sooo… just to be sure: as with my fins, I do this after lam, before fill coa, right?
do you have rough numbers how much resin will be needed?
Having seen Balsa’s board in person, I’ll comment that the leash loop is beautiful.
Heck, the whole board is beautiful.
Rides nicely, too. Got a “best classic longboard I’ve ever been on” vote from someone who surfs much, much better than I.
Here’s the other side.
As for the resin… it depend on the size of the loop, but 50mL should be enough, 100 if u do a big one.
GL & HF !
Z.
Thank you Zourite.
I kinda have the amounts for the lam coat dialed in by now, but I am still very unsure when it comes to other questions, like fins, leash loops, hotcoats and the like, hence all my questions.
But it is clearing up more and more.
Ok, I jsut glassed my fins on, once the resin gels up, I’ll cut down any excess and can continue with my resin leash loops.
I am pretty much set on the styles; horizontal over buttcrack on the fish and for the mini one of those you’d see on a longboard.
For my #3 however I’d relly like the style for which you recommended using leftovers from finpanels. As I don’t have any of those, I thought of doing the following: build a dam/form/whatever of tape, chop up some glass strands (0.5-1cm) mix them with resin, pour that in my form, let gel, glass 2-3 layers of 6oz over that. Does that make sense? Maybe a little?
As a reminder, I want it to look like that:
It makes sense. But (why is there always a but?) two things come to mind. The first is transparency - an issue or not depending on the look you’re going for. The second is solidity - make sure that in shaping your loop you don’t sand off too much of your glass - this is epecially pertinent for the top unless you’re glassing over it? The filler won’t have much structural integrity without those sidewalls. I may be over-thinking this, but I hate when simple stuff breaks.
Never done it that way since I always seem to have a bit of a fin sheet or a cut-off fin base. Probably have a couple of pieces in red or semi-opaque transparent. If you’d like one I’m happy to send it your way. In any case, be curious to see what you come up with.
Thanks for the kind offer jeffrey, but I am located in Germany.
Anywho, just did the leash loops. Pretty straight forward actually. As I didn’t have any roving, I pulled strands out of my 6oz glass. There were a few bubbles in there, but I got them out. Hopefully haha.
Tomorrow fill coat, after that an aweful lot of sanding, as I don’t have any electric devices for that and than I’m done.
Stoked for the leash loops then!
Hand sanding is not all that bad, just be patient. Speaking of sanding, since you’re in Europe you might try the Entropy resin from Atua next time. If you get the very fast (very being a relative thing) hardener it has great mechanical traits and it sands out beautifully. I’ve always loved RR for reliability and ease of use, but I think that this is the best polishing-out epoxy I’ve handled.
By the way, writing from France so not that far.
Cheers
Ah ok, so we’re some euros after all. I always assume people answering are from the US with some aussies in the mix.
I tried the thing with mixing epoxy with chopped up glass, hopefully it turns out ok. I didnt glass a patch over it immediately, as there were glass trands sticking out here and there, so I have to sand that in form before putting on any more glass.
Here are the pics from right after the glassing.
Speaking of sanding the hotcoat: what are the typical grits for handsanding? I found very contradictory info on that, some starting as low as 60, others suggest 100-120.
one more question (hopefully not too stupid): I just sanded all the laps flush from the fin-patches and also the patches of the leash loops, but do I also sand the loop as such? I used strands from my 6oz cloth, i got a feeling if I sand those, they’ll just come apart.
I’m late to the game but I hope this will help future glassers. This technique is not my own but one seen via Clutch who glasses at Waterman’s Guild.
Step 1. Roving. Pull 10 strands and tape the ends.
Step 2: Run the roving over something round to get all the crimps out of it. (Saw Gene Cooper do something like this…so again not my doing)
Step 3: Prep. My lam is a Smoke tint with glitter. The plan is it use the oval 6oz patch in clear UV resin with MEKP and then use the Smoke tint resin to wet out the roving. The goal is to not see the oval patch on the deck but have a smoke tint loop. That is why I went with the clear UV and added MEKP with the off chance that the UV doesn’t kick through dark smoke tint.
Step 4: Wet out the roving and oval patch. For the roving I lay it in a circle on the wax paper and saturate it with a cheap chip brush. The ring out the extra resin with my hands. Yes to rubber gloves. Next cut the roving in short strips and place them on top of the oval patch.
Step 5: Take the patch with saturated roving and place it on the board. Shape the loop to the desired design. My cut strands are shorter than my patch. Too short it doesn’t mold perfectly, too long it sticks out. Didn’t nail it this time but you get the idea.
Last step: Hotcoat the board and final shape the loop. Drill your hole. No finished pics as of yet.
Dave
Very interesting Warrior1515, thanks!
I’m not really into leash loops. About a week after my post on this thread a good friend asks me if I can help him glass a wood surfboard…all epoxy…not bad…something I could do better or just forget…every thing has its place. I can do lots of things with epoxy resin and fiberglass.
Warrior1515 you just answered a question I had in another post, thank you for sharing!
That was excellent Dave. It’s good to know how to do them when a leash plug purchase is an 1 1/2 hours away. I like to put them across the butt crack otherwise use a plug although I try to surf without a leash if possible. Mike