Few Fun Waves … that’s what it’s all about for me.
It’s been a while
… but, she’s done. Finally!
Funny thing is, it only took an hour to do the final sand … then a bit of stuffing around with the fin plugs. I somehow managed to get resin into the inserts, and then it took ages to get the inserts out. Argh!
Anyway, here ya go … the finished pics:
I have lost the motivation to finish this one (the nineteen 97 minimal) … the sticky / tacky filler coat slowed me down and caused some stress, then the hot days have hit so getting into the shed is a mission … but, as always, the calm before the storm has delivered puss waves so I have been spending some time back in the shed …
The baking paper solution worked, to a degree … reducing the tacky / stickiness by approx 50%, but still had the gummy paper … so I reverted to the hot soapy water while sanding trick, and ploughed through the two coats … then, out came my very limited creative abilities to try and cover up some of the earlier stuff ups, only to end up then washing all the paint off since it looked like someone had vomitted on it … it was worse than an pre schoolers art work, serious, it was bad … and NO, there are no photo’s …
So, back to the drawing board, and another coat of yellow paint onto the sanded filler coat, which I have now just covered with another coat of filler using MEKP and not UV … this is a fresh batch mixed well this morning, so, let’s hope it does not go tacky! You can see the earlier issues in this pic …
Well, it’s been two days now, with the solution applied, so I went out this morning to check on the progress. As you can see in the first pic here, the paper has “stuck” to the board, no surprise there.
So I peeled back some of the paper (see second pic), which has revealed all the spots where the paper has ‘stuck’ are now dry, not even slightly sticky or tacky on those spots … but, the lower spots, where the paper has not “stuck” are still sticky / tacky.
Looking at the whole board then, I’d guess that maybe two thirds of the deck are now ‘tack free’ … so that’s a huge improvement. I’ll sand it with hot soapy water (another trick I picked up) so the paper does not “gum up” as much … when I tried this sanding the last coat, the paper was heaps easier to to then clean (hot soapy water and scrubbing brush … no need for toxic acetone).
PS: I’d just like to acknowledge these ‘solutions’ have come from over on Swaylocks. If you’re into making surfboards, or want to get into making surfboards, then make sure you spend some time searching through the posts on Swaylocks … some seriously awesome information has been posted on there over the years.
The filler coat on the deck of the ‘nineteen 97’ was still ‘sticky’ / ‘tacky’ after almost a week.
I’ve narrowed it down to being:
– my resin … too much heat in the shed
– the uv sunbake I used … again the heat and also it seemed ‘thicker’ when I used it
– the filler mix itself being about a month old now
– the wax in styrene % in the mix (i.e. too low)
– my application technique (i.e. brushing it too much)
– temp impact when I applied it (i.e. kicked too early, brushed after starting to kick)
– not mixed enough before using again
– mixed too much before using again … I shook the can, and did not stir it
The UV I used, ended up as a whole bottle, went hard and had to throw it and get more. I used the new UV for the lam coat on this board and it went off OK … looking back, I recall the filler coat on the last board, the forty one two, was a bit sticky / tacky and I used more rough grit paper than previous boards (gumming up) but the bottom seemed to go ok on the second coat I had to do, after fin instal and a couple of almost sand thru spots …
So, I’m now back to a ‘sticky’ / ‘tacky’ board … what to do?
I’ve had it out in the sun again to make sure it has fully kicked, and it is hard (finger nail tap) … it’s just when I put skin on it I feel the ‘tacky’ / ‘sticky’ … If I apply another coat, new mixed batch, later today when the temps drop … and assuming it is ok and not tacky, what will happen if I then sand through that layer of filler? Will I hit the ‘tacky stuff’? Would I be better off trying to sand this current still sticky / tacky layer? Wash it off with acetone and try again?
Nope, the solution was found … and is in action … here’s a hint:
Slow going with this one … since I decided to paint it yellow, and do some artwork. The stripes on the bottom have come up good, but the deck design I tried to tape up did not look right, so it got a full coat of yellow on the deck. I also tried spraying the FFW logo stencil, but that’s come up a bit more smudged than I like …
Anyway, I have managed to get the bottom laminated and the laps cut and basted … they are ready for a sand in these pics. As you can see, the cut lap has given a much neater edge, but still a couple of spots where the paint lifted as I cut the lap. The nose and tail folds are the best I’ve done by far …
One side of the tail is great, the other, I stuffed up the cloth cut so bit of a gap in the cloth coverage. Nothing that can not be fixed with an extra layer (little patch of cloth) when I do the deck.
Time to go and sand the laps … spot of paint onto a couple of spots on the deck, cut some cloth and get ready to glassing tomorrow.
On the first two boards I did, the ‘jazz” and the ‘forty one”, I did free laps … the ‘jazz’ turned out quite ugly, and ended up with a very uneven line of cloth which is quite obvious after sanding the filler coat as can be seen in this pic:
It’s smooth, and only cosmetic, but I wanted better. So, with the ‘forty one’ I also did a free lap and tried to get a better line, hoping that would blend the lap better and be less ugly looking, but, not quite there as this pic shows:
Click on any of these images to get a larger view.
So, with the ‘forty one two’ I decided I would try a cut lap. My first ever attempt … so I tapped up the rails on the deck, and went about cutting the cloth more ‘neatly’, I even bought so new super sharp and awesome scissors which made the cloth trimming process much much easier … but, in my usually way, I invited the fuck up fairy back by trimming the cloth so some ended up inside the tapped line, this then lead to the issues when I went to ‘cut’ the lap, since some was overhanging the tape, but other parts were back from it … so I ended up with a bit of an uneven cut. Getting the razor blade to slide along the tap edge and cut was OK where the cloth overhung the tape, but when it hit the spots where the cloth did not make the tape, ah, messy again. Here’ a pic of the lap finished:
That ‘gash’ you can see on the left hand side is where I managed to put the corner of some sand paper into the foam when I was sanding the lap at that point … it was one of the spots where the cut lap did not sit well and needed a bit more effort to sand it down …the right hand side is he best lap I’ve done, and almost blends with hardly (relative to my two previous attempts) any cloth line showing.
So, with the ‘nineteen 97’ the plan is to do a cut lap and I will be taping the whole deck, using butchers paper to stop any laminate resin getting onto the deck, which, on the ‘forty one two’ resulted in a ‘bumpy’ deck … I will also make sure the cloth is well past the edge of the tape. Watch this space … I’m sure the fairy will be back !
PS: My ‘cut lap’ knowledge came from watching you tube video’s !
Woohoo, found out today I’ll get the machine cut blank this Friday … STOKED.
With a bit of luck, I’ll get it glassed by Sunday, so the 2 week cure can start … actually, I might even give this one and extra week and a bit … MERRY CHRISTMAS to me !!!
So, here’s a couple of screen shots from the AKU 
file …
This one has been designed based around and old faithful mini mal I had made back in 1997, and funny enough, I actually picked it up for Christmas that year too! The old girl served me well, got me back in the water after injuries and got me through many a flat spell and or summer slop. She was even the only board a surfed for a while when I was very unfit. I can only hope this new one is up to the task … time will tell.