Things I learned during my first resin swirl (with photos)

General Discussion
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Today I decided to try my hand at a color resin swirl using Resin Research epoxy.  I did very little research before trying it.  Had I done my due dilligence, I probably wouldn’t be posting this.  But for everyone who is thinking about trying it out for the first time, here you go… and sorry for not posting it on the resin swirl thread, but I am hoping for a little feedback from the pros.

Background on the board - 6’4" x 20-1/2" x 2-5/8" round pin eggy thing with five fin boxes.  Designed for one particular break in northern Mexico.  I was going for a yellow and red swirl, with a nice blended orange at the rails.

Lessons learned…

1. Don’t heat up the resin too much

I mixed up the yellow and the red.  I dumped the red into the yellow in a spiral pattern and didn’t stir it.  I swirled it a little as I dumped it on the board.  Because I had heated it up too much, it was really runny, causing the colors to blend on their own as the ran across the board. I feel like mixing the resin a little cooler would have allowed the colors to stay separated a little longer.

2. Mix up twice as much resin as you need

If I were doing this board in clear, I would have used 12 oz of resin.  For this project I used 15 oz.  Here is where I feel like I should have done more research.  In order to get the desired swirl look, you have to dump a ton of resin on a board and not let it mix together into one color.  If I had this to do over again, I would have mixed up a total of probably 24 oz. to get more of a swirl out around the edges of the board.

3. Make sure you have your consistencies right for the desired color once the colors blend.

I’ve done a couple of orange boards now and I thought I had the consistencies right. I said earlier I used 15 oz. of resin.  I used 12 oz. of yellow and 3 oz. of red.  The result was tomato soup - not enough yellow.  Since I would do roughly 24 oz of resin if I had to do it over, I’d probably do 21 oz of yellow and 4.5 oz of red (I know the math doesn’t work - I’m picking easy mixing numbers by volume).

4. Don’t put the logo under the colored resin

I’ve done this before on a solid color board, and I’m not sure why I did it again.  I was thinking that maybe… possibly… the laws of physics would change this one time, and the black logo would show through with a nice crisp color.  I’m an idiot.

I will post progress photos as I go, but here are the photos from today.  These photos were taken right after the bottom lamination while the resin was still wet.

 

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I think that looks sick and the faded logo im really digging 

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Looks like the rising tendrils of smoke swirling and wafting under the glass, I really like the way its not spread out all over the hull. Its interesting to look at.

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i like it. board looks good. you can install the futures after your lam if you want them white; or if you want to make sure their is no mud over them.

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That turned out really nice. Why not break out the air brush and highlight those flames! It might be the first real flame board done with resin.   Good work.

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Excellent post! This is what Swaylocks is all about… there is more education in mistakes than just doing it perfectly right off the bat.

Thank for sharing.

Board looks cool anyway, regardless of how you intended it to turn out.

~Brian

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Thing often don’t turn out as we visualized them, until experience helps our visualization process become clearer.

I think your resin swirl is rather nice, better than my first one by far.

Nice board.

 

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First rule...You really don't know what the resin is going to do....you can guess for sure... but that's what's so cool about swirls, they are all different. Yes you had a different idea...but that board looks good dude. Next time you will get a better guess...and maybe closer to what you wanted as a result. But finish that puppy up!

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Thanks for your input dude, I was just about to tackle a swirl. Totally agree, this is the best part of Sways. Love that surfboard name/logo too.

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Thanks for the encouragement, everyone.  After going back in to the shop the next day, I was actually pretty stoked about the way it came out.  It looks pretty good in person.  The pictures don’t tell the true story.  It makes me think that all the bitchin’ photos I see of everyone else’s boards on this site don’t tell the whole story either.

Anyway, here is a shot of the bottom, and a shot of the top lamination.

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One thing I’ve learned is you can SLIGHTLY warm your base color, but don’t warm your swirl colors at all. You’ll get better results with a smaller volume of thicker colors mixed into a base that is less viscous for both aesthetic and practical reasons… the base does the bulk of the lamination, the colors are for looks. Also, as you’ve done here, pour out your resin in a pattern that covers the board, rather than just down the middle. Then tilt your board to let the resin flow naturally around the flats before you start pushing it around with the spreader.

Still… nice job, brother. Looks awesome.

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Wow, excllent cut lap. Love the white deck...Looks even better now...NJ's advise is very good, just remember the first color that hits the cloth is the color it will be.  Check out a couple of Austin's resin swirls on Youtube.  Puts a ton of resin on the floor, not very economical with epoxy. I use a lot of crazy stuff on my swirls or should I say I just love to play with resin...they aren't all swirls. I like to get five or six colors in squirt bottles and rock out like Jackson Pollock.

Great Job!

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This is a combination of the two techniques you mentioned. I like it, but it’s a little to “busy.” But I got away with it thinking the deck will be mostly covered in wax, so only the nose area jumps out. The bottom is just a simple tint.

 

[img_assist|nid=1052238|title=KK resin swirl retro fish|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]

 

 

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This is a straight drizzle… then the base color poured over top.

[img_assist|nid=1055621|title=EPS/Epoxy pigment "swirl"|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]

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Watching resin swirl videos on youtube was about the only research I did, aside from speed reading small portions of the resin tint thread here on Sway’s. I was blown away at Austin’s swirls. I would say 90% of my inspiration came from watching one video - I think it’s a white, black, and brown swirl.  Cool stuff.

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NJ:  Hell yeah! Nice Job! Love it!

JC: Yes, that's the vid that I was most inspired by. Even Got a bigger squeegee...and it works!

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More experienced just means more mistakes under your belt. That’s how we all learn.

I think you are being a little hard on yourself. I like that resin swirl. A lot. It looks better than several that have been posted here. Maybe use brighter colors for more contrast and go for the same type of look again. I like it.

 

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Nice fireballs. Don't change a thing. Keep up the good work!

Stingray

 

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Epoxy swirls aren’t very economical with the resin, and will blend/mud too much as you try and move it around.  I do it differently with several cups at once rather than dumping everything in one bucket.  Use a larger cup for the base color and smaller ones for the contrasts, and hold 2-3 of them with each hand.  Hold the cups about 12-18" from the board and shake them as you pour.  Pour between the rail and stringer at each side and flip the laps up (paste in a couple of spots with colored resin to hold).  Tip the board end-to-end and side-to-side to run the resin all over.  With a plastic squeegee flip (don’t push) the poured mix onto dry spots.  Once about 85% of the cloth is wet the colors can’t mud, so squeegee the rest and flip the laps.  Depending on the contrast colors and how you tip it (or shake, circular motion, etc.), you can get very defined or subtle effects.  Expensive method, last 12’ SUP took 1/2 gal per side.   Glassing rack catch trays also help or else it will be slip and slide time.  Have another board ready and you can salvage the muddy resin from the catch tray (just stir it and it will be one color, add more fresh resin if needed or do another swirl), but you have to be a really cheap bastard like me for that motivation.  If you’re obsessively cheap, salvage that second glassing batch onto a stack of cloth panels for fin stock (cloth from trimmings of course).  

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I figured I’d post pictures of the finished product.  The pinlines have wingtips in them for a reason.  During the shaping process, I found a pebble or something like it inside the foam.  It created a huge crater that I could never color match perfectly with spackle, so I covered it with right wingtip at the midpoint, then matched it in other places.  The wingtips didn’t come out perfect, but I don’t care.  It’s my board, and I had fun experimenting. Oh, and I jacked up a couple of the fin boxes by sanding a little too far.  Again, they’re smooth, and it’s my board, so I’m not worried.