I am almost done with my first board. I really like the shape and managed to not screw up anything too bad yet.
I did the hotcoat on it, and it ended up getting kinda lumpy in places due to my lack of skill. I just sanded it down yesterday with 100 grit, and have mostly got all the bubbles out, and have a mostly smooth surface. My questions are twofold;
Any advice on how to figure out when the hotcoat is sanded down enough so it will be a smooth glosscoat?
I am using the slow fiberglass HI 2:1 epoxy, which is pretty awesome. My hotcoat if I hadn't messed up, in the good parts looked great. What can I do to get a really smooth 2nd hotcoat to get away with not sanding, or only sand at higher grits? I haven't found a place that sells additive F locally, but I did buy some xylene. Should I add a teaspoon to the epoxy to thin it out so it goes on smooth? Is there an ideal temperature to apply it? Should I heat the resin? I live on Oahu in town, and will buy lunch or beers for help on getting the last step done.
I did a bunch of searching for these answers, but alot of the posts that looked like they might have the right answer give me an error when I try to click on them. I also learned that when doing lamination at night don't have lights above your surfboard. I had to babysit it, because bugs kept falling in… Won't do that again.
I hear ya on the bugs 11 victims on the bottom of mine last nite should have shut the door.
What I’m slowly learning is somthing I already knew no shortcuts. The better you do each step the easyer and cleaner the next. Smooth blank,tight lam, clean laps with no strings, baste laps, grind them. Equals nice hotcoat.
bumps get exaggerated and lead to sand thrus.
Thanks Tom. I definitely could have done a lot better on doing my free laps. After I did it, I got some really good advice to try and move the strings sideways instead of pasting straight to the board. Oh well, will do it on the next one. Luckily I didn't get any sandthroughs, I had a pretty thick hotcoat. My main goal was to figure how to get that 2nd coat super smooth since the fiberglassHI epoxy really looked nice before sanding. I used blue pigment throughout and it has a really nice depth to the color.
I did some searching yesterday, and saw some recommendations, on putting something that will vibrate the table a little bit when doing the 2nd hotcoat to remove brush strokes. I will probably give that a shot instead of mixing chemicals into the epoxy.
Cut laps are better than free laps. Do the cut lap when the left over epoxy in the bucket and squeegee is no longer sticky. The epoxy will be still really soft. Easy as resin. If you wait until later, you will be hating life, and will probably cut your fingers as you force the razor. If you waited too long, use a vix file, or sand through down to the tape. Much harder.
Fiberglass Hawaii Thick and Fast hardener for basting laps, and rails.
Fiberglass Hawaii Thin and Fast hardener for all your hot coats.
My order is
Laminate one side with slow hardener, and do your cut laps
Baste with thick and fast only at the laps and paint thin on the rails. Watch for drips. Knock them down.
Laminate the other side with slow hardener. Cut lap again. Cut on the round part of the rails.
Thick and fast at the lap again. Watch for drips. After it hardens you can sand a bit, but don't sand into the cloth. No matter what, if you kiss the cloth while sanding, **STOP SANDING**.
Masking tape to prevent drips to the other side.
First hot coat. **NO SURFACING AGENT!!! **maybe a little zylene. 5% by weight.
Flip and do the other side.
Sand with a sanding block. **STOP SANDING WHEN YOU EITHER GET AN EVEN LOOK OF SANDING MARKS, OR YOU KISS THE CLOTH WHICHEVER COMES FIRST.**
Do another thin and fast hot coat. Add 5% Xylene. **NOSURFACING AGENT YET!**
Do the other side the same way.
At this point you should have a pretty good looking board. Pretty flat, and maybe you touched the weave again in only a couple of spots. You can stop now, or if you want a real pro looking board,one more step.
Last hot coat. This time add 5 to 10% xylene, and 5% **Fibrglass Hawaii** surfacing agent. ** NOT ****RESIN RESEARCH SURFACING AGENT. DIFFERENT COMPANY, DIFFERENT STUFF.**
This last coat should look pretty good. Sand lightly with 320, just to knock down any zits. Sand to uniform. Use a **vibrating** sander at this point. Look up **Porter Cable 505** sander. My new best friend. **No Hand sanding**. (Makes Scratches) **No Disk sanding**. Don't try to gloss polish. It wont.
I would block sand then come back with the pad it until it's PERFECT before putting on the 2nd hotcoat… then, you should be able to start at 220ish on the final sanding.
sounds like a nightmare my friend…i am sure there is a simplier way to learn how to make a surfboard !!! maybe the good old simple way of polyester resin ,hotcoat and gloss coat is the easiest way to start out…if it aint broken why try to fix it…
Awesome, thanks! Everysurfer I feel like I should print those directions up laminate them and stick them on the wall when I am shaping. I was able to sand it tonight by hand, and it looks pretty smooth so will do a quick hot coat tomorrow, after a trip to fiberglassHI for surfacing agent.
Once again thanks for the advice, this site is great.
Definitely looking forward to making less mistakes on the 2nd board.
Wanted to say thanks again for the advice. I picked up the surfacing agent, and it worked like a charm. I also did the coats late morning so the epoxy set in the middle of the day when it was nice and hot. I had better results doing this then doing it at night.
The finish came out so shiny, I didn't even bother sanding it. Also got it out in some Diamond Head slop, and it surfs pretty good. Although it is pretty heavy since I went a little overboard, with a layer of 6 and 4 oz on the bottom with a 4 oz tail patch. and two layers of 6 oz on the top. The more I work with epoxy, it is pretty easy, and the board feels solid.
