Great thread Dwight! I have learned a lot for this one. I have one question about cutting the cloth. I have never done it this way so forgive my ignorance. What if you layed-up the dry cloth on the board, cut the glass, and then put it onto the wet-out table. Would it be too hard to re position it again correctly after wetting-out the cloth?
i did this for the bottom lamination on a little egg that had a 1# core and balsa deck. was trying to keep it flexible so thats why I did a fiberglass bottom. i figured the 1 lb eps would drink all the resin if i tried to laminate it traditionally. worked really well but like others have said - without any excess resin or vacum pressure - the bond to the foam will not be as good as it could be. i took a bit of extra resin and worked it in after everything was layed up and tucked - cheater coat style…
I lam both sides, then hot coat.
Funny thing about the cheater coat… On the board I just finished last Wednesday, I skipped the cheater coat and just went at it in one step with my fuzzy paint pad spreader. It turned out to be my best finished board yet. Easy sand job. Didn’t hit any weave and no pin holes. I think the cheater coat might be dead to me. :-)
Hey Dwight---------- Wanted to let you know I have enjoyed this thread, Your insights and comments. I like the paint pad idea. There are a couple of other threads posted currently on this site that if your table technique were used inquiring minds would have no problem doing what they want to attempt… Your boards look great too… . Lowel
I have tried pre-cutting the cloth first. I did a few 14 ft race SUPs that way. It really only makes sense to pre-cut (very roughly) to save resin when your cloth was way too wide.
When you unroll the cloth on the board, it’s not going to be perfectly straight. You need to line up the roll best you can at the tail, and then just go for it. You can’t change directions once you start. Anotherwords, you can’t lay it down with the super high precision needed to avoid trimming wet cloth.
Trimming wet cloth is no big deal. It’s actually pretty nice. And cleaning the scissors with scrap fiberglass cloth and orange hand cleaner, even when its gone pretty sticky, is super easy. The cloth soaked in hand cleaner scrubs very abrasively.
Man it’s amazing how much this thread has grown since your original posting, and your last few repsonses have brought up one more question.
Having never actually seen a pro glass a board, I learned watching the JC video. He hotcoats with a brush (as most everybody does) by working the resin into the cloth with lengthwise strokes; followed by diagonal strokes(to level the resin); and finally with very light lengthwise strokes for final finish. It’s too much of a hassle(and too expensive) to use a good brush and get it absolutely clean to re-use, and when I use the disposable ones, I always seem to leave a few loose bristles in the finish(no matter how hard I try to pull loose ones out beforehand) so your fuzzy paint pad spreader intrigues me.
What is your technique with the spreader? Can you get it smooth enough with just the spreader or do you have to follow up with a brush?
Good job on being inventive, but a couple of things. You can straighten
the wet cloth a little by dragging it with the squeegee, but just a
little.
If you get a chance, take a look at the Cerex thread, locked down in errors and bugs. If you wet out the cloth, lay a dry layer of cerex on it, roll it up and apply. The cerex, since it is non woven, holds everything together, and makes cutting flawless, with zero loose strands.
When you lay the dry cerex on top, it will absorb the extra epoxy, just like peel ply would. Then it must go into the vacuum bag. The pressure from the bag both evenly distributes the epoxy through the layers, but also injects the epoxy into the foam for your bond.
Cerex against the foam for bonding, and impact shattering resistance. Cerex on the surface for smothing out the finish, and impact resistance.
It works every bit as good as a brush. No problem using the same technique. Just don’t try painting with one. They suck for what they’re design for. I just hope fools keeping buying them for paint, so Home Depot continues to stock them for me. 
I’ve done 3 or 4 boards now with that pad. I’ve gotten a better feel for using the pad with each job. Man I hated paint brushes too.
I wish I could find a cheaper source for those pads.
Good point. Don’t want to mis-represent. I do redirect a slight amount while unrolling, if needed. I can also roll it back up a small amount, then unroll again. That trick is good for pulling a stubborn wrinkle out.
Thanks to everybody. I’m thrilled you guys enjoyed this. I can’t believe we’re at 9 pages!
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Thanks to everybody. I'm thrilled you guys enjoyed this. I can't believe we're at 9 pages!
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Good stuff Dwight.......
Another application of this method would be to get very uniform light tint colors using epoxy or UV poly.
Dwight,
Great technique, thanks for sharing. Any thoughts on how this would work on a hollow wood SUP or longboard? My sense is that a thinned seal coat on the wood is required before lamination to prevent a dry lam, but anything else?
Also, what is your source for the 44" S-glass? Searched high and low for it a while back and couldn’t find any.
-Andy
Andy - I have found with wood, when sealed, the resin absoption in glassing is nil. Meaning glassing over a sealed wood board kinda negates the need to do this. I use just a fraction of the resin needed for glassing a foam board when glassing a sealed wood board. I seal wood boards with epoxy resin thinned with denatured alcohol, then glass with epoxy resin.
http://www.aerialite.com/surfglass/features/index.htm These guys make it. The box says BGF Industries.
The local factory uses it. http://greenroomboardco.com/ They sell it to me by the yard, or full rolls.
I own a full roll now. Unfortunately its almost gone 
They are the guys who make Greenroom Epoxy.
I don’t know anything about using wood and epoxy.
Dwight and Huck, thanks for the replies. I like this method because it seems clean and it looks like the laps are easier because they are properly wetted, not too dry or overly saturated. My sense is that it wastes less epoxy, which is always a good thing. Keeping weight down on wood boards is key, and this looks like a good way to do it.
Huck, on your seal coats, do you let them go to a full cure before laminating or just til tacky? Do you brush them on our use a foam roller and tip out?
Thanks,
Andy
rolled on, full cure before laminating - roll it on thin, and it uses very little material. You will use very little for glassing, also. I’m always surprised when I glass a foam board, at how much more resin it takes.
Dwight, such a great thread. Thx.
i have gathered my plastic gutter pipe which i plan on using to saturate my cloth with. Do many people weigh there cloth and use the same weight of resin that the cloth weighs? i plan to do this after previously using the table method i want to try wetting the cloth in the gutter which is wider than the cloth, i would roll the cloth and place it in the gutter, but now im thinking use a plastic pipe to wrap the cloth round as per this threads suggestion and maby the cloth could be wetted out by rolling the cloth an pipe in the gutter, or something like a paint roller tray or similar? maby even use a giant paint roller like contraption for rolling ? the resin would be contained in the tray for easy collection and cleaning, maby have a detchable end on the gutter ? to pour out excess resin and the cloth is rolled ready to unroll on the blank.
i have had success cutting my glass to shape before rolling on to the board with small cut marks and measuring the lap size.
do we think there is a suitable way to get the saturation even and the resin cloth ratio correct ?
im thinking of way’s that use less space and one person can do everything