I’ve been having problems with my rails, I made them too thin and tapered, so the glass isn’t forming around it nicely, bubbling etc. Should I just round them out slightly (It was very pointed, I wasn’t thinking when I shaped the foam) or should I grind of 1/4 in or so from the rails and make the angle less?
If you did not glass it already, I’d say re-template it and get a little bit more meat on the rails shooting for that 1/4 inch. If you already started to lam it, I guess you could grind the air bubbles out carefully and patch it up.
Anybody else with $.02 to add and help and HBO (help a brother out)?
Thanks. I already have the bottom glassed, I may put 1 more layer, but i’m not sure. I’m thinking of using some of the tools we have in our school’s woodshop to mill off that little bit, then use a small rotary sander with heavy grit to shave off the fiberglass laps on top and reshape the rails.
Naw, you don’t wanna shave anything off and try to reshape it at this point. That is unless you want to hide it with paint or pigment. Ride your funky looking foam bride, then get more material to make another. Experience is the key.
If you have to get bubbles out, take a hard wood block and wrap some 36 grit on it. Knock everything down. If you have air bubbles, they should be easier to cut out with a razor blade. Then sand some more until it blends close to the foam without actually hitting the foam. You can grind the lap on the deck with this in the same fashion too. That will make the deck easier to lam with less bubbles along the seam.
Save the power sanding for the second lam that wraps to the bottom. Until you get used to working with the tools in glasswork, stick with hand sanding the first lap.
Well, it isn’t going to be funny looking, I actually like the looks of the very sloped rails, but the problem is lapping the darn thing, I can’t seem to do it without air bubbles forming. Also, after getting rid of the air bubbles, how do I keep them from coming back when I lap it again (I’m possibly doing a third layer on the bottom to help fix the laps), or when I lap from top to bottom?