when laying out pinline tape…or for a cut line…do the pro’s use their own type of template for a nice even outline,i don’t believe most use a rail marking tool…especially for doing volan boards, or those w/o a pinline??? bumpy lines are really frustrating me
i think i may have answered my own??? trying something else…
I once asked a lady that airbrushed/pinlined where I took my boards to be glassed at. She replied that she did everything by eye.
i hate laying tape by eye. i layed tape for a cutlap on a tint today, took me half an hour till i was satisfied. i hate crooked stuff.
The only thing I can say is it takes practice. Laying down pinline tape is definitely done by eye. Some guys use a home-made marking tool on the foam (mid-length area) for cutlaps, but I can’t get it to work that good, so I do it by eye. It’s frustrating as hell sometimes, but over the years I find mine getting better and quicker. One thing, when a board is laying down on a rack, you tend to see a lot more imperfections(wobbles,kinks) than when it’s standing up in a wall rack or on the floor.I look at every big-name longboard that comes in for repair, and see slight bumps,wobbles,varying thicknesses,etc. all the time. But some are absolutely perfect looking,too. I’ve always believed that the best asset employee I could have would be an artistic type that could lay tape like it’s nothin’. It’s important for good and speedy airbrush work too. I would even dare to say that laying tape for airbrush,pinlines,artwork, and pigment work is the hardest, most skilled job in surfboards,next to shaping.(and that could even be debated!) I’ve heard that with the popularity of retro-glass jobs that the wait and back-up in Cali is getting crazy, cause of the limited number of old guys that can do it. I always hear that T. Maus is the man on the East Coast. I think he does Driftwood? If you see this Tommy,post us back with some insight.(I love your Rainbow fin model,by the way) Later.
laying down a tapeline thats straight and even on both sides is definitely a skill that takes awhile to hone. Watched several pros lay down a perfect line by eye (some use a finger on the rail as a guide) what works for me is to lay a guideline down using one of my templates. Also smoothly feeding the tape while your laying it down with the other hand without stopping helps.
Keep your hands spread way apart.that way you have about three feet of tape to lay down in a flowing motion.Hard to explain…easy to do as they say.