I’m looking to buy some glass and have a line on a good deal of ~35 yards of 4.4oz S glass in a twill weave. My understanding is that the twill will probably help with the stiffness/drapeability of S-glass.
A forum search suggested that it is harder to get a twill to saturate during the lam, partucularly with multiple layers. I want to do my current project with a 4+4 bottom and a 4+4+4 deck and will be using RR epoxy.
Will saturation just be a matter of patience?
Will extra Additive F help it wet out?
I would appreciate any first hand feedback, I don’t want to shoot my wad on a good deal that doesn’t work for me.
When I first started glassing ,s-glass was all I was using. I had nothing to compare it to. I had no problems with saturation and if you make your laps just a little bit longer, gravity will help you wrap the rails easier. Also when I outer glassed with the vacuum bag it also worked well.
Having said that, now that I have used different types of E glass since, E- glass does lay up eaiser. You should not have a problem though.
I find on multiple layers of fiberglass to use the outer cloth of an E type to make wrapping rails easier.
I have a couple 6-7 year old s-glass boards with old school rr epoxy. Super strong and should last a life time.
If you can, try to obtain samples and laminate them to scrap foam. I had some samples sent recently and found certain weaves too tight - not very good for surfboard laminating. Hard to say without actually seeing and trying the cloth you describe.
Also be aware that cheap cloth may be funkified in some way… dirt, moisture, faulty weave, etc. I’ve seen photos of EBay cloth laid out on a warehouse floor - maybe not an issue for some jobs but for surfboards, probably not the best way to treat it. The guys at the surfboard material supply places are very careful to pull cloth off the rolls on to a clean table before cutting and rolling.
A few bucks saved on cloth won’t be worth it if your carefully shaped (and painted?) blank gets stuffed up in the glassing process from junk cloth.