okay so i dont know what to seal with. i have heard spackling but then i think i remember someone here sayign spackling causes delamination and delam sucks i know my rusty delaminated in three spots. so anyway iw as just wondering what to use?
Some say you don’t have to seal.
Some say your spackle should be 50% epoxy resin…with catalyst, of course.
Some use latex paint and say it holds fine.
Some go microballoons and epoxy, to a pasty texture.
Some use pure spackle, lightweight construction.
Good points and results can be had with any and all the above, as your actual lam and prep work is more important than WHAT you seal it with, or bond it with.
i know greg has mentioned before what he seals with…do a search and see if you can find it.
Hola,
I’m sealing my EPS longboard foam just with epoxy+hardener and a layer of 4oz. glass, but i think it would be enough to just use a thin layer of what we call here in Spain “velo de superficie” (kind of “surfacing mat fibregass” or so) which is a very thin MAT (non ROVING) fibreglass layer. Not structural useful, but good for sealing EPS.
Mix microballoons or qcell with the resin you are using, poly or epoxy.
Make it into a smooth runny paste and squeegee it on, and then off back to the foam surface. It will be quite obvious if you miss any spots.
Tape around the rails to save cleaning up the drips.
A little cabosil will help make the paste smoother to use.
Don’t push too hard or you may damage the foam.
Use spackling and mix with purified water…using resin and cabosil or whatever will add a lil weight…unless you want that…use spackle…have fun…
Use nothing. Don’t seal.
Greg seals for weight & appearance concerns. But even he has said boards are stronger when not sealed as the resin gets into the little void spaces and really locks the glass to the foam. You’d save, what, a few ounces of weight? Forget it.
Sealing is for lighter weight and cosmetics.
I’ve done thousands with spackle and have never had a problem. Think of it in the same vein as air brush paint.
I’ve also built hundreds with epoxy and microballoons. Works fine as well but isn’t quite as easy or cosmetic as spackle.
I’ve also used white glue and … well… don’t do this.
Not sealing makes the board come out heavier and the foam takes more resin. Not sealing can cause problems with blank gassing as well. The boards do come out a bit stronger though and we still do some of the very thin team boards without sealing so they can flex without buckling.
One thing I like about sealing is that it makes weight consistant board to board no matter the inconsistancies in the foam. Inconsistancy is always present in every foam I’ve ever used.
Sealing is a 5 minute job that offers better cosmatics and consistant results. It’s so simple and easy and eliminates so many potential problems it just seems to me to be a no brainer.
Yeah, but if you seal it with microballoons and resin, it’s lighter than plain resin. And it creates a better bonding matrix for the fabric.
You can then pull lots of excess resin off when laminating, leaving a better ratio of resin to fabric. Stronger and more durable in the long run. We saved 10% weight initially, then with practice up to 20%. In both cases they were stronger.
Also for beginner glassers it reduces the chance of that gel timing drain-out. Less stress.
Your choice, and you will become your own expert. Everything works.
Exactly right Wildly. Sealing eliminates all kinds of problems related to inconsistancy in the foam. I seal just about everything. Makes laminating stupidly easy. And your right about microballoons and epoxy. Can work a bit better with practice but you have to be good at sealing. Any little drips or flaws in the seal have to be sanded out with either method before the laminate. Spackling sands very easy, another point to it’s cosmetic value. It also paints a bit better. So again both methods work and we’re probably splitting hairs in comparison to some of the other advantages in making this kind of board.
…the problem with the seal, is when you sand down… its like shaping again the thing…like in the rails…
When I seal foam, I use a stiff squeegee on the flats and a flexy one on the curves. With a bit of practice and technique there should be no need for resanding before glassing.
A little extra time spent on one job saves a lot of time in the end, and as Greg confirms, makes glassing fairly easy.
Sanding the seal should only take a minute or so. That’s what Wildy means by doing each job right. In this case you want the seal is so clean your only knocking of little bumps, not reshaping the thing. I’ve found also in the case of sealing that it takes less time to do this job right than to do it wrong. I’ve seen guys labor for a half hour to seal and have it come out bad. It should only take a few minutes and it doesn’t take much practice to get there. Your just filling the surface foam so it doesn’t take on to much resin.
I have read thru several of these eps sealing discussions now, and I think im ready to ask a question or two. ( I am in colorado, and surf standing waves in the rivers)
I build my own blanks out of 2lb eps foam with a 1/4" stringer. I am yet to use a sealer on a board, but most pro shaped boards i come across seem to be stronger and obviously look tremedously better than my boards. I did a fin box repair/replacement on my buddies boards and it had like a soild sturdy white layer underneath the glass.. So that got me thinking about using a sealer, plus it sounds like the boards could come out more cosmetically nice.
If I were to use spackle how thick do you leave it on the board? I have milled fiber and cabosil would it be best to do some sort of a mixture with epoxy? Or would the spackle be just fine for my first sealing job.
It sounds like Micro ballons would be my best bet for strength, which when you are randomly smashing rocks strength is a good thing. I read 3oz of epoxy resin would be good for a 8ft board, but how much micro ballon do you use.. not sure exactly what 60% would it be 2oz of microballoon?
I want to just mix a little resin in with my spackle and see how that goes, I already have spackle would have to order micro balloons
If sealed boards feel stronger than my unsealed boards, am I not getting enough resin out of the cloth? or am i doing something wrong in the hot coat, my hot coats almost always suck.
tuf
I would not seal with spackle, spackle is weak ,
seal with epoxy micro baloon slury, mix in MB by eye till you get a consistancy that you feel good with probly like Pbutter use a squeegee to spred it on .
if your hitting rocks, glass it heavy, double glass job maybe
Hey,
I have glassed 4 EPS boards without sealing, but I sanded them well. There were hardly any spots where the foam was not smooth (did not have holes to spackle or seal)… What kind of blank did you work with? if marko then you probably don’t need to seal…
Hey,
I have glassed 4 EPS boards without sealing, but I sanded them well. There were hardly any spots where the foam was not smooth (did not have holes to spackle or seal)… What kind of blank did you work with? if marko then you probably don’t need to seal…
I build my own blanks. I bought a 8’x4’x3’ block of 2lb eps foam. I build a rocker then trace that onto the block, hotwire cut that out, saw in half and epoxy the stringer in. Prior to this I used home depot foam ( stringless). Had some problems with the cutter on these first few blanks so there are some nasty little holes. Then while shaping created a few dings, from my stands (that problem should be fixed). Besides the little dings and slices the sanding job looks good but there are some little holes that I don’t think will sand out during final sand. I’ve built 11 boards now and haven’t been concerned with the looks, but now I’d like to get closer to that proffesional look. If I can do that without sealing let me know and I will try harder :o). The 2 blanks I have now would need some patch work prior to paint or lam
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Eeek sorry about the long posts. I’ll try to keep it shorter in the future
If your just going for more asthetics then lam the boards with white pigment in the epoxy,
I thought you wanted to beef them up