I have been doing as much research both here and on the web that I can, and am at the glassing stage of the first board I am building. I am on vacation next week and want to finish this project up. Prior to that I want to just make sure I have all my facts straight, im using the right quantities, etc. If I ask anything that seems elementary, sorry in advance, but its a Clark blank, im using Polyester Resin, and a lot of the threads on here are giving me error messages, or the info is from 2005. Anyways, here goes (oh, and its an 8'6):
Glassing Schedule: Double 6 oz on top, single on the bottom, potentially an extra patch in the rear for the fin box.
Chemistry Class: Temps in my area are starting in the high 50's, so will try 1% MEKP to Resin for Laminate and to give me as much time as possible, same for hot coat plus 2% surfacing agent.
For laminating, looking at 40oz for the bottom, 54oz for the top. Hot Coat 18oz on the bottom and 20oz of resin for the top, plus the applicable amounts of MEKP and surfacing agent.
I did not really want a plain white board, and have some blue and green tint. I would do the whole board one solid color. In restrospect, I should have ordered opaque, since it would hide any defects in the blank. To accomodate for this, I sealed the blank with distilled water and Fast and Final, mixed to a milky mixture, and brushed on with a paint brush. In the process of sanding it down with 220 grit screen.
Should I even attempt this, or am I setting my self up for disaster. I was thinking of mixing all the resin for top and botton at once for the lam, to keep the color consistent, and free lap it.
Leash plug, bought the one you install prelam and sand down, but cannot find how deep it should be installed / at what height that should be exposed about the deck. I assume this something I can install in advance of the board lam (like a day before). Does it matter if you go through the stringer, or can it be off to the side. Obviously just dont put the plug and the single fin box in the same spot.
6. As for the fin box, single fin setup, the box itself has tabs on the outside and then about 1/4 lip above that. Confirming that you use the outside tabs to determine where it sits in the glass and you grind them off after all is said and done, and the same for the 1/4 lip above the box (and tabs/bridges inside the box, those are flush with the hull). And 6" up from the tail to the start of the box.
7. Logo. Is there any relation to the basting resin and the lam coat? With minimal time and or experience, I wont be able to make the whole batch, and get this done. Can I baste a logo on, refold the glass, then catalyze the lam resin a little while later, and proceed or do the two need to be done in conjunction.
Thanks in advance. I really have been trying to do my research, minimize questions, and appreciate any feedback I can get from the community.
Sounds right. We always suggest putting a patch of some sort around the fin box area. Tail patch, oval patch etc…
If you're this hesitant then maybe look into using UV cure resin so you get an unlimited working time.
Pretty conservative but will work. You might want to kick the hot coat a bit more to avoid resin sagging since it's so cold where you're at. Or, just make sure you pull your hotcoat tight. Might want to even try to use space heaters to warm up your work area.(be careful when using heat around these chemicals!!!)
In order to keep the color consisten you should pre-mix your resin color into a little cup and then add to your batches of laminating resin. See video;
These are very strong and you have the right idea. Just make sure that the "rim" of the leash plug is either flush with the deck or 1-3 mm below the dec surface. This way you can glass over it and be able to sand off only the top part and not all of the cloth that is reinforcing the leash plug. There are tons of little trick to minimize air around the lamination of the leash cup, one of them is to do relief cuts on the top of the plug with a razor blade.
You got it. Some guys like to also add a little cloth craddle around the box for extra support. Other guys just like to mix up milled fibers, thiksil, laminating resin and pigment.
You can pre-paste the logo onto the board but just make sure you pull as much resin out from the logo so it's not floating which will lead to other issues when you sand the board. Also, don't kick the resin too hot or else your logo could wrinkle up when the resin cures. Best bet is to just mix a little bit of resin in a dixie cup, past the logo, pull the cloth back, kick the resin for your lamination and then go to work.
I read online not to use UV cure for your first board, and already have the regular Polyester. Next time I think Im going UV for sure.
Conservative how? You think I may be using too little. The last thing I want to do is run out midway through. I have 2 gallons to do this board, so if you think I need more, please suggest some volumes. Also what do you mean pull the hot coat tight? Isn't it a brush on process?
By rim, I assume you mean below the very top of the plug, where I will be sanding down to. Thanks again.
you should realize that if you do freelaps with colored resin its going to look, well, "art-y" at best. So, make sure that's what you want. If its not, do cutlaps. Or do a foam tint with a small quantity of colored resin and a foam paint roller, and let it cure/harden well before you do the glasswork. This is probably a good option for you, then you can do clear resin freelaps.
Ambrose: thanks for the tip on the gloves and I'll definitely have everything laid out and ready. I have all the supplies but am waiting for a day home alone no wife no kids to keep focus.
keith Melville I'm thinking artsy means uneven with the rails being a darker shade than the rest due to overlapping fibreglass. Do you have any example of what this will look like?
He means you should be doing cut laps. you'd have to have truly opaque coloring from the same batch for top & bottom lams (or no color at all) if you want free laps to disappear.
I actually like the look of that. As for the spackle, there were a couple of tears near the stringer and I had read it would decrease resin absorption. Sounds like I should take another pass through and sand through it. The board has a lot of volume so I don't anticipate it being an issue.
Game changer. So I can grab a packet of this stuff, add to a regular poly resin and convert it to uv cure instead of doing the MEKP? If that's the case I'm going this route. I knew I took on a bit too much with a longer board for my first and this would decrease the stress. http://www.foamez.com/uv-catalyst-powder-1-gallon-p-326.html Again thanks for the info on the spackle. Will follow your guidance.
Done by experienced hands, tints look great. Not a good idea for a first timer if you care about esthetics, though. Probably the hardest type of glass job to get right.
Again, thanks everyone for the advice, this is really helping. So order UV catalyst powder, and that will allow me to do a logo, laminate coat, and then take out side to kick it. Bring it back in, flip, and do the deck, again, outside, kick.
I understand UV may not be the best for the hot coat, because if I have to move it outside, it disturbs the surfacing agent, and then creates more sanding. So for the hot coat, I will use the MEKP, and brush on, as planned etc.
Now I read online that the UV can be surfed almost immediately, whereas the MEKP needs time to cure. If I do the hotcoat and use a small amount of the MEKP AND the UV, let it kick from the MEKP, then bring outside to flash it. Confirm? Deny?
As for tinting, everyone warns against it, and I may skip it this round based on that. However, does the tinting become less difficult to get right if you do a swirl of colors, bc it may hide imperfections?
Again, I appreciate everyones help. And I normally do a ton of research before asking questions, but I also like to balance with updated knowledge, and healthy debate. Plus the fact that a ton of threads in here that may have my answers only show errors now.
Id say have at it with the colors. Do a swirl, make it solid, either way you are going to learn a lot and have fun.
Hotcoat - use uv and mekp. Let it kick and then take it outside.
Once you get your uv powder crush it up even more and dump it into your gallon of resin the night before. This way it will completely desolve and wont leave any yellow streaks or a grainy hotcoat.
So last thing if I mix Mekp and uv cure for the hot coat is it almost immediately surfable still like it would be with just the UV or do I need to wait a week or two?
So lam coat will go UV only because I am gonna need the time to get everything just so and then for hot coat go MEKP and the UV, and I would use the same ratios for surfacing agent (2%) and MEKP (1% + depending on temp), regardless of the UV?
I'd also advocate for either a clear lam or a cutlap. Cutlaps aren't that hard, and are just a MUST for any kind of pigment job. The freelapped color job shown above was obviously done by a very skilled laminator, there's no chance on earth your first glass job will look anything like that. If you do a cutlap, however (which I did do on my first board, btw), it COULD come out looking pro! I actually cutlap everything, even my clear lams, since it makes everything so much more even and easier to keep clean.
Missed the part where you said you were going to skip the color. Yes, it is easier if you do a swirl. but it's really not that tough overall if you take it easy. I did "really hard to get right" cokebottle tint on like my 4th board and never had any trouble. Just take your time, be well prepped, and do it right.
If you are doing color in your lam you will want to add a little hardener - something like 2cc for a quart of resin. This way you will have time to work and it will get a full cure. If you have dark colors sometimes it will cure on the surface but not on the bottom if you only use uv cure. This will mean a nice delam very quickly.
No so important with a clear lam but I usually still put it in just to be sure.
