Surfing Waves

I just shaped my new board, it is a fish but kind of a hybrid fish.




Now I want to glass it. I have never glassed in my life so this should be interesting!
I am thinking about going with a 4oz cloth, and vinyl ester epoxy UV-cure resin so I can maintain lightweight and strength at the sametime.
But I am definitely up for suggestions!

I am looking at a 4oz Warplite fiberglass cloth.

My source for the epoxy resin is http://www.solarez.com/products/
and my source for the cloth is http://surfsource.net/Manufacturing/Bui ... erials.htm

I have never glassed, these are just suggestions from a guy I know who owns a surf board manufacturing company out of Santa Cruz.
If anyone has suggestions for glassing.. like perhaps how to do it?! haha. I am looking for websites that might explain it a bit, but I am having no luck for
quality tutorials.

help! (kitesurfer!)

ya glassing is a bit of a lack luster job.

A few things that you might do wrong as a newun.

1 - make sure when you glass when pulling the flaps around you ensure they dont break away from the foam. in other words make sure the flaps are good and down.

2 - make sure you use the right amount of MEKP to give you time keep and eye on the temp a warmer day means faster curing time.

3 - when doing the deck make sure you double the cloth up. i.e if you gonna do 2X 4 oz cloth on the deck do it at the same time. Cuts amount of resin needed and weight.

4 - less haste more speed. Take your time but not too much time.

5 - Have fun

Im sur eothers can add to this list but thats all i could think of off the top of my head.

Awesome, great info. It sounds like it will be fun haha. (appears to be the more tedious part of the job).

I'm really hoping to find some sort of step by step thing, but it's hard to find. Youtube has some good videos but none that are start to finish.

i've never seen a board that shape. it looks like a rocketship.

Good work on the shaping greg.
As for tutorials you tube is a wonderful teacher. There is masses and masses of videos on there of people glassing and shaping. Here's a search http://uk.youtube.com/results?search_ty ... ssing&aq=f
Watch a few before glassing. Then there is glassing 101 dvd, very useful too.
UV cure resin is as its names suggests only starts to cure when you expose it to the sun or some uv light, it will not go off in the shed, or if it does it will take an age.
Only use it if you can let daylight in or you can move the board to somewhere so that it can be epxposed. Personally ive never fancied moving a wet resined board anywhere.
As isalute mentioned if using MEKP it is critical you get your %'s right for the temp. If in doubt and also as its your first glassing job use the minimum amount 1% vol to give yourself as much laminating time as poss unless of course the temp is near to freezing in which case up it to 1.75%. NEVER EVER more than 2%.
Also get yourself a fume mask! This stuff is VERY nasty and will damage your health.
Handy tips, make sure you prepare and get all your tools and cleaning rags ready before hand. I use a rubber squegee for most of the laminating then to do the laps i use a harder smaller scraper like you'd use to put bondo/car body filler on a car repair job.
Don't make your laps too big either, an inch at themost as they will wet out easier. The wetter they are before lapping will make for a neater easier job.
Also as its your first glass job use more resin that you'll probably need. Say for that board 800ml to 1000ml for the bottom slightly more for the deck if you decide to do both layers in one go.
Sometimes i do both in one go sometimes i don't and it usually depends on how flat and smooth i can get my lap. Its very tricky to sand the lap as you will be sanding over exposed soft foam, so its your call once you know how the lap is. But doing it in 2 stages will be heavier in the long run and use more resin although not too much more resin.

Gotta scoot now but can answer more questions later.

KS

Yo dude board looks sweet, how long did it take? am thinking of shaping one for myself to but dont know if av got the time how did you find it???

Yep those are some great links from kitesurfer and advice to boot. Another tip i just remembered...

...When sanding the laps which as kitesurfer said is tricky as the foam is exposed you can use masking tape to run next to the lap so when sanding you dont have to worry about duffing the foam. This doesnt give you a free ticket to go nuts but should make things easier. The only downside to this is that is if you have artwork or a painted board direct on the foam this method can lift some of that ink off. So just use the cheapo painters masking tape. (the grey not blue) as its not very sticky at all.

Hope that helps

Awesome! Thank you for the info guys!

So if I am understanding correctly you glass a surfboard the same way with regular resin (excuse my lack of terminology) as you would with epoxy? Just the preparation is a bit different for mixing the formula?

I am gonna order my epoxy/cloth soon, and I am sure in that time I will have many more random questions!
Thanks guys!

greg@hoodatsurfco wrote:Awesome! Thank you for the info guys!

So if I am understanding correctly you glass a surfboard the same way with regular resin (excuse my lack of terminology) as you would with epoxy? Just the preparation is a bit different for mixing the formula?

I am gonna order my epoxy/cloth soon, and I am sure in that time I will have many more random questions!
Thanks guys!

Almost. The only real difference and this will depend upon the type of epoxy you use is how the resin flows. Some epoxies that i've used tend to run and flow easier than polyester and as such you'll find you can work it much more and hence waste less. There's a certain rythem/procedure i use when laminating in polyester whereas with epoxy as you have more time you can faff more and as such my laminating is a little more hap hazard.

KS