lots of opinions and none are wrong. Some are better than others.
Industry standard is now sanded filler coat with acrylic clear lacquer.
I have been sanding surfboards for 15 years and very rarely do you not sand through the filler coat and touch the weave around the laps etc. These can wick water if you do not seal the filler coat with something.
Extra coat of resin is the best, perfect seal and a more durable stronger board but does add weight, about 200g. more noticeable than you think.
I have boards that are years old that have acrylic clear lacquer finish and are still quite usable.
I do boards for a young guy that only wants a sanded filler coat with no finish coat at all and if I didnt baste and sand the laps you would see weave everywhere.
Kokua, thanks for the help, whats the name of that acrylic, and do you spray that through an airbrush gun or brush/wipe it on? also, do you lightly sand the acrylic with something after it dries or just leave it? how many coats do you usually do too? Sorry for all the questions but I like learning new tips on surfboard building.
Howzit astevens, It's just called acrylic finish and you get it from Fiberglass Hawaii. I used a sponge to apply it and would put a couple of coats on, just make sure that it is totally dry before yo apply the next coat or it will take off the previous coat. Before I used acrylic sealer I used grout sealer. Aloha,Kokua
its actually a bullshit myth propagated by lazy glasshouses to get the same money for less work.
the weight of a finish coat makes sfa ( sweet fuck all) difference to a performance shortboard if you use decent blanks and glass them correctly, yet the advantages are numerous.
So Silly, when you say seal coat of resin, I don't think you mean a "second hot coat" with wax styrene. You are suggesting just the PE resin painted on correct?
So that gives 4 basic options?
1. Leave it at the hot coat - which in my very limited experience is kind of porous and gets dirty on the first day. I tried once
2. straight coat of PE over hot coat as a sealer.
3. Gloss coat (special type of resin sealer)
4. Acrylic or other type of sealer applied with spray, brush or sponge.
if the lamination is solid and prepped correctly before the hotcoat then you can have a sanded hotcoat finish with no weave showing - the board is completely sealed up and ready to shred. saves a noticeable amount of weight and extra hassles of gloss coats. glass shops charge for their services - sanded hot coat is standard - a gloss coat costs extra - so they are not snaking anyone. of course you can make a lighter board with a less dense core and heavier skins. but for a typical fast and dirty poly shortboard a gloss coat is unnecessary. you are right this is a disposable product but many want this and a gloss coat's advantages for this type of construction are usually not worth the weight (a gloss coat will not increase the boards longevity enough to warrant the weight/cost for most people) if you want a heavier/stronger board - its better to put more cloth on than an extra layer of resin.
i guess if you grind the piss out of the hotcoat (down to the weave everywhere) and then gloss coat you could get a board with a gloss coat that did not add a considerable amount of weight but again this is an extra step when you want to go ride your board but you cant because you have to put another coat of resin on it and sand it again!
“if the lamination is solid and prepped correctly before the hotcoat
then you can have a sanded hotcoat finish with no weave showing”
i think you are using to much resin for your fill coat!
“-
the board is completely sealed up and ready to shred. saves a
noticeable amount of weight and extra hassles of gloss coats.”
there is no weight savings! . i use 1 grit to sand and 1 grit to rub down my finish coat so the board is only sanded twice.so it is arguably quicker seen as a UV finish coat is ready to sand after ten minutes in the sun.
“glass
shops charge for their services - sanded hot coat is standard - a gloss
coat costs extra - so they are not snaking anyone.”
this was standard for a few years but good glass shops are going back to finish coats because chinese boards that are cheaper, last longer! its a poor standard. Its only a GLOSS coat if you polish it, which is where the time is
“of course you can
make a lighter board with a less dense core and heavier skins. but for
a typical fast and dirty poly shortboard a gloss coat is unnecessary.
you are right this is a disposable product but many want this and a
gloss coat’s advantages for this type of construction are usually not
worth the weight (a gloss coat will not increase the boards longevity
enough to warrant the weight/cost for most people) if you want a
heavier/stronger board - its better to put more cloth on than an extra
layer of resin.”
again there is no extra weight if you can glass !
“i guess if you grind the piss out of the hotcoat (down to the weave
everywhere) and then gloss coat you could get a board with a gloss coat
that did not add a considerable amount of weight but again this is an
extra step when you want to go ride your board but you cant because you
have to put another coat of resin on it and sand it again!”
you keep saying considerable amount of weight but if you can sand a board without exposing a little weave here and there, that tells me you are using too much resin for you fill coats so your boards would be no lighter then with a finish coat. or have sanded the laps to nothing before fill coating which takes a lot of strength out of the board
So Silly, when you say seal coat of resin, I don’t think you mean a
“second hot coat” with wax styrene. You are suggesting just the PE
resin painted on correct?
yes that is correct second coat of resin with wax in it and a touch of styrene to thin it in colder weather. kick it quick .
use a big nice light coloured 4 inch brush that must be cleaned pretty smart after apllying the coat
tape of the rails on the apex, wipe board down with a tack cloth and mix about 100 grams of resin. you can eother dump it in the middle or i prefer to pourr small amounts as i spread it round
pour on and work it round the board till its covered . then one run of cross strokes on angle and then one run of lengthwise strokes.pull tape just on jell
this is a forum of backyard builders i think its a waste of time for them to try and use production methods to make what is essentially a substandard product. homebuilders should find joy in the process of doing something better, and enjoy the whole process. they should learn to tape off . cut lap, use a surform, finish, polish and use tints and spend the extra time making sure the stringer is dead flat and the blank is finished to fine scree.
to hear people say to use production gear and techniques for a home builder is just daft
a close tolerence blank shaped with a surform and handsanded glass job can be done to a showroom finish without any expensive gears. the begginers should spend all the money on a box of decent poly urethane blanks and actually learn to shape and glass old school, before getting fancy with it
Silly, isn't the reason its called a hotcoat because you use extra catalyst(hot) with the intention of having the coat gel faster(preventing resin runoff) resulting in a thicker coat to sand. I'm not saying to pool the resin and ultimatly change the shape of your board, but when i do a hotcoat, i make sure to brush the resin all over, and I look for pools so that I can brush them out, and my hot coats are not TOO thick. I disagree that sanding laplines on the lam coat will make the board weaker. you're not supposed to sand your lam job off, just sand the edges so that theyare flush. I agree with grasshopper on this one, extra cloth will make a board stronger, not an extra coat of resin. I'm not saying that there is only one way of doing this, and I'm sure that your method is just as legit.
Kokua, thanks for the help, that acrylic sounds like a great idea to keep a board clean.
hi brasco i sometimes thin to about 5 percent or just a wee cap full. if its warm you dont need too . a proper finish resin is usually a bit thinner and goes on easier anyway, but if you use sanding resin it can help to thin it abit. ive never had trouble with it seperating but NZ is cold and not to hot in summer. i do finishes on a nice warm day in before lunch. i think in really hot weather the resin may seperate if you put in to much styrene
silly - you are silly - telling people that your way is the only right way. there are a million different ways to go about something as simple as glassing a surfboard. if you can get a board with a gloss coat to weigh the same as a board with just a sanded hotcoat - impressive - i cant. if i can prep a board so that i get a gloss coat finish without having to sand twice and lay down resin with a brush twice and save some weight - good for me - i can do that!
you cannot dispute that more glass is stronger than more resin. and a gloss coat is not needed to seal up a board if YOU know how to glass.
no you are very wrong. a seal coat prevent small dents and cracks from opening up. the board is a lot harder for small nicks and dents. more dent resistent. more waterproof. less grubby. longer lasting. its so obvious, i cant see why you dont get it. btw its not my way .
reverb said it as well. i bet you find most of the really good builders do it
a glasser of 50 years experience just posted on this thread and told you. who should begginer listen too