hey guys I want to make a board for my girlfriend and she loves zebras. I wanted to do a hot pink bottom and rails and a zebra cloth inlay on the board. Do I need any specific cloth for a PU blank and poly resin? Any tips on doing the cloth. I can do the painting no prob.
thanks
100% cotton, or silk. Synthetics will melt! Do a color fast test, on a small piece, before committing to lam.
do i put it between the glass or on the bottom of both layers? and how does the resin work its way through
I am a total newb. I attemped a cloth inlay on my fourth board and it was not any more difficult than any other parts of the laminating process. I put the cloth down first wetted it out then fiberglassed over it. If you can get copy of The Master Glasser from Roger Brucker he covers it. And of course here on Sways we are at the (feet) keyboards of many of the masters. Go for it!
here’s my zebra fur deck…and a leopard skin too…
There’s some good info on fabric inlays in the archives. The main points are: You’ll need to pinline to hide the edges, don’t get too big on the amount of fabric, and do it between glass layers not directly on the foam (fabric isn’t structural). The weave on most cotton printed fabric is very small, so you really have to squeegee very hard to pull off the resin (use plastic, not rubber). This can easily get out of control with wrinkles on a large inlay with poly in 15 min. Once those wrinkles gell up, well, you know the story - hotcoat, sand off and start over. When you use that much squeegee pressure, many fabric dyes may begin to run so test this on scrap first. There’s some prep stuff you need to do on the fabric which is also in the archives. My son’s ex-girlfriend was into leopard spots, and I’ve been down this animal skin fabric road. I recommend that you opaque lam the pink on the bottom with cutlaps on the deck, do a 6 oz deck inlay lam clear, put in the fabric inlay, do another clear 6 oz deck lam lapping over the rails. Good luck!
fabric does add some strength… ( imo ) .I have had several recently and am sure they are adding some strength against depressions…people will say its the foam but an extra layer of fabric full of resin has to add something and my last few have proven that to me…they also add weight so allow for that when considering glassing lay up…
so when you say lam the deck clear, then do fabric and 6 oz on top, let the first clear lam dry then relam over that?
Inlay lam the deck clear, inlay lam the fabric, overlay the deck clear wrapping around the rails to a cutlap on the bottom. After the first inlay lam, fill and grind the seam between the bottom lap and the inlay. You can’t grind the seam with the fabric because it will tear it up, so you want the surface under it to be filled and smooth so that you get a clean line when cutting the fabric after lamination. Also keep in mind that the resin over the fabric must be laid up smoothly since you won’t be able to sand that either.