Just finishing up a board, and I usually just leave the finish sanded but this time I thought I might try using surfboard polish. Bought that little two-part polish/compound or whatever from foamez and gave it a go… and it looks pretty bad. The best I ever see my boards look is right after a gloss coat, before I sand down the bead. But I asssume that polish should get it looking as good if not better than that.
So what’s the deal? The board is color tinted, and when I polish it, and it almost turns milky or cloudy, like how it looks after sanding, but it FEELS really, really smooth. Am I just not polishing for long enough? Or does polish just do that, and it’s intended more for the feel than for the look? Or am I missing a step? I followed the directions on foamez… hit it with 400, then with 600, and then i even hit it with 1000 and 1500, and still the polish doesn’t even come close to looking as good as a gloss coat.
Any advice would be very appreciated. thanks!
EDIT: sways isn’t letting me reply for some reason, so i’ll edit my original post for now. I am using the makita polisher on poly. am I supposed to keep it wet, like, with water? The directions didn’t mention that but it makes sense. How long should it take (ballpark) to polish like a 6’0? I took about 3-5 minutes per side, is that about right or waaay to short of a time? Thanks!
Are we talking Poly resin or epoxy first off??? Second, what sort of machine are you using to do the polishing. What are you using for pads and bonnets?
Sounds like(based on what you have written) that you are trying to polish a sanded hot coat. That’s never gonna happen. Get into the archives. You are skipin’ so much $#!t it’s seriously not funny.
Haven’t been on much lately and honest hit this thread by accident but… McDing is so dead on about the archives. It’s all there, from prepping to sanding and wetsanding to polishing tips and tricks. No reason that a normal human being can’t pull off a decent polish (now getting your flats really flat for that sheet glass effect is another thing, good sanding is a damned appreciable craft) with some time and effort. A bit of effort and you’ll get there!
No offense intended, but a couple of minutes per side, even for a six footer might be a bit light…
The hot coat or the gloss coat; no matter which; If it isn’t laid down nice the sanding can be tough. If you lay down a nice gloss over a nicely sanded hot coat; all you have to do is go thru the grits and hit it with polish.
…3 min!..man, may be I am a slow MF, but is not possible to do a mirror finish in 6 min in real life.
Just finished with an speed finish, but normally I have plenty of gloss orders.
I think you have a confusion; you polished (sanded with lighter grits) your board then you do not see too much glaze; well, after all those grits you should rub out the surface then you ll see that mirror finish.
Several years ago a few of us here discussed about the gloss coat, so check the archives and try to find a very big thread about gloss.
This is a handplane not a surfboard that I polished, and I apologize for the “glamed up” background as the picture was for my instagram. Anyways, this has a hot coat that was sanded to about 360, then gloss coated. Gloss coat was wet sanded up to 1500, then polished with finish compund, and then finally waxed, all with meguire’s. All sanding/polishing was done by hand (since it’s a handplane, it’s tiny and easy). I spent roughly a half an hour polishing and waxing alone, and she’s mirror shiny…
You can spend a little time in the archives and get the goods from some of the guys that took the time to answer a lot of dumb ass questions and have long since walked away and only lurk these days; or you can can take the advice of some “Pro” that just finished his second board and knows it all. Makes no flock in’ Mke Diffenderfer to me. Lowel