Pig Board

Hi everyone hope you guys are doing well. 

And thanks to everyone who replied in the other thread about the rocker, all comments were a big help.

So it’s day 3 this is what I’ve got. It came out shorter than I wanted so I’m keeping it thicker. Just rails and finishing up left, I ended up with that crazy tail but I can be talked out of it lol. 

 

Think I may hold off on the glassing till I can get a proper respirator so just wanted to post up the shape and see your thoughts.

The bottom is belly nose to flatter mid to vee out the tail. Rails are 50/50 blending to down around the balance point which is supposed to be about 6" back from mid. 



Oh yeah board is 8’5"

Within reason, I don’t think there’s any reason to leave the board thicker than you planned.   You only need enough float to paddle it.  I think the widths, ricker and foil matter more than the overall thickness.  Here’s definitely a point of diminishing returns when it comes to overall volumes.  Besides which, too much volume becomes harder to control.   

Nice so is that looking excessively chunky to you? I think it’s like 3" thick. It is for smaller waves mostly so I’m going for volume but I ideally want it to be able to hold in like shoulder head stuff too. That’s what I’m worried about that tail not holding but maybe with a big fin. 

pics were taken before I shaped the rails and smoothed it out some so it’s a little slimmer now 

Thinned it out a bit, I’m fixing to glass this thing.

One thing has been really bugging me though lol, which is: time b/t lamming bottom and deck. I know you can do it like a year in between ha!, but how soon can you do it? Just till you cut the laps and then you’re good to do the other side?

Best info I can find is about 2hrs, but it was unclear if they were talking about UV catalyst although I heard that one’s like 10 minutes or something crazy.

I’m using poly, MEKP, light pigment, at 80F and it’s gonna be kinda humid 60-70%

Thanks and wish me luck.

That sucked! This is a board of many firsts so the catalyst went off too fast even though I thought I adjusted and gave myself plenty of time- not the case!

Went for the last pour and a massive glob came out!- even though the stuff on the board was still workable!! like wtf!

 

Stunk up my parents house cause I didn’t have a bay this time, even though I had the garage well vented. I left too much excess when I trimmed up the cloth so the laps wouldn’t hold- gonna cut at the rail and lap both layers of cloth on the deck maybe. 

Crap dude!

Glassing in hot and humid weather is tough.    I only glass in epoxy now, but back when I was doing PE/VE I glassed many boards using UV catalysts and without adding any MEKP, and I never once had a problem with the lamination not setting up.    But then again, as a backyarder I could always postpone my glassing during the winter so that the sun would be overhead when I needed to set the resin off.  

The trick to using the UV catalysts when you’re not fast at glassing is to seal the room off from light.  UV rays can bounce off a concrete floor to start setting any resin which is within the line of sight.   I learned that one the hard way.    Once.  

Yeah man oh man how I wish I used UV! I also used way more resin than I thought so I’m gonna have to resuppy before I start the other side as I don’t want to take any chances. So you guys are off the hook on my previous inquiry hahaha.

I mixed up like 1.5qts and put less than 15cc’s catalyst thought that seemed about right- container said 10cc per quart of resin so I just dialed that back according to some stuff I saw here. Guess I’ll go with even less for the deck? I’ll also try to do it first thing like 6am so its as cool as possible. Any other tips to increase my working time or whatever would be sweeeet.

Most of us backyarders have been there so we sympathize with you.    The people who learn how to do it alongside a pro can navigate the learning curve more easily.   Don’t let a setback get your down.  After a certain point parts are parts.    Most mistakes are fixable.  

 

At any rate, I’m sure you realize now why we often try to discourage noobs from get into resin tints and opaques and paint jobs until after they figure out the basics of laminating.   Adding options just increases the degree of difficulty and the potential for unpleasant surprises.  Which I am saying from experience as a result of making that mistake myself.   Don’t do what I did.  

 

Yeah definitely after taking a step back still stoked about the board, even though the bottom lam is trash (and yes botched the opaque!) I think its gonna be awesome lol.

But actually its helping me to see the imperfections in the lam so that’s pretty nice uhh I guess. But yeah I think I should be able to salvage it.

Here check it out ha ha. Some trickery going on towards the nose looks like a bump and a dent- actually it’s dead smooth that’s just the beautiful ‘marbling’ in my lam.

and no I didn’t mean to make it that black. Probably go clear or real light on the deck. I hope nobody in the water mistakes me for a big juicy seal…

Also first time with the 7.5oz volan. Totally kicked my butt.

Don’t ask me why I went for that, I don’t know, yes board is going to be a cruiser lol.

Finish the board and go surf it.  Enjoy it for what it is and what it will do and try not the fret about coulda-woulda-shoulda.  One thing building your own is going to teach you is that imperfect boards are fun to surf, too.    

Deck laminated. Pretty awesome.

So when I botched the bottom lam I left the laps hanging and super free cut closer to the rail apex. Then when I pulled the tape that was intended for the cut lap, I was left with some zebra stripe resin pseudo-laps where I was pushing on the cloth but it came free, and also some flings and splatters in the deck which I elected to leave in. Some yellowing happened in middle where there was no tape during the week I was waiting on more resin and I just left it all under the irridescent coke bottle tinted 6+6.

Bottom is hot coated and roughly sanded.  Need a light second bottom hot coat and deck hot coat this evening when it cools off, then if I’m feeling risky an attempt at something of a gloss come morning.

Kinda just rolling with this and patching it up. Turning out pretty solid actually, pic seems to kinda bulge more on the right hip but I think it’s mostly the cam angle.  

Dude, those laps look rad! Nice, you can just claim it was the intended design.

Love the shape - how wide does it get?

You’ll love this thing underfoot, hoping you get it in the water soon.

You’ll live and a nice save.  Yes Volan is a butt kicker.  It’s heavy and soaks a lot of resin.  Therefore the laps tend to droop on the opposite side.  And you have to really hustle to get them completely saturated,  Even when they are saturated completely, they still want to fall and pull away from the blank.  Plain, simple gravity and the weight of the soaked cloth.  I use a small white cotton roller to aid in getting the laps saturated.  It also helps if you roll a little resin with your mini paint roller around the rail underneath.  Helps the saturated cloth stick.

Thanks guys GoodDays I’ll have to measure it but at the time of shaping around 22" I think, and whether I like it underfoot remains to be seen- the thing is a heavy beast very thick so it will probably be pretty boaty but I can’t wait to see.

And nice advice McDing thanks, I also believe if I had stuck around and kept working it it might’ve adhered more, think I gave up a few minutes too early.

By the way McDing, I wasn’t planning to unveil this till later, but I saved those scraps from the blank and have something nifty in mind so look out for that ha ha.

 

So I’m finishing the board as it cures, have more sanding left than I initially thought.

As you could imagine there are a few low spots that are staying shiny where my crappy hot coats didn’t lay out. 

My question is do I reeeaaaallly want to sand out all those little spots of surfacing agent? I don’t care how it looks as you can also tell haha  

 

So I’m considering mostly toxicity but feel free to raise any point. 

Just want to get it in the wourder. 

Only sureform and hand sanding- never again! 

Please tell me they’ll wash off first couple goes in the water. 

If not I’m going to have to keep sanding…

which at this point probably will mean another coat on the deck which I really don’t want to do lol. 

Maybe I’ll just take it to the shop and have them do that. I like glassing but I’m so done with this board! And the result will be better than me cutting all these corners.

Hey guys so went ahead and gloss coated The deck again, sanding it now. 

Its feeling a bit tacky though and I’m getting these gummy flakes sticking everywhere it doesn’t seem right. 

Edit: solved - sanded through it, using water w a drop of dish soap for lube after which it would dust up proper when dry (as per the most obscure of archives). The board is FINALLY done (pertty sure heh its so beautiful) and next post will be the highly anticipated -and totally honest- RIDE REPORT. I know u guys are simply dying to know. 

Lurking amongst the trumpet vine/nighttime visitors