Feeling good overall regarding the progress I’m making with my boards. With that said, my fin boxes look pretty bad after sanding. Was hoping someone could shed some light on their process working with Futures boxes and resin tints. Any tricks of the trade for getting a clean look at the end of the build are welcome.
Ive read a few discussions on these threads that recommend routing for placement AFTER lamination, perhaps that would help with a cleaner look?
Any help with sanding tools/techniques for the boxes after hotcoat would also be greatly appreciated.
you can do it either way. To do it as without tint, the colors that Futures offers help a lot.
The tip in this stage is when you are finishing with the lamination, add a bit more tinted resin over the boxes; checking smoothness.
Some put the second layer over in this stage (usual a big patch to have smoothness but more weight added) and others do it clear (small football patches) after half dry.
If you do it after the lamination; do it clear. The same after hot coat but sand all the hot coat in the area before to put the other layer and to smooth out the process. re hot coat there
After lam with a patchover the box. I like to do them after lam and pre-hotcoat. Blow it off really good and then put a patch over it. You want to do as near of a perfect rout out as possible. Even if you get them a little to deep, use a dummy fin to pull the box up and as flush to the lam as possible. Put enough resin/Cabosil in the hole that it oozes up thru the slots and that it will fill the bottom of the slot if you went too deep. Squeege and wipe it clean. Put a patch over it and hotcoat. It looks extra clean if you use a colored box that is close in color to your tint instead of generic black or white.