6th board and I’m on the fence about messing with a resin swirl bottom. I do not understand the “partial two color mix in the bucket” approach and I dont want to try something I can’t understand. So, my idea:
-
tape the deck 1" in
-
flip and cover the bottom in one layer cloth, trim to cover thelap.
-
mix about 1 cup resin w/color pigment, catalyze, put in squirt bottle and squirt little random swirls all over the bottom.
-
glass the entire bottom as usual - right over the still curing swirls - in clear resin or maybe with some white pigment? Trust that the swirls will show through.
-
cut the laps. Glass the deck clear.
Will this work? If not, can the basic idea be modified to work? The two colors in the bucket approach seems like it would smear together under squeegee pressure which has made me hesitant to try it.
Thanks for any advice.
hi Mitchell !
I did a "coloured resin splatter pattern" on the foam with filler ['hotcoat'] resin, let it cure, then I glassed clear over the top of it. ( It had an orange sprayed deck and a red sprayed bottom, prior to the "coloured resin [pigment] flick".)
… just maybe another option to consider if , like me, you were / are worried about the colours turning to mud as you run the squeegee over wet coloured resin [tinted or pimented] .
There’s some good stuff in the archives on resin swirls, that’s for sure. I just typed in swirl or tint or resin swirl, and …plenty of good , informative reading to be found. I was certainly a bit nervous of ‘wrecking’ a board doing it “wrong” , so I was glad of the instructions…and, sometimes the ‘mistakes’ look unreal , anyway !!]
…have fun with it Mitch !!
ben
Sounds like a plan to me, if you want yur colors to blend a little more you can also mix you colors seperatly, dump each color into you clear resin, give it a few pokes with a stick. Remember the first color on the foam stays on the foam. I like to do a combo, squirt some on, then use my colored resin mix, looks cool that way. Don’t be arfaid if you mix two primary colors and thier respective secondary i.e. red, blue, purple you are less likely get any strange colors out of it.
Just finished my first and second resin splashes with dave. The first one turned out how we expected it too, the second one didn’t, but they both look equally cool. Depending on what colors you use, you can just mix the pigmented resin in different containers with catalyst, then put both colors in one main bucket and stir really lightly. When you lay the colors down, just make sure you minimize squeegee strokes so you can avoid turning it brown.
Quote:
just make sure you minimize squeegee strokes so you can avoid turning it brown.
I’m not experienced enough to deal with that…basically I’m happy just getting the bubbles out and laying the laps flat. Maybe I should get a few more galss jobs under my belt before trying a swirl. Pillar point- do you catalyize everything before you start? What ratio?
Mithchel, One thing to remember if you do the method you listed: When you squirt colored resin on the bare foam, it will tend to spread out when you do the rest of the lam. Also it soaks into the foam and doesn’t mix with the other colors as much as the stuff from the bucket that’s floating around together. Doug
Quote:
Mithchel, One thing to remember if you do the method you listed: When you squirt colored resin on the bare foam, it will tend to spread out when you do the rest of the lam. Also it soaks into the foam and doesn’t mix with the other colors as much as the stuff from the bucket that’s floating around together. Doug
interesting…i wasn’t even thinking bare foam…i was thinking lay and cut the cloth/squirt a few colored/catalyzed swirlies/glass clear as usual. Any reaction to that disaster-waiting-to-happen 
I catylize at 1/4 the norm and use UV resin, my shop is pretty chilly so I get plenty of working time, not that I need it, I try not to work the resin too much. After I’m done glassing I flash the bottom, flip the board cut the laps and flash the deck and set in a quiet corner for the board to vibe out and get ready to go surfing.
P.S. I use a tiny amount of catylist for areas around fin boxes and nose/tail sections with layers of glass in case the UV resin doesn’t go off, just a little bit of warmth and presto, my shop is around 55 degrees in the morning when I glass and heats throughout the day.
P.P.S. Try just squirting colored resins around first finishing with clear resin, you don’t have to worry about the dreaded brown.
Mithchell, Actually I was referring to squirting colored resin onto the foam, through the newly laid out fiberglass fabric.
When you do that, about 50% of the colored resin immediately soaks into the foam, and just sort of sits there. The fabric will also be “grabbed” by the resin. When you spread the clear lam over it and squeegee, some of the color will spread out and mix with the clear, so the look will start to change.
I’ve heard that some experts will watch the colored resin until it just starts to gel, then they squeegee out the clear lam. That way there is less mixing of the clear with the color. I haven’t trusted myself to try that yet. Doug
Does anybody use a roll of paper towels as a blotter? Seems like you could blot up some of the excess resin by rolling over it with the paper towels. Just peel the resin soaked towels off the roll for a fresh start on the next color pour.
Also - you can mix up some colors and under catalyze. Just pour a few at a time in little paper cups and work small areas before blotting. This might reduce or eliminate muddy color mixes.
After you get the colors down, do a flood coat (clear or tint) and try not to shift the cloth when squeegeeing.
Mix the two colors of resin, grab a cup of yellow, put a few spoonfuls of red on top (do not pre-mix the red and yellow), and throw down the board (from tail to nose). Push resin towards nose with squeegee. Repeat with another cup. And so on. Its kinda wild, the first color that hits the foam stays. Lam done by John Schultze (pictured) of SF Surfshop (with guidance from the glassers at the now defunct RoeShamBeau glassing).
