Hey Everyone,
Anyone have any good techniques for wetting the laps? I always find myself rushing to do them because they take me so long. It would be nice if I could take my time wetting out the deck rather than worrying because I know how long the rails will take me.
Thanks!
use more resin. catch what you can in the bucket. seems wasteful but it will be faster and easier. eventually you’ll know your amounts and be less wasteful.
I am the furthest thing from knowing what I’m talking about but I saw this somewhere and it worked for me.
I cut my cloth out to size then I flipped the hanging laps up onto the deck. Then I poured a line of resin onto the fliped up rails, wet them out on the deck and then flipped them down and under. No dry spots, not a lot of dripping and they were evenly wet out.
This was after trying wetting out the laps while they were hanging like most everyone else does.
I only use epoxy…
Flip the glass up onto the deck,Mix the resin adding a bit more than usual. Take a 3"chip brush and brush resin directly onto the railfoam as quickly as possible. Should take no more than a minute. Then flip the glass down and business as usual. You still want to pull resin to the rails like you normally would,the difference is youve got resin soaking into the glass from both sides so the rails wet out faster. I’ve also done it this way, mix enough resin for the flats only, glass the flats. Mix a second batch just for rails, glass the rails.When you flip the board for a cutlap you have offset resin times so the flats are tack free while the rails are soft enough to cut.
Or you could skip all the bs and work faster.
My epoxy technique, works with Poly too.
~Pour out 90% of your resin on the bottom or deck, whichever you’re lamming
~Squeegee around to saturate the entire bottom or deck but don’t let any resin drip over the sides.
~Put the bucket down somewhere
~With your free hand gently lift the cloth hanging off the rails and pull a litte excess resin from the bottom or deck and dab it onto the dry cloth.
~Repeat in squeegee-width incriments around the board
~Pour remaining 10% of resin where you need it to totally saturate the cloth - the goal is NO DRY SPOTS.
~Use your fingers to apply resin from the squeegee onto small dry spots
~Try to get a nice ‘resin bead’ hanging off the bottom edge of the cloth
~Then lam the laps as usual
This method keeps a lot of resin off the floor!
~Brian
Get one of these… Notch a v or just cut some off. Mix your resin in it. you can dip the rails in, it gets the bottoms really nice. Then do the deck. It also catches a LOT more resin than the bucket since it has almost double the surface area.
I know one guy who glasses exclusively with these its a trip but he makes it happen.
There you go that’ll catch some resin, thats a drywall mud pan. I prob wouldnt use that just cause it reminds me of doing drywall fininshing. That is the suckiest job.
Yeah it is but I have seen several guys use them. I have seen 1 guy use them for laying down resin swirls.
He runs a tape across to make adam and then pours the resin on, almost in like a thin sheet. 2 passes. 1 up one side, 1 down the other.
I’m a poly guy so I can’t speak to the epoxy.
I have found that as much as hate to waste, more resin mixed up is better. When you add pigs and tints it is very easy to get light patches on the rails when you try to skimp.
Also, that left over resin in the bucket can be used to make other stuff like multi colored tail blocks, molds for small curved sanding blocks etc.
Steve
yeah i concentrate on wetting the laps first . so i pour a 95% onto the board in a long puddle . this is split into halves and lightly draged out to the laps in a clockwise around the board. when i say lightly i mean your spreading it out , without pushing it into the cloth. when the squeegee and resin that is collected by it gets to the lap. you lift up the lap with your free hand and bring the remaining resin on the squeegee onto the uplifted lap. working your way around the board. dont be to pedantic about completely wetting it and you move round in about a mintue or two. then you use the squeegee as normal pushing into the weave lengthways from the stringer out. by the time you worked the main part there will be a littel resin left to bead over the laps to wet any dry spots and also you still have 5% in your bucket to use. i can glass a single 4 oz shorty with 250 to 300 grams pretty easy
Now that I no longer buy drums of resin and pay almost retail i have gone back to the old fashion flip up method. Most of my boards are cut laps. Works really well on tints and opaques and saves probably 25 percent of the resin. One trick is to keep a small pair of scissors on hand to snip the strings off when the rails are wet out and hanging. I use all steel so I can soak em in acetone with no damage.
I am only building funshapes/longboards/and mini simmons. So the rails tend to be rather thick. The more I use it the more I like it. Strings can be a problem when free lapping on to the foam but it you use the scissors and pay attention it’s usually all good.
Also, don’t worry about the small dry spots. Don’t be afraid to use your gloved hand on dry spots. Keep a little resin in the pot to dunk you gloved hand into ad hit the dry spots…This will speed up the process. It’s a combination of squeegee work and glove.
…the technique depends heavily on the type of shape and color work and glassing schedule.
one example: If the shape have a solid deep dark color and you are on the deck lamination, do that deck pouring and let the resin drop by ONE rail at a time, continue with the deck and let the resin drop on the other rail; meanwhile you finish with the deck (all is very rapid) the layers of fiberglass are wetting it out BUT its not enough to PREVENT tiny bubbles in the down part of the rails (depends on the glass schedule) due to the mentioned glass and the deep color work; so you do a general pass over the rail and “load” it with a second resin pour then start to glue it to the bottom (each rail).
So, 2 x 6oz fiberglass+ deep dark colors or 2 x 4oz but with the cut on one layer to the rail bottom edge + deep dark colors or 3 x 4oz + deep dark colors (no matter where s the cut) or low viscosity resins (no matter if the boards are clear), better to do a second pour on the rail.