I’m making a first board with/for my son (a 5’8" shortboard with a swallow tail). We laminated both sides (it has a blue tint), and are preparing for the hotcoats. A couple of questions:
We put a logo on the bottom with a fiber patch over it. We did this after we laminated and it cured, but before we’re hotcoating. Now the patch is very visibile over the logo, with some pooling of resin and some raised areas, since we used too much resin and had to spread it around the board. Do we sand the patch border down, and all the little raised areas? Or just leave it and hotcoat? If we sand it, it will mess with the color and the sand marks will be visible, but we’re okay with that if that’s what we need to do.
Do we write the dimensions on the board before the hotcoat? Or between the hotcoat and the gloss coat?
He wants to do white pinlines. Should this be done with pigmented resin, or white acrylic paint?
Since you are doing a gloss coat, there is no need to sand down the edges of the logo patch, as any burn throughs will be covered with gloss.
Most people write dimensions directly on foam/stringer before laminating. I your case, if you still have some scrap rice paper from your logo, I would write dimensions on there and then add a glass patch, just like your first logo. Then hotcoat/sand/gloss. Writing directly on the lam coat will be difficult to get smooth, because of the texture of the cloth. I’ve never tried writing directly on a sanded hotcoat, so not sure how that would work out.
Pinlines can be done with either pigmented resin, or acrylic paint. Paint is easier IMO, especially for first time around. Posca pens work well, as well as the cheap little bottles of acrylic from a crafts store. Just make sure to sand the area of the pinlines to a much higher grit (220-320ish) than the rest of the hotcoat. If you leave the area rough sanded (80-120ish) then the paint will bleed under the tape more easily.
Good advice from Ryan. There is an old Harbour video around of a guy putting down a pin line with a tube of Artist’s Acrylic and a plastic squeegee. Check YouTube. You might be better served with a resin pin as a resin pin does not have to be sealed. Lowel
Thanks for the response. We decided to skip the gloss coat and use a spray sealer (clear acrylic) thinking it’s less weight. Any idea if that’s accurate?
We patched the logo on top, used a razor blade to blend the edges (didn’t do a very good job TBH) and plan to hotcoat the deck today, now that the patch is cured.
Then we’ll sand, then do pinlines with Posco pen, and leash plug, then spray seal.
Looks like we missed the boat on writing dimensions. We don’t want to wait to add another patch with the dimensions on rice paper (we’re headed on a surf trip in a few days so on a deadline) but that’s a good suggestion. We may try to write it after the hotcoat and spray seal and just see what happens.
Just watched that vid, looks clean. He didn’t say how long he waited to pull the tape, and what he did after to seal. Assuming he did either a gloss coat or a spray seal.