoxy speed it up
thanks alot
Epoxy is suppose to have a more mellow process of hardening… “the kick”. Though if you just go easy on the catalyst Polyester resin is fine. The board will be a little heavier, but no big deal - Just pick something besides a 6’2 thruster for your first. FoamEZ has a FAQ sheet that gives pretty good mixing ratio’s for the beginner. Start there, take lots of notes… mixing ratios, temperatures, times, etc. and improve on your second board.
I haven’t tried the epoxy yet, it may be the ‘wave of the future’… but there is nothing wrong with making a PU/PE board… they’ve been doing it for decades.
“basically”, yes, but there’s alot more to it than that. definitely do your research on this one, both to get a decent first board (or just so you don’t have to toss it in the trash or put it out with a fire extinguisher) and to be safe–people joke about getting resin on your dog, etc, but most of the products you work with are dangerous, toxic chemicals. You should keep exposure to a minimum, and learn how to handle them safely, or you’ll end up blinding yourself with MEKP catalyst, or becoming sensitized and having an allergic reaction to epoxy.
No one here is going to give you a thorough run down in reply to your post, because it would be about eighteen or twenty pages minimum of description, and that info is already out there. Start with the basic steps, and find out the finesse between the lines: “squeegee the resin on” becomes “pour most of the resin in a pool in the middle of the board, and with light pressure, just to move the resin over the surface, squeegee it out towards the rails. When the glass is thoroughly saturated, starting in the middle, using firm pressure, but careful not to move the glass, begin squeegeeing the resin out of the cloth toward the rails, leaving a smooth neat laminate with no bubbles or pools of resin” for example.
A couple of websites I used:
http://www.surfersteve.com/index.htm
http://www.blackmagic.com/ses/book/toc.html
Also, “Essential Surfing” by George Orbelian (book)
As well as the aforementioned vids.
To answer your question about UV and epoxy, neither are quicker, they give you more time to work, which is key for a first board. With UV cure polyester, you get the laminate where you want it, then drag it out into the sun, and it hardens quickly. Epoxy usually takes longer to harden, and slowly thickens instead of gelling, giving you ample warning.
Hope this helps…
wells
Hey,
Yeah, pretty much in a nutshell. Bottom ‘typically’ gets one layer, and the top two. Check ou this link:
http://www.surfersteve.com I think it’s the one really helped to start to understand the process.
Epoxy is actually not fast - and it’s actually on the slow side to cure (good thing for a first attemp).
UV Polyster has to be worked on in a sunlight free area (stays liguid until exposed to UV) - once you expose it to sunlight it cures (hardens) really fast.
Epoxy is simplier to mix (2 to 1 ratio). You also use basically the same mix for your lamcoat, sandcoat, and glosscoat.
Where is measuring the components of polyester’s mixture(s) is a little more complex (although still not rocket science). Polyester you will also have differents mixtures and additives for your different coats = lamcoatm, sandcoat, and glosscoat - which can be complicating.
Best,
Herb
so whats the epoxy 2-1 ratio
whats the 2 and whats the 1
ahh
thanks alot guys
Epoxy Recipe:
Combine 2 parts of the resin and 1 part of hardener - mix thoroughly.
Example: mix 16oz of resin with 8oz of hardender - for a total of 24oz.
Best,
Herb
Please refer to directions on container. Different epoxies may use different ratios. I’m not making recommendations but WEST epoxy, for instance, uses a 5:1 ratio.
so the harderner is something like q-cell or not??
what exacly is the hardener
with this question asked and the shaping 101 video
i think i might be set
wait nvmd
with UV resin
do you basicly put that on the cloth on the board and put it in the sun??
no, q-cell is a filler. Hardener is necessary to make an epoxy resin cure (change to a solid state.)
with UV resin
do you basicly put that on the cloth on the board and put it in the sun??
or do you need a hardener
ok sorry
UV catlyst
do i have this right
u take the UV catlyst mix it well with the polyester resin and pour on fiberglass cloth on the board
and thne put it in the sun
prob bout 2 coats on top and one on the bottom?
Epoxy usually comes in two parts, both viscous liquids, (though the hardener is usu. a little thinner than the resin) that when mixed well in the correct ratio (usually given on the packaging, and commonly 2:1 to 5:1 resin:hardener by volume, weight ratios are different) begins a chemical reaction that forms a solid. Molecules in the hardener link up with molecules in the resin to form long chains, thus a solid is formed from the two ingredients. If you don’t have enough of one ingredient, the chains don’t get to be long enough, and the epoxy never hardens completely. Thus, the ratios have to be very close.
Polyester resin also uses what is commonly referred to as a hardener, but this is a catalyst that makes the polyester react with itself. In this case, polyester molecules form chains with other polyester molecules, and the catalyst determines how fast this happens. Typically, the more catalyst, the faster it “goes off” or hardens.
Therefore, a polyester reaction can be controlled by “hardener” amounts, while Epoxy cannot. with epoxy you always have to add the required amount of hardener. there are however epoxy systems with slow and fast hardeners to suit different working times / temps.
Temperature affects both processes, as the higher the temp, the faster the reaction. Also in both cases, the reaction itself generates heat. If you have a concentration of reacting resin with high volume and low surface area such as a bucket of mixed epoxy, this heat will build up, and a snowball effect ensues, some people have had buckets of epoxy catch fire! if it’s spread thin, like on a surfboard, this doesn’t happen, because the heat is given off at a sufficient rate to avoid buildup.
Q-cell is a filler that changes the characteristics of resin.
West has an informative download on working with epoxy on their website. Makes for great “shit-lit” too.