Timberflex How To Color Rails Only?

I’ve taken my first stab at the WMD/Timberflex method and was wondering what most people are doing with pigment on the rails? I have bamboo top and bottom and want to pigment the rails only.

If I was doing a regular board or had wood on just the top I’d pigment the resin used while laminating, but since I only want pigment on the rails I’m not sure what is the best approach:

  • Paint the foam rails then laminate/hotcoat/gloss the board as usual
  • Laminate the rails only with pigmented resin then lam the rest of the board clear (and lap the pre-laminted rails) when the rail set
  • Lam everything clear, tape off the rails and hotcoat them with colored resin, then hotcoat the rest of the board clear
  • Lam everthing clear, hotcoat everything clear, sand everything, gloss coat the rails in color and let set then gloss everything clear (this is what I'm leaning toward since I think it willl give the cleanest surface for the color on the rails.)
Of course there may be an alternative to all of these. If so, I'm all ears.

Thanks in advance for any tips/advice.

 

  • RTNC

 

I’ve painted the foam on a couple boards…it’s super easy and is protected from fckery by the lam.

the problem is that if you get any water intrusion the paints start to bleed/fade and that becomes difficult to recover from (EPS)

 

Thanks  Wouter.

Coloring the foam does seem to be the least hassle.  Since I also need to seal the rails, I was thinking about using pigmented resin/wood flour or micro-baloons instead of paint. If the board did get some water intrusion, the epoxy might hold up better than paint? 

 

-RTNC

I've taken my first stab at the WMD/Timberflex method and was wondering what most people are doing with pigment on the rails........

Don't worry about what "most people" are doing......What will work best for you????? Everybody has a different set up...That's a good thing....I'm on my second board with skins....I have to try a few things and mess with it a little before I can worry about what "most people" do. Your first post has the basic list of what I'm exploring. Grab a method , work with it....

 

[quote="$1"]

  • Paint the foam rails then laminate/hotcoat/gloss the board as usual - i will do that next time. if your skins are cut to perfections, than this is a great option. you will want to do pinlines still though... it just doesnt look right...
  • Laminate the rails only with pigmented resin then lam the rest of the board clear (and lap the pre-laminted rails) when the rail set - i did that on my fish, !! cutlaps !!, lots of work, great results [see my blog and the wmd thread]
  • Lam everything clear, tape off the rails and hotcoat them with colored resin, then hotcoat the rest of the board clear - you would get uneven coloring, since the colored resin will sit between the glass fibre...
  • Lam everthing clear, hotcoat everything clear, sand everything, gloss coat the rails in color and let set then gloss everything clear (this is what I'm leaning toward since I think it willl give the cleanest surface for the color on the rails.) -------------------------> my gut feeling says no way... if you sand your lam with 100 or 120 grit, to go over it with clear, then still you will sand through... unless you tape up, and remove tape to get clean joint lines... and not go over it with clear gloss.... it might work!
  • or,,, just spray paint your rails.... or use a fancy fabric on the rails

[/quote]

i like this idea the best. there’s a guy in town who is putting pigment in his sealer for EPS boards and they look pretty good.

This is why I love Swaylocks! Thanks for the pointers Wouter. I’m goint to go with option one (Paint the foam rails then laminate/hotcoat/gloss the board as usual) but use pigmented sealer on this one. I’ll post up the results when I’m done.

Somehow Afoaf and Wouter are the same person.......interesting......:)

Board #1...... Bamboo skin on the deck and no skin on the bottom....Rails clear....I glassed the bottom first and the lap  cloth went right up to the skin...a little sanding and the deck glassing went perfect....

Board #2....Beechwood skin on top and bottom...veneer is thicker....board is longer...need to paint or pigment rails....I went through the same list of questions as RTNC...I spent a lot of time sanding the veneer after it was bagged and I ended up air brushing the rails.....Froth during glassing and now the rails are fine but not perfect......

I don't have pigment that would look like redwood. I'm sure I could make something or buy something....Painting works best for my set up.....

At this point I have some crazy ideas that should work but I just don't have the time or money to test them......

 

Ray

Here's how I'm thinking of it for next board...

Ready to back veneers.

Spackle rails and enough of deck an bottom to go just under veneers.

Spray rails, then, either bag veneers, having first sanded edges so they blend with rail, or

just bag 'em, then put rail cloth up to veneers, then lap top and bottom over that.

You could lay up some colored poly cloth on the rails to meet the edge of the veneer and then laminate the board as usual.  Kind of like a faux carbon fiber.