i didnt understand why glosscoat is for. isnt possible to polish just after the 1st hot coat? what the gloss coat gives?
and correct me if im wrong the polish steps goes like to sand:
sand it to high grit-1500 because im using epoxy
then compund it
then buff it?
is the sanding have to be wet sanding? and what does wet sanding do compare to dry sanding? what are the pros?
Dry sanding allows you to see what you are doing… Wet sanding allows you to deal with the heating issue especially with epoxy. I actually do both. I don’t really don’t like to polish epoxy, too much work. I love polishing polyester gloss resin coats.
thank you. but you answered only half of my queastions…assume that i use poly. or what ever, what the gloss coat give?? why i cant just polish after the first hot coat? i need a little compare between them.
There are pinholes in your sanded hotcoat. It may take on water for one. You can really true up the board when sading the hotcoat. You get rid of bumps and lumps and then gloss coat…or second hotcoat to give it a nice finish.
Gloss coat resin is harder than your hotcoat and lam resin.
Yep,
harder resin makes for a shinier polish.
+2
me and my bro only glassed one board, but we hotcoated in cold weather and got fish eye craters…if I would have known this I would have sanded recoated + sanded again. Thanks for sharing !
ok, what does pinhole mean? as far as i know its somthing else than fish eye-fish eye is more like separation. photo will be very helpful. so if i got it correct, you do gloss coat to sure you seal any burn trough and pinholes? cause if you dont seal it, it will not shine? how much weight does gloss coat add? is it normal to do gloss coat on every board?
ok, what does pinhole mean? as far as i know its somthing else than fish eye-fish eye is more like separation. photo will be very helpful. so if i got it correct, you do gloss coat to sure you seal any burn trough and pinholes? cause if you dont seal it, it will not shine? how much weight does gloss coat add? is it normal to do gloss coat on every board?
Pinholes are tiny, almost invisible holes in resin usually caused by air bubbles that get trapped under the resin and eventually migrate up to the surface. Gloss coats often seal any pinholes in the hotcoat, but not always.
I have a board from a pretty well known shaper that has evidence of pinholes in the glosscoat. After a board has seen a bit of water time, and exposure to sunlight, small brown spots will appear where there’s pinholes and water has gotten in. I had to dab spots of resin on a number of pinholes that appeared on the aforementioned board.
So you say in evrey board that have 1 hot coat have pin holes? how is possible that they free from the brown spot you tal about?
and please answer my other question…:
o if i got it correct, you do gloss coat to sure you seal any burn trough and pinholes? cause if you dont seal it, it will not shine? how much weight does gloss coat add? is it normal to do gloss coat on every board?
No. Where the hell did I say that?
I simply explained what pinholes are, and one way to spot them.
As to your other questions, I believe they were already answered.
lets start again please.
why glassers doing gloss coat? for what reason? is it for seal pin hole? ok, lets assume that i gave up on gloss coat and didnt seal the pin hole, what are the consequence ?
and how gloss coat as somthing to do with pros polish? why not polish just after 1st hot coat?
sorry for the mess, i just try to understand the idea behind it. please try to answer all the questions that i just wrote
Have you ever glassed a board? If not, then just take it on faith that two coats (lam coat and hot coat) are not always enough for a good seal. A good (experienced) glasser can get away with just two coats, a newcomer will likely need at least three. I used way more on my first board. Sand, and apply another coat. Still had low spots. Still hit weave. Sand some more, apply another coat. It was a learning experience.
You can do an additional hot coat, or a gloss coat, for the third coat - if gloss, using gloss resin, it will be harder and polish up better. If you’re glassing with epoxy, then you will likely use the same resin for all three coats.
SammyA told you what happens with pin holes - the consequences - you weren’t paying attention. Brown spots appeared because a tiny amount of water got into the blank. To avoid that, a second hot coat, or a gloss coat is called for.
You want to polish? You need a good smooth surface to polish: no weave showing, no bubbles, no drips, no highs no lows, a good uniform surface, no pinholes to fill with white polishing compound and leave your board with white specks. If you are a good enough glasser to get that without a third coat, more power to you. If you find that you sand the highs, but still have lows, or are hitting weave, then guess what, you need another coat before you can polish. Or just polish away, but you will find that will really highlight the crappy glass job for all to see. Its up to you, its your board, you can build it however you want. Guys are just telling you the way its generally done in the surfboard making industry.
Suffice to say that pinholes, lumps and fish eye would be commonly called ERRORS. Screw ups that you would not want in your hot coat or gloss. There is way more information in the archives than you need to help you understand the importance of a proper hotcoat AKA FILLER-coat. A gloss coat is an optional third coat of specific gloss resin(preferably Reichold name brand). It is as others have said; " harder" and therefore polishes out very nicely.Glossing with Polyester Resin over Epoxy Resin can open up a whole new set of problems to overcome for a beginning board builder. Take the advice of those who have posted before me on this thread. They are trying to save you some headache. If you are still puzzled by the secrets of the Universe and Man’s Existence; Do what Everysurfer suggests to newcomers and get right into it making mistakes as you go and trying to fix them after the fact. But if I were you I would listen carefully to the advice of those above. Lowel
thank you guys for the comments. now i can say that all the questions i had about surfboard buliding have been answers. i seen a lot of therds here on sway and learn a lot, evry post that im open is because i didnt understand what the archive said.
also like to say…im not sooo new with the surfboard bulding im repairing surfboard for a while…and some big jobs as well.
im about to build my very first board and because im perfectionist about all the surfboard jobs that i do, i need and want to know every thing that can make me better, and off coure better result.
thank you. BTW im 15 from israel so…sorry for my bad english
You could have fooled me!
Idan, sorry for some of the comments, a lot of the posters here don’t have much experience dealing with people who have english as a second or third language. I will try to answer your question clearly. The first reason to use a gloss is to make the board look good and shine so that it sells. The second reason is that gloss resin is harder and shines better than sanding resin. The third reason is that it can seal the board from any small holes or fibers that have been exposed by the sanding process. The fourth reason is that back in the day we did resin pin lines on the gloss coat that needed a clear cover to help them last the life of the surfboard! I hope this helps make things clearer. Did you use a translation program? Sometimes they don’t get the word right, just close. Keep on shaping, just my 2c…
thank you for this comment. im not using any transaltion program… ok now i think i got the idea behind this. few more Q: if the gloss resin is harder than sanding resin. why not using it right after the lam? and last thing. if i have 400 grit finish with only one filler coat, making sure no burn trough or pinholes…do you think polish it will give some result?
Polishing a sanded hotcoat will only result in making the scratches, swirl marks and exsposed weave from sanding more noticeable. The best thing is to wipe the board down after it is sanded with an acrylic sealer. Acrylic sealers are commonly used to seal tile floors, but when used on a surfboard results in a nice low kustre shine that seals imperfections and resists dirt and finger prints.