Hello Guys I have a quick question for you. I am in the process of making a couple of skimboards out of wood. The wood is very high quality and is not very porous. I am laminating both sides of the board and then putting on a regular hot-coat for the bottom. The problem that I’m running into is with the lamination. When I glass the board I see no air and the cloth seems to be saturated. When I come back there are spots that look to be unsaturated and even have some air. I have tried sitting with the board until the resin sets, but when I come back the next day, again the cloth looks unsaturated. I’m not exactly sure how to stop this problem and would like to hear if u guys have ever experimented with the glassing of wood. Any help will be great, thanks guys!
What kind of resin are you using? And what kind of wood?
What kind of resin are you using? And what kind of wood?
I’ve glass alot of wood on sailboats and it sounds like your wood is sucking up the resin. How fast is your resin kicking? You’ll want it to kick off fairly fast to avoid a “dry” lam. You can apply a heavier lam coat but that will make the board heavier than is necessary.
I am using Silmar 249a resin and 5 ply mahogany wood. I have also tried using hot coat resin, silmar 250. So far both have had the cloth dry up on me. I have kicked the resin both fast and slow, and even tried super saturating the cloth but to the same effect. I was thinking of trying a cheater coat on the board first to maybe help seal the wood? Again any help is much apprecaited, thanks in advance!
Hi Ryan, Ive had the same problem. 2-3 light coats of laminating resin have always been the solution, allow for cure, then laminate as usual. If you want to get one of your designs in the water quickly, and be able to modify it with a minimum of time and hassle... carefully heat standard canning paraffin to water-thin consistency and pour/brush on liberally. The dry wood will soak up the wax like water. The wax penetrates the woods surface really well, especially the end grain. And don`t worry about the rough, globby wax texture, as that can be scraped and buffed smooth (on bottom and edges) after completely sealing the skimboard.
You need to seal the wood first. Mohagany will soak up some resin but it does finish well and it’s fairly dry so you won’t have oil related problem down the line. Using epoxy would make a better finished product. The lack of solvents improves bond to the wood and the strength is a nice side advantage as well.
hey greg, any suggestions on how to put the rocker in on a wooden skimboard? also what kind of woods are used? thanks for any info ive been wanting to make one for a while.
First you don’t need much rocker The simplest way is to laminate one side with 4 oz glass, put the still wet board on a couple saw horses (with waxed paper on them), put a piece of waxed paper in the middle of the board and leave a cement block till the resin kicks. A better way is to use two thin sheets of plywood and sandwich (glue) them together on a rocker table. After that step you can shape and glass the outside. Again cement blocks will keep the wood true to the rocker table. This is how the pro’s do it and this is also the way skateboards and snowboard blanks are done (sort of). I will suggest that when using wood, epoxy resins will give you better results. OK…sorry for the spam… But I didn’t suggest WHICH epoxy.
Try soaking you wooden shape overnight in the bath, refilling ever now and then with warm water. Then clamp…if you hear cracking, back the clamps off and soak for longer. Alternitivly place the wood in a steamer (most resteraunts will have a steamer large enough…become friends with a head Chef and use it over night) and then clamp…