pinholes and bubbles

I’m more or less done with my laminating. Wetting out 3 layers of 6oz cloth was just as hard as I’d imagined, in particular on the laps. So now I’ve got about 500 pinholes and about 30 small pearl sized bubbles. Most of the pinair are on the bottom on the laps. most of the bubbles are on the deck, but there are a few on the rails. Does it really matter? I don’t care much about the cosmetics of the board as long as it structurally ok. I was thinking I’d fix the worst bubbles on the deck and rails and just leave the rest. Most of the pinair seem to be under several layers of glass so I would think that sanding it out would weaken the board. What do you think? regards, Håvard

Havard, Keep the board dustless before lamination, pinholes are those by products of dust or small particles. Mix the resin and stir it well, wait for few minutes, usually I wait for 5-10 minutes until the bubbles are almost gone, then start to laminate. Do u squeeze out extra resin out of the wet fabric? I seldom find pinhole in my lamination but may be a few in hotcoating or glossing. Last time I lam my skimboard, there were 3-5 bubbles. I think its due to the sharp edge of uneven fabric, there the resin hide and the bubbles cant escape and cant be squeeze out. Besides, the viscousity of resin is another problem, air bubbles can not easilly escape out of high viscousity resin. Just imagine, you step on the bubbles, you break it and creats cracks. it may cause delam. Good luck Regards, Crabie > I’m more or less done with my laminating. Wetting out 3 layers of 6oz > cloth was just as hard as I’d imagined, in particular on the laps. So now > I’ve got about 500 pinholes and about 30 small pearl sized bubbles. Most > of the pinair are on the bottom on the laps. most of the bubbles are on > the deck, but there are a few on the rails.>>> Does it really matter? I don’t care much about the cosmetics of the board > as long as it structurally ok. I was thinking I’d fix the worst bubbles on > the deck and rails and just leave the rest. Most of the pinair seem to be > under several layers of glass so I would think that sanding it out would > weaken the board.>>> What do you think?>>> regards,>>> Håvard

Crabie, I think dust might be one of the reasons I got the pinair. Bubbles are mainly due to a poor wetout and the resin starting to gel before I was done. I got stressed out and was paying all my attention to the rails. The lighting could also be better. The epoxy I’m using has a fairly low viscosity, not much different from polyester resin. I’ve only got about 3 bubbles larger the say 4mm in diameter. I’ll try to repair those plus as many of the small bubbles as I can. regards, Håvard