there are so many variables to a good flat sand job, a good pad or pads that are not warped and with gobs of old glue and paper on them. using a variable speed sander and entering on low RPMS and as flat as possible, picking up RPM’s and applying pressure on the trailing edge, not weighting the top edge and leaving a long low line. Cutting your sandpaper with a 1/4 - 3/8" lap past the soft pad, I used to trim right up to it but saw that I was leaving swirls much more, walking out the flats with a good amount of over lap. Sanding the curves of the rails with worn out 220# on a very soft pad, running your hands over the board and feeling for bumps, sanding blocking the flats and edges, the area where a free lap would leave strings.
It takes me about an hour to do a short board or longboard, but I’m not getting paid for those
…we just have here a big sanding thread, also a bigger one on gloss; so search for those; there are all the industry tricks and more than one way to do its.
-all the steps on a surfboard (made by hand) is related to the previous step; so, you should have the shape and lamination the best possible.
-NEVER EVER put Acetone in the resin.
-the sanding, polishing and the rub out stuff are done with low RPM s
-most of the clear boards that you see on the surf shops have a sanded gloss coat, a finish coat.
I left a voice mail to a glass shop this week, if I sprayed a water base primer on my new board and then hit it with a sanding block, the low spots would look like leopard spots, I've neve seen a "professional" sand job that had this many wheelie hits, there isn't an area 6" square that is flat, the "sander" must have been holding the machine like it was a skil saw. The guys from Bing keep coming down to my end to get a view of the worthless piece of shit sanding, the guy begged me for work and the cost was 385 clear with fusion boxes, like Stingray says "you're fired"
[/quote]
High end Classic Cars get hand sanded before they get painted...it's called "blocking".....you must block sand the entire car before you paint it....surfboards are very small....JimP understands block sanding.......I'm not saying you need to hand sand your surfboard....I'm saying you need to understand how to make the surface flat...by hand or with a power tool.....
Begg Jim for work....maybe your first job should be really awesome......
.....there's a dull piece of 80 grit in my top pocket right now....the board I'm working on is for a guy that competes agianst Jim.... Some surf club in Oceanside?.......hope the surf is fun in the morning..........Ray...catch you on the flip side...
that’s why they hit cars with multiple coast of primer, red, grey and block them out with long blocks and fine wet or dry, every little bump, rise or dip shows up like a sore thumb. You can tell a great sand job and gloss, the board gives off an undistorted reflection.
Oceanside is one contest I never do well in, close outs, suck outs, too low a tide, too high a tide, yeah I know, it’s the same for every one
I’ll probably get a lot of crap for saying this, but…Unless you’re looking for a perfectly finished “looking” board, I honestly don’t think the average/above-average surfer will ever notice the slightest difference in these small things(bumps in the lap-line, bumps in the sanded board, 1/2" off here, 1/2" there…). It’s silly. It’s supposed to be fun, and a learning experience…The log I’m finishing up right now is NOWEHERE near “perfect”, but I already love it and in my mind, it will ride better than any other log I’ve ever ridden…And so it will be…