So I’ve made 8 boards now each one impressively better than the one before it, and I’ve worked out most air bubbles each time. I have now started to spray paint my boards and both boards the wrapped part of the lam has this splotchy look to it. it’s rock hard and isn’t a traditional air bubble. What is it exactly and how do I prevent it? It’s only on the bottom of the side I’m doing my lam on where I can’t really push the squeegee as hard.
looks like your resin is draining out of the cloth. I see it all over the board, just not nose…you rail is jacked up too. Are you kicking it fast enough? You should have about 10 minutes of work time max. Also red paint does weird shit from time to time, it crystalizes, changes color, basic mayhem. I alway tell new laminators: use way more resin than necessary, get it real wet, work fast. A properly wetted out cloth is super ez to work with. Dry cloth is a headache. Slow kicking lamination is a headache too. Poly resin isn’t as sticky as epoxy, so you need to kick it pretty fast so your work won’
It’s UV it kicks in the sun. If could be dry cloth since it’s only on my overhanging cloth it does that where I can’t work the resin into the cloth as much. I also heard it might be paint crystallization from it being not totally dry under the surface level. It’s just a rattle can of krylon.
First we dont want to use krylon rattle can shit. Use waterbased paints. Look up liquitex water based spray paint if you dont want to splurge for the gun and compressor. It doesnt matter if its UV or cat resin…Actually this makes you technique even worse cause you even have more time to fuss with the lamination and get it perfect.
Wet it out…let it saturate, laminate it down. Use good solid pressure, but remember fiberglass is like a sponge, if you pull too much out it will suck in air and give you air pins.
Your problem is you are not killing it on the " Laminate it down stage"
I have been working on my speed, I was being stingy with the resin and applying the rail cloth by hand instead of using rail pours and wasting a ton but I’ve been getting my waterfall technique up to speed. I tried kicking it once and it was hard by the time I got to the rails so… need like 0.3% for how hot it is I think. I’ll get some real paint at the shop instead of Home Depot next time.
Thanks for the push! Loving it so far I hope to see my stuff on display some day.
Hey Resinhead, quick tangent ? as long as we’re talking Krylon-
I have a (cough) situation where an offspring went after a finished epoxy/EPS board with some Krylon artsy-type stuff and now it needs to be buired in clear. Would a catalyzed LPU be the way to go? Rattlecans were billed as an acrylic with the usual rattle can solvents to match. I fear the regular automotive type clears might be a little ‘hot’ solvent-wise. Also considering a waterborne LPU from one of the boat paint companies. I would appreciate your candid thoughts on the matter! -J
McStizly- keep after it, it gets better each time. Thanks for letting me party rock your thread. I always love to see what RH has to say.
No worries man, it has gotten much better each time. Except tomorrow I will be going back in time and trying a cutlap for the first time on this 5’5 I just shaped. Can’t imagine it’ll go smoothly with UV resin but I will try
Any kind of Flat Interior house paint can be used on Surfboard foam. Flat Interior paint has less Acrylic. So dries better and bonds better to fiberglass. Have painted many surfboards with Flat Interior Paint from Home Depot using a cheap cup gun from Harbor Freight. I agree with resinhead; Those spots appear to be dry cloth. If you are having trouble getting your rails lapped, use a throwaway roller. One way to do it is to flip the cloth back and roll resin around the bottom edge of the rail first thing. Flip the cloth back down and proceed as normal. The resin under the cloth will make it stick easier to the rail on the opposite side and it will wet out quicker and better. Do everything you can with the squeege and then go back to the roller for the rail. Once everything is saturated and tucked, use the squeege to pull off excess resin. I use a Thalco rubber squeege and then switch to a hard plastic squeege to do what laminators call “Dry” my lamination. The hard plastic squeege pulls more resin off and forces the cloth to lay down tight. Especially at the tail and nose relief cuts.
Cool that the mad painter is giving it a go! I’ve had very good results with Max2K glamour clear coat. I’ve used it on outboard motor covers after painting with rattle can Evinrude / Johnson color from dealer, and repainting a car bumper with Krylon. Because its a 2 part it kicks off way before it has a chance to melt paint. The only time i have had an issue with it is over posca pen type art ( it fish eyes?) But usually a second coat will fix it perfect.
The big draw back is cost. I get it on Amazon and buy a case of it…ends up being under 20$ per can. Attached is a picture of Max2K over waterbased and oil based paint sprayed on a the hotcoat of an EPS epoxy board. This writer of this post assumes no responsibilty for your results. Mileage may vary.