i’m pretty happy with my glassing so far…except when the board is all polished you can see where the rails are uneven. it’s mostly on the deck side. i know this is from the laps wrapping onto the deck, and me being afraid of getting too close to the foam to sand. what’s a good method for sanding the rails after the hotcoat?? i want that flat, glassy look…
It’s time to talk about what you should have done better. You should have smoothed out the bottom glass lap area better. If you sand the surface smooth now, you’ll be sanding off the top glass. If the ripples aren’t too bad fill with hotcoat again… heavier but smooth.
If strings and general “globs” are on the first side, it is most likely the culprit. They can be intimidating to get sanded smooth, but a thin band of lam resin from the lap to about 2-3" up onto the foam will give you a “shield” to get the lumps down and protect the foam. Now this doesn’t mean that the foam becomes indestrucible, but gives better odds against gouging it. This is also a good method to protect air sprays from damage.
i do baste the laps. i’ll just try and get them down closer…thanks nice to hear from you jim…
Hey Jim I find when I paint a band of lam over a spray that I get a slightly discoloured or faded look where the lam is on the foam.especially on blues and reds.Also on finished boards I sometimes see a cloudyness in the bottom glass along the lap line is this caused from putting hotcoat on the lap when I do the deck and sanding it down a little before I hotcoat the bottom???This also gets considerably worse if left in the sun??
while we’re on the subject of basting… to get a good sand on the laps (Lam resin) you have to let it dry a lot? I find it gets gummy if not. I also find that if I let the lam resin dry completely then the sanding coat won’t completly work its way into the exposed weave and I get a ton of very very tiny bubbles - resulting in fiberglass that isn’t totally transparent… …thicker lam coat?
…are you using U.V. catalized resin or regular MEKP?I have never had that problem with MEKP resin,but the U.V. stuff…YEAH BUDDY!Herb
I am using mekp.I’ve tried painting the lap with lam and with sanding resin and both seem to leave a noticeable mark on any artwork even when I have given artwork a light or heavy coat of clear acrylic???
I like to “baste”(prime) the laps on both sides.For cleaning up the deck I use a small angle air grinder with 60 grit 3 inch disc.I also have a sanding block with a slight radius with white 40 grit glued on.The radius allows the block tto just hit where you want giving you more control.Its like a nice big 2"x8" file.When hotcoating the board I do the deck first and paint up under the laps.When dry I flip the board and grind the laps down before taping and hotcoating the bottom.Some of these problems you guys speak of sound to me like you are exposing weave when sanding.This tends to show up as a light area on boards that are finished with acrylic.Glossing usually will turn the exposed weave clear.One old trick I learned long ago was to paint a little styrene on questionable areas…we used to do this on boards with red or blue tint bottoms with clear cut lap decks.The styrene made the little white line caused by the razor blade to turn clear. R. Brucker
also if you hotcoat or lam the top of the razor cut fast enough it will make the white lines disappear.
…okay…what kind of paint are you using…type of blank…and how hot(how much cat.to resin ratio)are you making your batches? …I’ve never had that problem with my paints or foam,as long as I used MEKP instead of UV cat.Herb
yeah, me neither. i just glassed a blue board and had no problems, also did a red. man i have to get some of these boards up.the boards were sprayed with clear acrylic, and still no problems. ???
Howzit Herb, Speaking of paints, I spent about 3 hrs. with a pro airbrusher yesterday who works in L.A. for a major glassing co. This guy blew me away with his techniques. He does 1 heavy coat of paint and it’s done. There’s no crystalazation (even with red or black) and no color bleed when layed up. Ever heard of Nova color paint?, it’s an insane high quality acrylic paint that covers really good.I watched him do 4 complete multi colored boards in 2 hrs, I was really impressed. I’m waiting for a color chart and shipping cost price list from the co. Checked out the prices of the paint and they’re cheaper than Fiberglass Hi., but the shipping costs will probably change that.Aloha, Kokua www.novacolorpaint.com/index.html
Herb I am using an automotive acrylic laquer on burford blanks (from Oz).So lets say I have sprayed the board a mid blue all over.I glass the bottom it goes off I flip the board then baste the lap with a 1-2 inch wide layer of lam resin say 5 ounces and 7.5mls mekp let this go off sand lap smooth glass deck hot coat deck first covering lap on bottom of board also.flip board sand lap down, paint any exposed weave with styrene then tape off and hotcoat bottom.At this point the area that I painted lam resin on the deck is already noticeably a different shade of blue and once board is sanded and glossed it stands out like dogs balls.Now for the bottom of the board.I have found that by following the procedure above the bottom looks good until you leave the board in the sun for say a couple of hours of direct sunlight on the bottom of the board,then I notice a cloudyness all the way around where the deck has lapped onto the bottom, the more exposure the worse it gets!!!HELP!
I read the post and if I may offer a couple of ideas… when you describe cloudiness after sun exposure, I’m thinking moisture under the glass. Are you allowing plenty of time between paint coats? Are you allowing the paint to dry completely before glassing? Short cutting either step may trap moisture which gets trapped under the glass possibly leading to the cloudiness you describe after sun exposure.
John i usually put the boards on the rack for about an hour before I glass and as acrylic is so fast drying moisture shouldn’t be a problem.I have even put sprayed blanks in the sun for an hour to make sure they are dry but the end result is the same.A friend suggested that with blues and reds or deck sprays that I squeegee lam over the entire deck instead of just basting the lap I have done this and it improves the discolouration around the lap on the deck but it adds weight and the gloss coats never look as smooth when I have done this.???
Kokua, Thanks for the tip…wheew!got it right that time!Herb
Kokua, Ive seen the Nova paint crystalize and run. On the other hand I think the airbrusher using them was adding too much water lowering the acrylic level. Styrene in the resin is pretty aggressive, it is important to keep the acrylic level up in your paint. One method is to use acrylic floor sealer instead of water to thin the paint. Sluggo
Check the Nova resource Kokua provided… they offer some instructions for their paint that requires more drying time than you might think. I reread your post though and I’m afraid I can’t explain why the cloudiness is only at the laps.
Howzit Sluggo, he didn’t thin it out very much, he does add some tempra paint and he sprays at 80 psi.Aloha, Kokua