Pin-line problems .... A little help please.

General Discussion
21

Pinlines my nemesis !  How many miles of wasted green 233 and countless hours of hairpulling frustation.  

Evil eyeball sight down the rail exposing that flat spot in a curve or that micron wider on the other side.  Finally decide that it’s acceptable then it bleeds. 

Still can’t get it right but still trying. 

22

Keeping pins from getting wobbly is all about the width of the tape you use (depends on outline) and how much tension you use to stretch the tape.  The wider the tape, the smoother the curve and less wobbles.  Here’s some tricks that might help:

  • Use 1" wide tape and lay it along the rail line sighting directly down from the deck to the outline.  The tape may not follow the outline exactly but the curve will be smooth.  If it's way off the outline, the tape is too wide but keep in mind that you will have to stretch it more on the tighter curves. If you try and use a rail marker and follow that, the curve will never be truly smooth. If you look at any pro pin lines you will see that they don't follow the outline exactly.
  • Do both sides and then lay another line of tape exactly along the inside edge of the previous one.  The inside edge of this tape will be the outside edge of the pinline and should be 2" or so from the rail edge.  If you're covering a cut lap, use whatever width tape is needed to hit close to the lap line (then next time remember to do the lap at either 1-1/2 or 2" instead of some random distance).
  • Lay 1/8" or wider cheater tape along the inside edge of what you just taped. This will just be a spacer for the next step but try and get it evenly along the edge of the outer tape.
  • Lay the inner pin line tape along the cheater, but watch the tape edge on the other side of the cheater and keep it consistent with that. 
  • Trim the corners and allow for any wishbone fillets inside.
  • Pull the cheater tape, burnish down the tape edges and paint/resin/pen the lines.
  • Now this is a lot of tape, but you don't need to use 233 for pen/paint pins or for the outer tape band of tape.  I know pros who can do this without all that tape, but I also learned this technique from other pros.  If all you do is pin lines and work high production, you can get real good at it free hand.  This tape method was used so that others less skilled could prep boards for pins while the main glasser was doing other stuff.

Reverb, I generally always gloss OVER resin pins from a hotcoat since it creates a fillet on the bottom edge.  Feels better when you hold the board and also resists chipping.   Two and three color pins are best done by laying a wide white resin (or paint) pin then using a narrow pen line on top of that.  Pins don’t have to go all around the perimeter.  I sometimes end them at the nose or tail by flaring them out and making a decorative end on the line.  Usually I end them wherever I get sick of pulling and stretching the tape as the outline curve gets tighter.

There are two reasons for pin lines:  Decoration and/or covering up bad cut laps (I’ve done my share).  How wide, where you place them, and how you do them really depends on the purpose.

23

Petec, thanks so much for all the great advice here, stellar. 

So Ive retaped the pins on this white board and Im going to mix up 3 oz resin, 30 drops of surface agent, and I was thinking 2.5 or 3 ccs of cat? 2ccs for 3oz would be 2% so im thinking a bit more than that? what do you think?? 

Then wait and gloss a strip over it and blend and continue right?

Also, Your advice for 2 or more pins, very interesting.

I have a board to pin next that is a bit of a challenge. Its a black board and the guy wants 3 colors ( 3 1/8 pins) next to each other. Think Rasta, or the Italian flag etc… Im thinking if I lay a strip of 3/8 tape down where I want the pins, Then lay 1 inch tape either side of that, then pull the 3/8 tape leaving me a 3/8 gap. Then squeegee white acrylic paint down this stripe and pull the 1 inch tape. This would leave me a 3/8 white strip upon which to lay my 3 - 1/8 pins of different colors. Phew! Hope that made sense.

Then retape each pin as I go. All this done on sanded hotcoat, pre-gloss.

Would this work?

Can I use posca paint pens over the white acrylic? 

Any help with this would be most appreciated. Cheers. 

24

…hello PetecC  I commented because you say that you can do a pinline on top of the gloss coat; and I said that s not the way due to several facts.

 

25

Reverb, why could you not do this?

 I have sanded the pinline area down to 220 and retaped the pin and did a black resin pinline as instructed. I kicked it hot and it pulled well, my plan now is to do a gloss strip over this pin and blend this gloss strip into existing gloss and then wet sand / polish etc. Have I made a mistake by doing it this way? I sure hope not, as this pinline is sucking my will to live!! Cheers.

26

Also , just to be clear - this is all to fix a pin-line that went wrong for me. Im only doing it this way this time and would normally do my pin-line on the sanded hotcoat as thats how I learned. I am still a pin line rookie and any info on what you can do/when/why etc to do with pins would be most appreciated. Pin-lining is something I WILL get good at even if it kills me! Cheers.

 

27

For Posca pen type pinlines I have found that 3m’s yellow automotive tape works great, and it is cheaper than 233+ tape (or 401 tape which is the same product but using 3m’s new numbering system… Some rolls even say “233+/401” right on the label.). Of course make sure to sand carefully to 320 grit before taping off, or any tape will bleed into the scratches from lower grit sanding).

28

Nice, that tip to use 320 grit just answered why my attempt at pins bled.

29

You can put resin pins over a gloss coat, you do them when the gloss is first sanded at 320.  Then finish off the pins and continue sanding the whole board then buff.  I do prefer to do them on a sanded hot coat, then gloss.  I would forget that method using acrylic out of the tube and squeegee, it’s just way too thick & you never can tell when it’s fully dry.