OK let me start off by saying that if I ever start talking about wood veneer on a board and I haven’t built a vacuum bag system someone please kick me hard in the groin to help me remember the pain.
With that being said here’s what happened. I’m giving eps/epoxy a whirl and wanted to put a sheet of veneer on the top. it doesn’t wrap the rails just an insert. Board shaped up beautifully, I sealed it and then epoxy the veneer on. I did my best to wrap and hold the veneer on the best I could. It did seal down in most spots. The tail section was awful so I ended up pulling up the veneer in that area (about 1’ off the tail) and I’ll do some kind of a paint design to blend it into the front wood panel. However there is still a couple of pockets of air that I can feel under the wood on the nose.
My question is should I just pump a little epoxy into the holes and push the veneer down? Or toss the whole board and start again? (it’s not worth it to try and peel the whole veneer off) I know I can fill the voids under the veneer but I’m worried that if I can’t find them all that I may still leave some trapped air under the glass.
This was sort of the answer that was in my mind but I keep holding on to the idea that it’s salvageable. I guess I should cut my losses and start again. Minus the veneer this time.
Here’s trick you might try if you don’t have a pump.
Get that industrial saran wrap from home depot and wrap the board nose to tail tightly to secure the veneer to the foam with epoxy or glue underneath.
Go to GBC and pick up a roll of heat shrink wrap and wrap over the saran wrap as tightly as possible with the shrink wrap… Barberpole wrap style…This is the stuff they use to make fruit baskets etc. Lock it in with some strapping tape then use a heat gun or hair dryer on high to shrink the the vinyl as small as it will go with out snapping.
It won’t be a as good a squeeze as a vac bag but way better than anything else.
Plane guys do this on a smaller scale to build laminate fuselages…
Another no vac option is to build a sand box deep enough to bury your wrapped/sealed board under about a foot of sand. if you can somehow get the sand blazing hot 100-120F even the better. It’ll work as good if not better than a pump according to Bert…
As they say here in Hawaii “imu da bugga”
Best of luck
I know it’s not fun what you’re going through now…
Or 30 1-gallon ziplock bags full of water…with some clamps & masonite along the edges & the ends…
That’s how I did the first balsa, before I built my vac bag setup. I’ve surfed the board probably 50 times, I’ve left it on the beach in the sun & inside my hot car (in a bag). It has no vent. It also still looks as perfectly intact as the day I finished it…gives “bagging on the veneer” a whole new flavor
Thanks to all for the advice, I did wrap the whole thing with heavy saran wrap and tape to begin with, but still got some bubbles. I’ll fill them up and perhaps try the shrink wrap on the repair. Just got really frustrated after having to strip off the tail portion and just wanted to toss the whole thing. Perhaps I’ll let it sit and I’ll take a breath. Go at it again in a couple days. Thanks folks
For those without vacuum - laminate, wrap in a watertight bag, flip it over (laminate side down) and weight it until it sinks in a water tank or swimming pool? Seems like water pressure would be exerted evenly over entire laminate. I guess water would have to be pretty warm for epoxy to cure.
