Forget wetout table, only interesting for vacbag laminate on open support you don’t want to seal before, and/or laminate of light fiber that float in resin. XPS isn’t porous and you use glass. You want your lam to stick to foam, this is resin function so you need a resin rich lam, so no vac bag and no wet out table. A surfboard skin break because of hard ding or buckling, for both skin resistance is mostly a function of overall skin stiffness wich depend of skin thickness either. Why do you want to squeeze you laminate, a thicker “resin rich” epoxy glass laminate skin is good for a surfboard, i don’t say too much resin but a nice not dry laminate: you have to see top of cloth texture, with the frame fill by resin. Resin waterproof laminate and protect from environnement, so you need a resin rich final coat too.
You did everything right. You’re working too slow, or hardener is too fast for the ambient temp.
Use a little more resin on the table with the first layer. So it goes down a little wetter and sticks better. Then get the 2nd layer wet-out and done right away, before everything gets too tacky.
It helps a lot, to prep table with all layers to be laminated, stacked.
1 sheet plastic, 1 layer glass, 1 sheet plastic, 1 layer glass. Wet the first layer, roll up and transfer to board. Go back to table and tear off dirty sheet of plastic to expose next layer, ready for wet-out.
I can do 4 layers in 85 degree weather with fast hardener. You’ll get there.
Although I am not an engineer or an expert, I’ve done a few XPS boards and gradually found the methods that work best for me. finish sand with a rough grit 60-80. instead of using a wet out table I measure out the amount of epoxy needed for my lam, (experience) apply the resin direct to the blank surface then lay the dry (pre cut) cloth over the wet blank. yes there will be wrinkles and air to work out but epoxy has a long working time so it is doable. I have found this method gives a very good bond between surface and glass and haven’t had any delam problems since I started doing it this way. Downsides are a little extra weight, (comparable to a PU/PE) and a little extra time laminating.
Squeegee some thickened resin on the blank, let that set for a bit, then roll your wet cloth on the board and throw her in the bag. This will guarantee optimal adhesion and mechanical bond.
On xps, epoxy bond can only be mechanical, coarse surface is better. The glue is resin, you need resin between glass and foam, epoxy is a low to no pressure gluing system, only needed to maintain parts in place. Most epoxy gluing system have a tixotrop agent to keep it in gluing place. Cab-o-sil. Squegge à resin cab-o-sil mix on xps, lay glass and laminate. Standard industrial method. Wet out table is either a standard industrial method, called the poor man prepeg, used for light reinforcement (carbon,kevlar and other plastics fibers) that float over resin (because of their lower density) and/or for laminate on porous support where resin drain. Otherwise is not interesting. Vacuum bag is industrialy use, for lamination, to allow use of autoclave just after lamination (for best curing = predictable composits characteristics) and/or for compacting thick laminate of those light fibers. Need ultra low pressure for lamination. Many sailboards suffer of dry laminate problems. Low resin/fibre ratio is mechanically optimize only for tensil working parts, wich need an exterior protection layer after curing.
What’s wrong with bucket and squeegee? First off, there’s a whole world of better fibers and weaves that aren’t designed to work with 60 year old techniques. There’s a whole lot of other reasons too, but I’m not going to spell them out.
