What are the various stages involved in glassing, and some basic details like sanding paper grades ect.
Jedda, Re: stages of glassing: Stage 1: Blow off the board before you even start, with compressed air. Every smudge or small bit of dirt will show up when you glass the board. Stage 2: Laminate the cloth to the board, using laminating resin and a rubber squeegee. Laminating resin never gets quite hard, so the next coat of resin can go on without the need to sand. Lay out the cloth for either the top or bottom of the board (most glassers start with the bottom). You can free lap it (no tape) or tape a clean line on the opposite side that you’re glassing. That will be the cut line for the cloth once the laminating resin gels. Once one side is done, (resin not too sticky to handle) flip the board and do the other side. The only sanding on the laminating coat will be on the lap edges, to smooth out sharp fibers and make a smooth edge. Use painter’s white, open grain sandpaper, otherwise you may get dark residue in the resin. Don’t sand the resin if it’s too sticky. Stage 3: Sanding Coat (or Hot Coat): Use sanding resin. The hotcoat goes on fairly thick with a brush. You want to get as little runoff as possible so there will be enough resin to sand to a smooth finish. Most guys will tape the outermost edge of the rail with 1 1/2" tape so any runoff will drip to the floor and not around to the other side of the board. DON’T OVER-CATALYZE THE HOTCOAT !!! Too much catalyst will make for a brittle hotcoat that will be vulnerable to stress cracks on the bottom of the board, (every board flexes) and will turn yellow. Begin sanding using a power disk sander if you have one,(Milwakee brand is the standard), or use a sanding block. Start with 100 grit regular paper, then go to 320,400,600,wet-or-dry.If you’re sanding by hand, use water with the finer grits. The paper won’t clog. REMINDER: Sanding the hot coat is the “Second Shaping”. You can fine tune the edges and rails, and you can also De-Shape the board. Pay attention. Stage 3: Gloss Coat: Basically the same procedure as the hot coat, but keep the air temperature around 80 degrees if you can. Gloss goes on thinner and you need to be careful on the sanding (use finer grits only) or you’ll sand through. Polish with a soft lambswool pad. Use the same Milwakee grinder-polisher as for sanding. Use automotive heavy-cut polishing compound to start, then go to medium.Go finer on the compounds if you want to, but be careful not to heat up the board in the process. Too hot and it will delaminate. I highly recommend you buy John Carper’s video: GLASSING 101. He tells you how and shows you how. Good Luck! Doug Schuch
thanks alot for that info, jedda
where do you live at??? if you have local shaper then go ask him if you can watch him glass. if you live not too far from someone on this board then you might even be able to watch someone do a board. maybe even just shoot the breeze with them about glassing. john carpers 101 is a good start too. try it out.
i agree, doug’s response was good info, but without seeing it done or getting a feel for the squeegee in your hand (not to mention the sanding/finishing process), you may have trouble on your first couple boards.