Should I! glass it?

I finished shaping my 3rd board, a Lis style fish. I am very happy with the result but quite anxious about the glassing as I don’t want to ruin the board with a bad glassing/sanding performance…

Primarily the idea was to do it the full-on old school way: two colours resin tint,cutlaps, resin pin line, single foiled wooden keels, polished

But:

I never did a resin tint before

I never did a cutlap before

I will use a dark green tint (even harder)

I never did pin lines before

I just glassed 2 boards before

So should I:

a) spray it (which I never did before either) and glass it with clear resin

b) have someone glass it (tinted resin or spray)

c) just go for it and take it as an experience

d) non of the above i.e.: have a beer!

Would do you say? Any “first time” stories?

Here is the board. (The yellow stains are not there actually, they just show on the picture taken with a mobile phone!)

Cheers Zimmi



uh, my vote is c, and, uh, d… d first though, and, ah, d, d again, after. yep.

\r

If you want the challenge, do it.

If you want a nice board, go yellow tint strong.

For being only your third board it came out really nice. I say go for it. That’s how you learn. If you do tints, just remember if you have a dark tint the blank’s finish has to be close to perfect. Any cuts, scratches, gouges will show up darker.

In culo alla balena!

(That means- into the butthole of the whale - which is the Italian’s weird way of saying “Good Luck!”)

Zimmi,

looks like a nice board, esp. for only your 3rd try.

I’d go the whole hog yourself. Best way to learn. At least thats what i plan to do

when i finally get around to doing my first board. its still in the planning stages, but i hope it looks like yours.

anyway post picks when its done so if i see you in the surf i can check it out (and maybe have a go :wink:

good luck.

Scot

Hey man,

I learned the hard way that when tinting a board the blank has to be flawless! Especially when using darker colors. I recommend you do a resin swirl with two analagous colors (colors next to each other on the color wheel) like blue and green or yellow and orange or you can even go further out like blue and yellow or yellow and red and such. Anyways you’ll get a good looking job because even when you get mudding it just makes the color in between the two you picked from the color wheel. Doing it this way flaws in your blank won’t show as much and you’ll still get a good looking board. For your first job keep the colors to a minimum this keeps your color clean and you won’t run out of time pouring different colors. Do a search and you’ll learn everything you need to know.

Cut laps are cake. If you’ve taped off pinlines on a board before you’ve already done the hardest part. Again do a search and you’ll find everything you need.

Like they said… when you do resin swirls you hide everything thats why I tend to do them on alot of boards :). Give what you want a try, only one way to learn dont hide from it, how will you learn? practice makes almost perfect

Make one of these tools first http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/detail_page.cgi?ID=341

Go for it !!!

Tenover did a really nice stepdeck longboard with a light green tint and cut laps. He posted photos. Not sure the title of the thread but the board came out nice and lots of people here helped him out.

you can do it. Take the time to plan it out. Make sure you have lots of new clean sharp razor blades. Use quality tape.

Ray

zimmi: glass it yourself. you can do it all - cutlaps, tints, pins, gloss. just read lots of info on sways first, then take it one step at at a time.

here’s a thread that includes the steps of me glassing a fish. i hope it helps.

http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=270482;#270482

go for it mate. it’s fun.

GO FOR IT, Its the best away to learn. Your going to have to do it sooner or latter and when you do it’ll still be the first time, experience is’nt something you get till after you need it, so just learn what you can from the archieves and go for it.

I did my first board with a yellow tint, cutlaps and pinlines, ok green is harder than yellow, but if I can do is so can you.

and when its finished you can say you made the whole board.

I just glassed my first epoxy board, and even set the curve high by doing a 12’6 tandem. Its not that bad and the satisfaction is worth the struggle. I even did a cloth inlay in the deck that came out. is it perfect? hell no. But its mine…

on a side note, I 'll give you a beer if you sweep up your shaping bay, or is the floor always “snow”?

Great thread Oldy, I read the whole thing, very touching and you have my condolences on your family’s loss. Great to hear the board rode well though. I have one question though. I Have started my first glass job, but haven’t started doing the top of the board yet. I was thinking that the laps only went from the bottom over to the top, but obviously that was incorrect. How do you make the bottom flat after your laps are finished. Also, what is the difference between doing a cut lap and a free lap?

Thanks,

Nathan

thanks guys for all the encouraging words! Just what I needed. For sure I will go for it!

Oldy! thank you very much for pointing out that thread of yours. It is truly inspiring and has so much useful information. It will help a lot for my project. I am the “step by step” type of guy, too (and experienced the “shaper’s block”) but if you see the finished board it is all worth it. Your private story brought tears to my eyes and my thoughts are with you and your family.

Just a few mre questions to oldy and the rest of swaylocks before I kick off:

when laping around at the butt crack (glassing the bottom) did you do a patch at the very end of the crack (far end of the deck stringer) as you would normally not have any cloth here, but a notch and therefore colourvariation. At many traditional fishes you see the pinlines therefore going from the pins all the way to the end of the stiger (deep in the crack). how did you do?

when marking the board of with a railline/pinline tool how do you make sure it is perpendicular to the deck (as in always the same distance from the rail)as you just have the apex of the rail left. And how do you avoid skipping of the pencil (that what happens to my quite often when marking railbands…)

For the deck lam I want to do a tinted inlay and then a clear freelap one 4oz one 6oz. would it be right to do the inlay 4oz and the freelap 6oz or the other way round?

Decal on the bottom: Do I put it on with the hotcoat? and should I use a little 4oz patch on top of it or will that show?

Thanks for all your help and inspiration.

Zimmi