Thank A Glasser Day

This one's a "next step" board for a kid who learned on a 9'+ single fin longboard. Coming down in size and weight, going to a thruster, and getting the feel for bottom contours and rocker will let this kid progress fairly rapidly, and still be able to catch lots of waves and have fun.

Lamming one layer at a time is the way to go for the hobbiest. And using E glass is definitely easier than volan, carbon fiber, S glass or other woven or stitched fabrics. UV poly is another good bit of advice, but you should keep in mind that working too slowly can result in too much resin soaking into the core, making the board heavy and the lam dry. Work as quickly as you can, even using UV cure resin. Epoxy, which can be used over PU or EPS, is much more viscus, so it soaks into the foam much slower, giving you a longer work time. And while you can get "kwik kick" epoxy, which has a relatively short pot life for epoxy, it's still a slow cure product compared to poly resin, which suddenly "kicks."

 

I knew you were gonna have a good answer....

E/Volan/Carbon/S ... I don't know sh*t about that. But rest assured, when I do build a board, I will be on here for your sage advice, which is always appreciated. Good info on the soak factor!

As far as 'kicking' resin goes ... I can say this. With Poly, one time, I was running out of MEKP (they really don't give you enough for colder climates). I needed some in a jam, and couldn't make it to any surf/marine/plastics shops. I found some for purchase at a local art supply store, for use with poly 'casting resin.'

This MEKP made a difference. When using it, I found that the kick-off was much more gradual, allowing me considerable working time once it started gelling. This was vastly preferable to the 'oh sh*t it already kicked' moments.

I now shield my MEKP from sunlight.

 

that is a nice board

 

Yea... catalyst has a short shelf life on it's own, let alone not storing it properly. That's the problem with repair kits in surf shops... you never know how long the stuff's been sitting there, decomposing. Keeping it in a cool, dark place, with the cap on tight, helps. Epoxy/hardener is totally different from poly resin/catalyst, both chemically and physically. Advantage... epoxy.

 

+1 on the catalyst lifetime. From experience..i glassed a board last year with some MEKP of questionable age. Used the same 1.25% mekp/resin ratio, same working temperature, that had consistently given me about a 25 minute work time in the past with good MEKP

That feeling 45 minutes later when even the ounce still sitting in the mixing cup is like honey and the lam still feels soft and wet....not a good feeling!

 

I usually only use epoxy for dings but ran out at the worst time. In a pinch, I tried some old catalyst and poly resin I've had lying around for over 5 years. The catalyst had turned brown, but it still worked...well, it took about twice as long to kick, but got the job done. True story, bro.

 

Curtis is the best. you can only be tied for first place with Curtis. For repairs, too. Thank you, Curtis.

 

You don't want to see any puddles... smooth spots where you see not surface texture of the cloth. If you do, your cloth is "floating," meaning it will not be a direct cloth-to-core bond. You want to pull out all excess resin, and when you do so, you'll hear a zipper-like sound the spreader/squeegee makes across the surface of the weave.

 

Definitely NOT. You should gently pull all of the excess resin you can out of the weave and over the rails. The hotcoat is the step where you create your thin layer of resin over the entire board - not the lamination.

 

LOTS of sanding. Sanding out a board after glassing/hotcoating is the unglamorous grunt work that makes the board look good. Especially since your board is wood...darker colors make sloppy or incomplete sanding much more obvious than a plain while board.

1) When you hotcoat make sure the resin is nice and warm so it runs out and brushes out FLAT with no pooling in the concaves, make sure you have the proper amount of surfacing agent in the resin and if you are using UV cure resin, make sure you follow instructions to allow the wax to rise to the surface. When i hotcoat using UV poly resin i expose it to uv light for about 10-20 seconds, then remove the UV light for another minute or so the make sure the wax rises to the surface, then complete the UV Cure. In my experiences UV cure poly resin is a really good option for a novice glasser.

2) When you sand out the board, go through lots of sandpaper. Theres nothing more pointless than sanding with clogged up paper. Take your time, and dont try and rush the sandout. You want to get done quickly because its the last step, but theres just no substitute for time unless your a pro. If you are wet sanding...it will look beautiful while wet, but let it dry out and see all of the scratch marks before congratulating your self....you probably have another hour of sanding to do!!

 

What are you using to do the sanding? Grinder/polisher? orbital? block? hand?

 

Use the best paper you can afford. It lasts a lot longer and has better grit composition.

Just remember to only go 90% of the way with the grit you're using, leaving the remaining 10% for the next higher grit. If you use 50 to knock the blobs down, the scratches will be very deep, so use caution, and know when to stop before going to 80. Using 80, sand until... and only until... all of the shiny spots are gone. The entire board should be uniformly dull. Take it into the sunlight and ook at it from different angles to really inspect it for patches of shine. Once it's uniformly dull with 80, go to 100 and only take out the scratches left by the 80. Again, knowing when to stop is really important, but if you don't get out all of the scratches, you'll only realize they're still there when you get down to 400 or 600, and have to start over again with 100.

Nice touch with the leash loop. Classy touch. Are you doing a traditional fiberglass loop, or the hole and string?

 

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Right... about the '90%' ... & 'only using 80 grit until all the shiny spots are gone' ... this is excellent advice.

You will save a lot of time by adhering to this. Personally I don't really f*ck with 50 grit, but if you're getting rid of a pool, and going by hand, it could make sense. Just don't remove it all, that's what the 90% is about.

Lets say you see an edge that you want smoothed out/taken down. You don't want to remove it with 50 grit. You want to barely hit it/scuff it with 80, and while it's still visible, move down to 120. The edge should still be visible when you switch from the 120 to 240. Then before switching to 3/400, it will be barely visible still. This stage is where the edges and scratches disappear.

I don't mean to simply rehash LB's info. I just know from experience, that it is inefficient and self defeating if you are trying to get rid of your edges with 60/80 and then only using the other grits to polish. This is also how I have managed to sand through cloth. Not good.

The balance between exposing the cloth for adhesion and actually tearing into it is a tough one to perfect.

Also, go buy a cheap orbital at Harbor Freight, that's what I use. It's not pro-grade but it sure as hell beats sanding by hand. Just don't use it on rails ...