So my problem is my glass. Laminated the board with 2 layers of 4 oz on top and 1 layer of 4 oz on the bottom. i then hotcoated it. When i went to sand it I immediately noticed that it seemed very soft, almost squishy.
To solve this i was thinking of putting on another coat over the hotcoat. However, my buddy said that it might not bond so well to the already existing coat because it has already cured. i have shaped and glassed about a dozen boards so far and i haven’t really had this problem yet. Maybe I am forgetting a step or something, i dunno? If i could have your input that would be great.
If you’re sure it’s fully cured, which it sounds like it’s not, and it’s still soft, you won’t get any significant strength out of another hot coat. But for the record, if you rough sand the cured hot coat, you’ll have no bonding issues with a second coat. That’s what a gloss coat is - a second “hot coat” of resin, over a true hot coat or fill coat, but with a slightly different resin formula.
To get more strength, you have to add more glass… which begs the next question: what kind of glass did you use? There are different types of cloth, some of which are not suitable for surfboard construction. Learned that a long time ago, the hard way!
Assuming you purchased the same cloth and resin that everyone else has access to, you’d have to f-up something really bad to have the lamination be soft, the other side of the coin in, the lamination is only as strong as the foam underneath it.
A pal of mine learned of a carbon dioxde foam that NASA is using to capture space dust, it is basically a carbon dioxide fog, held together by the molecules touching.
He wanted to see if it could be obtained to shape boards from, my reply was that it would be almost like a blank made from air and no amont of glass was going to make up for it’s lack of strength
Yeah its a poly, i also used s-glass. Its definitely cured, i got bored with this board after laminating it and didn’t touch it for about two weeks. i’m thinking that it probably has something to do with the foam.
Genius,
When i read your comment i realized how stupid i was, this board was a reshape. So my instincts tell me it has something to do with the foam. Too old? Too abused? i think the foam itself is somewhere around 25 years old, so possibly a bit of both.
This leads me to my next thought, what should i do to get some strength? This board, like i said, was a reshape. So that means its a 5’8" groveler, should i just throw on some more glass or would that make it too heavy?
Maybe just surf it as is, don't try to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear... you know what i mean....cut you losses....don't waste you time...just surf it.
Next time you'll be ready for a new shiney blank,and that board will turn out a lot better than the recycler. I mean your shaping board and got the bug right?
Adding glass or another hotcoat won't keep you from putting you foot through it unless you add like 4 layers of 10 oz.., you could strip off the glass, and vac bag some veneer, that would strengthen the deck up a whole lot....but then again your doing too much work for a suspect surfboard..
Ha, ok thanks. Yeah, i guess if it breaks it breaks. What you suggested sounds like way too much work, it would be better to break it on an epic wave. Haha, thanks.
I'm still trying to absorb as much as i can from this site before making my first board . I have a triple stringer stripped g&s longboard i want to make a fish with. It's my understanding that the topside of any poly blank is harder than the rest of the blank . Could it be that too much was taken off the top side leaving a mushy core ? I think that NASA substance the genius was talking about is Aerogel , it's 99% air & 1% silicon dioxide . It can withstand 4000 times its weight in compresion but will snap easily when bent.
yeah thats what i’m thinking. i think also that the foam has lost some of its durability because it is so used/old. i’m going to put in the fcs plugs within this next week and then put a gloss coat on it.