Hey guys , i did my first shape last week and started the glassing job yesterday.
Here is my main concern :
I was not able to move/clean fast enought the resin (polyester) on the bottom so i got those little waves
How can i correct this in a proper way ? some people told me to sand directly to get something flat then to hot coat , but its nearly impossible or very long by hand.
And some others told me to hot coat and then sand it.
So im little bit lost , what do you guys think about it ?
You basically can’t sand a lamination because lamination resin is formulated to set tacky so that the sububsequent fill and finish coats will adhere to it. So you need to put a sanding coat over your lamination before trying to sand the excess off. I would tape off the areas that are okay and don’t need sanding untll you get the rest of it close enough to blend in.
NEXT TIME
Refrain from trying to emulate the professional 8-minute per side lamination that you see in the vids online. Those are pros who have racked up 500 or 1000 or 10,000 laminations and they have developed the eye and the touch to do that. You're a novice glasser so you should plan on moving more slowly and carefully.
Take your time with your prep. If you're laying a lapline then use high quality tape for the lapline (some glassers use 2-3 layers at their cutlap line to make them easier to cut. For now, mask off the entire dry side of your board with butcher paper or the like - keep your resin off the dry side between the lap lines. When you're just starting out spending the extra time/effort on your prep will reduce the amount of repairs you end up having to do later.
Skip the resin opaques and tints for now until you get a handle on your glassing technique. Remember, the shape and finish always come first; you're surfing the board, not the cosmetics. Stick with clears until you can do a clean and tight lamination.
Go a little easy with your catalyst in order to give yourself the maximum amount of working time.
Work your resin from the center and walk the board from end to end. Work your way down the stringer to saturate and pull the lamination tight up the middle, diverting the excess out and away from the stringer. Long complete passes from end to end, maintaining a constant and steady pressure on your squeegee so as to leave the right amount of resin and saturation - not too dry and not too wet. Work clean.
Pull your laps *moderately* tight - they should all look like the "weave texture showing: areas on the rails in your pics.
The vids on youtube are fun to watch and they give you something to aspire to, but as a novice glasser you need to adapt your approach a bit to fit your IRL skill level. There’s nothing wrong with taking 30 minutes or even longer to get a clean lamination on one side so long as your working in long strokes and trying to work clean. Don’t worry about being too slow. You’ll get faster as you go.
If that is just your lam coat I can say that you used way too much resin. But, it looks a bit shiny to be lam resin. Hard to tell. The weave should be very apparent without any smooth areas. The idea with a lamination is to load the least amount of resin necessary into the glass cloth.
As mentioned, it’s better to avoid color laminations until you have some basic glassing skills. Easier to correct mistakes and accidents with a clear glass job.
The whole thing should look like the area I’ve outlined in white. The weave should be obvious all over.
My friends explain you all what you need to know. Now if i was you i would cover all by painted sanding resin then sand up to have something flatter than possible without touching fiber. Then i would paint a new sanding coat and sand again. Flatter is your shape, no bumps and deps, flatter is your lam job, flatter is your hot coat easier is your sanding work. Spend time where is needed, easier to flatten soft foam than hard resin.
They’re the same thing. Hot coat includes a wax component that helps the resin set up harder so it’s easier to sand.
I prefer to lam+fill+hotcoat because I’d rather use lam resin to fill up most of the weave so I can use less of the hot coat. But I’m wierd that way. Most glassers just use lam+hot coat.
Hello; is not clearly why you have a deck with that finish but the rails do not…then besides the tape you have again that smoother finish?
If you upload other photos I can try to help but
the thing is that when you have a tacky surface; you just apply a hot coat or in some cases; you just start to sand with coarser grit.
Regarding adding color to the resin; do not do that. The consequences will be far worst. This is polyester, you do not hide anything with polyester. The results trying to hide it are always worst.
Having only 2 years of board glassing experience I dont know much, but I have made this mistake a few times. I’ve found that if your willing to throw away a sureform blade it works pretty well at getting the excess lam resin at least flat, (the color not so much i think). It will destroy the sureform blade, but I think the 8 bucks is worth an easier lap. Scratches from that can be slightly removed with syrene monomer in a super thin coat. But what everyone is saying, its definitely easiest if you take your time and give your self a large cure window. good luck!
