First time poster and definitely my first time shaping. I wanted to put together some ideas that were inspiring to me, like a greenough edge concept put into a long fish, 6’6". I definitely went very aggressive with the center concave and think I need to get more reps in on the planer to avoid taking so much foam off. I’m currently roughing out the contours now and revisiting the rails. It’s fascinating how much attention needs to go into blending curves and contours. Real fun stuff!
It’s a PU and I plan to glass with Polyester Resin. I am anticipating a host of issues for my first time glassing a full board… so I have questions.
Regarding the bottom edges, i’ve got a 3/8" deep edge less than 2" inset of the rail. Are there best practices for ensuring a tight lamination coat with edge boards? Can you run through how you may do it?
For glassing prep, I’ve heard that you should try to blunt the shaped foam edges and get those sharp in the glassing steps. Is that to be done in the lam coat or hotcoat? do you run your thumb down and dent the foam?
Glassing Schedule. the center stringer at the midpoint is 2-3/8" thick due to my aggressive concave. I do plan to compromise on the design and go heavy with the glass job to keep things strong. Thinking of a 6s+4s+Volan patch on the deck and a 6s for the bottom.
Happy to clarify, I’m definitely thinking I really complicated things for my first board, and would love your thoughts on how to not screw things up too badly.
PS are there long fish fin placements you can recommend? planning on a twinny, futures fin boxes
Consider this:
(With polyester resin you may need to find an ideal tacky stage — play with your residual resin by pouring a thin layer into a paper plate.)
It’s not really a pre-lamination.
You would be smoothing the un-wetted cloth from the center of the board out to previously taped-off, pre-sealed edges that are still tacky.
The tacky pre-seal will cause the cloth to stick/conform to the shape of your edges — holding it in place for final lamination.
I have not tried smoothing cloth from center to a tacky, pre-sealed edge — then laminate. In theory, it should work well. But it would be wise to test this on a piece of scrap foam first.
Oh interesting, so that’s what you meant by waiting until it the resin just begins to kick, then the tape can just be taken off and the fiberglass applied. Thanks for clarifying, I’m going to report back once I get to lamination!
Hi Stoneburner, im not the best with reading comprehension but I ended up doing what you had mentioned, for the most part I am happy with the edge adhesion, no issues there.
On the larger perspective, I had total space cadet moments with my lamination. think I must continue to get more experience and reps with my lamination because I had deck issues with uneven resin saturation from not letting resin penetrate my fiberglass and laps, overworking the fiberglass weave to push it in as overcompensation! Rails have bubbles too, especially at the tail edges.
It was humbling, reading and looking it up on sway lock only prepares you for so much, then seemingly once the catalyst went on,it all went out the window. I’m happy with what I made but I’m anticipating durability issues long term.
Thanks again for your advice. Board works great but the craftsmanship aspect is a work in progress.
