First board was going great until it came to glassing- please see attached.
for context I mixed it in the correct ratio added some additive F and the temp was above 15 Degrees (I also used the side to side techinque with paintbrush) - Any ideas where i went wrong? (Such a shitter)
Are there any possible fixes…
Not sure what the issue is? Cannot tell much at all from that one photo, and you didn’t bother to say what the problem is.
I take it this is a hot /filler coat after lam? And epoxy?
looks like way to much resin layed down and got the runs (waves of resin) …maybe kicked to early in bucket
best bet I would say is sand down till flat and re do
the resin usage chart by green light surf supply is helpful :
You might of used too much resin for your hot coat. Also, did you do last passes (end to end)? Lastly, how was the temperature? Twenty degrees celsius is a nice minimum for hot coating with epoxy.
That’s what they make sandpaper for. I know a couple of guys who start with 80# on Epoxy. Epoxy is occasionally the $#!t§ to sand. If it stays shiny; That’s usually a bad sign. Board looks good though. Is that black pigment? Or Carbon Fiber?
What we look? Lam stage, filler coat stage ? For sanding epoxy let it cured to his higher hardness. If mix was off it can stay soft and a nightmare to sand, or brittle, easy to sand but… Sometimes you can have a kind of oily finish, it’s blush, clean it with soap and water before sand.
Black board, really bad thing. Since those last two years I have dizaine of black boards to repair, refuse them know.
Hi All,
Cheers the replies- nearly 12 hrs after trying to ‘hotcoat’ see below (Devastated)…
To confirm, the board is 6ft10 and I used 200 grams epoxy/100 grams harderner/ two cups of additive F. The tempreature was around 17 celsius.
(@mcding- I used liquitex carbon black spray direct on to the foam)
(@tenderloin tom- Does this look like epoxy waves? how do i avoid this in future)
Any advise would be appreciated- spent quite abit of time on this board 
Looks like fisheyes caused by dirt/contamination on the laminated board before you laid down the hot coat. I had this issue in my early days of using epoxy but found that blowing off any dust with the air compressor and then wiping the entire thing down with denatured alcohol has prevented them on pretty much every board since.
if this was my board I’d sand down flat like everyone says and then make sure the board is absolutely clean before starting again. Not sure exactly what additive F is, but I’ve heard of it before. The brand of epoxy I use is the same mix up for every batch, lam or hot coat. Good luck
Cheers- I dont have an air compressor is there a absolute way to clean the board? is denatured alcohol ok on its own
Any recommendations on Grit to take this down with?
Epoxy using at the moment-https://www.seabase.eu/shop/resin-research-bio-science-ce-xb-epoxy-resin-packs/
Man, that’s as bad a case of fish eye as I have ever seen. I’d say you somehow got the surface good and contaminated with something. Dust? Something raining down from above? Oily hands?
I’d use 80 grit on an 8-inch pad and just be very careful. You’ll need to do the rails by hand. Take it all the way down to just kissing the resin on top of the weave. It will take a delicate touch but it can be done. Perhaps get most off with 80 grit then as you get close to the weave, go to 150 or above.
Next time let the resin cure on the weave before the hot coat/fill coat. Then with some 180 to 220 grit folded in your hand go over the whole board lightly so that every bit of it has turned dull from sanding. I wear gloves after that when handling the board prior to fill coat. Or grip with paper towels on the rails. Just don’t touch it with bare hands and make sure nothing particulate can reach it. All this is from Mr Epoxy himself (G Loehr). It always worked for me.
Another way to avoid fish eyes is with a cheater coat. Check that out in the archives because I’m too lazy to type it out here. Ha.
BTW, 2 cap fulls of Add F is a lot. I’d continue to use it, but maybe 1/4 to 1/2 that amount.
all the best
How much time between the fill coat and lamination? Do you use a new brush everytime, or clean and reuse brushes? Did you run the brush lengthwise for the last strokes, or just from side to side?
I’ve had problems like that long ago, but I don’t remember what I did to get that. I use inexpensive brushes and toss them after one use. I also use clean mixing cups. It can add up, but the costs are worth not having problems. Also mix the resin really good. I will lay down a fill coat using 45 degree strokes, make cross strokes (x pattern) to get the excess resin moved around, then do final strokes from nose to tail starting from the center and working towards the rail, ending with a cleaning stroke along the tape.
I try to do the fill coat about 40 minutes after I laminate the board. If it’s the first side, I’ll try to have less resin where I’ll lap the other side over. I don’t touch the board until after the fill coat. Let it cure overnight then I’ll sand the rails where I do the lap to make sure any blush is sanded away. If I wait for the lam to cure, I’ll sand it some before adding resin, and I’ll wipe it with denatured alcohol then run a piece of tape over it to get any particles off. If I wait longer than a day to laminate the other side, I always do a light sanding and clean it with denatured alcohol.
I use very course grit sanding media like 36 grit on long sanding blocks to bring the high spots down, then go to less course grit. Using the course grit helps to keep the media cleaner, but you’ll have to be careful. Just work it slowly and try to not cut into the weave. If you cut into the weave on the rails, it will create a weak spot.
I had to start using a different epoxy recently, and I’ve noticed it has more blushing than what I used before, so I have to clean it more to get good results. I’ve never used additive F, so I don’t know if that had an affect.
I never had that great a result from Add F.
If you are in Europe your addF is may be not original xylene base one’s… Don’t use it so much.
If you go 200/100gr your mix is of, by weight it’s 200/90gr for RR if I remember well.
Let fully cure, sand up to touch fiber here and there. Clean with a clean dry brush and a fresh paper towel, no compressor, no chemicals, then do a new coat, let fully cure then sand up to see fiber… Do it up to get finish you want. Easier and costless way is to use polyester sanding resin for finish coats. Not as strong as epoxy, can spider web or slightly cheap off when dinged but it do the job.
Hi,
I think it was about six days between finishing laminating then hot coating,
Do you think this is a good plan-
Sand down with 80 grit to the weave
Clean off with denatured alcohol (or UK equivilant)
purchase new measuring cups/brushes
Remove additive F just use epoxy and harderner
Before applying to hot coat I did use fairy liquid to cleandown the board could this have caused the problem? Also I did respray some of the rails after sanding the cut lap
Spent a couple of months on this board, such a shame!
Just to get a consensus, the plan to correct:
Sand down with 80 grit to the weave
Clean off with denatured alcohol (or UK equivilant) - (is this ok?- https://tinyurl.com/3sznx3mx)
purchase new measuring cups/brushes
Remove additive F just use epoxy and harderner
45 degree strokes and finish with nose to tail brushes
Appreciate all of your help
Hi Mat,
Thank you for your help :)- Are you UK based? If so would be ace to great how you work!
I don’t understand. So two things I question; Why did you wait sooo long to hotcoat? You understand that the longer you let a lamination set, the more it loses its tackiness. The less likely your hotcoat will stick and flow out properly. The second thing I question is; What did you use to clean or wipe down the lamination? And why did you wipe down the lamination at all? Wiping down the lamination and introducing another chemical to the process is an unneeded step. And a step in most cases that starts a cascade of problems that you would not otherwise encounter.
The consensus is that (ideally) it’s best to add your fill coat as soon as your lamination sets up so as to get the better chemical bond, and to reduce the opportunity for contamination via handling. I don’t even touch a fresh lamination with my bare hands.
“cleaning” and prepping only comes into play if you can’t apply your fill coat straightaway.
Your plan looks good. I think your problem was 2 things, you waited a long time between the lamination and the filler coat. You should do the filler coat within 24 hours of the lam.
I think the product you used to clean the board or the “spray” you did after the lam may have caused the resin to do what it did.
I would go online and look for a couple of videos of people glassing with epoxy. It will give you a visual lesson. Look at several before doing the resin work.
Good thing about having problems is you learn how to fix them, hopefully with each board you have less problems.
FYI, I buy my measuring cups and brushes on Amazon these days, I used to use ebay and look for the automotive supply places for quarts size paint mixing cups and buy in bulk, but I use Amazon now. If you use a sacle and weigh the resin/hardener, you can use any kind of cup as long as it it clean. I mix by volume more than weight. I use cheap “chip” brushes in different sizes for the resin work. You can tape 2 - 2 inch brushes side by side to make a 4 inch brush, but I buy 2 inch and 4 inch brushes. 2 inch for ding repairs and 4 inch for fill coats and finish coats. You’ll need to work the bristles a bit to get the loose ones to fall off before resin work. Some people use tweezers to pull out any bristles that fall into the resin. Clean the tweezers with denatured alcohol.
I am in France near hossegor. I use products from Seabase… For cleaning avoid as possible chemicals, nasty for you and not so good with epoxy. If you want one denatured alcool for cleaning but wait full evaporation before coating. Sanding with clean paper and remove dust with brush and paper towel is an efficient way to prep for coating. Keep gloves on your hand. Filler coat on green lam is the no problems way to go. Give you room to well prep for finish coat.
