hold the phone.....
major stuff up just happened!
went and got 1L of west epoxy and hardener, got everything ready, mixed the resin and away i went putting some down the centre of the board, started working with the squeegeeeee, and F$%K ME DEAD, the bloddy creases in the mat were not laying flat!!
SH1T!!!!
i had already poured resin and started working it accross the length of the board!!!
what could i do???????
so i just continued as best i could, i did get, considering that 5 mins with the iron would have made a world of a difference, not too bad a result.... cough cough.
it's now 6.45pm the resin is set quite hard, only just tacky now, and the damage is done.
what could i have done????
1. use the hot iron to flatten the creases.
2. rolled the mat when it arrived, instead of leaving it folded.
3. take the wetted mat off, and replace with ironed mat.
4. take the wetted mat off, scrape of as much resin as posable, let it dry and sand back. loosing the mat and the resin mix.
what ever you would have done, or what i should have done, is now not the point, not to me anyway, the point is, what do i do now?????????
DAMAGE CONTROL!!!!!!!!!!!
in the morning i'll get some photos of the damage, and probly start sanding lumps and cutting open any air bubbles.
i'll fill the air bubbles with resin as best i can.
i'm going to iron flat the off cuts and cut it into strips, ready to use once i've had a change to clean up to the deck.
i'll use the strips to cover where i've had to sand glass away.
and i was thinking i might be able to use the board this sunday, my 18th anniversary!!!!
back to the drawing board........
That would have been quite an anniversary celebration. Wonder what the missus thinks?
Not really sure about your stuffup? Sounds like you didn't lay the glass out flat on the board before starting. If not, why not? The 1st step was just to spread out resin, not drag glass around?
Col
Pint of Pale's vinegar cleanup tip got me hungry for more info
my search unearthed ;
www.google.com.au/?gws_rd=ssl
A Google search for...... vinegar to clean up epoxy
Interesting info on the kyak site it unearthed
Cheers
Fossil
Yep vinegar will clean epoxy off of brushes too...Rinse in vinegar then follow up with soapy water and dry before the next use. It wont clean up poly resin.. I think the vinegar breaks down the chemical bond in the epoxy (before it it cured) .. Re glass not laying flat in an earlier post, you are most likely using too much resin. Use as little as possible to wet out the cloth. If you are doing a patch leave the outer edges of the cloth dry. This will wick the excess resin out towards the edges and once cured you can sand of the dry cloth on the edge for a smoother feathered edge. More resin = less strength and more weight.
POP
Hey Peter,
Next time you have the lifting problem, use some tape or cling wrap, I use it all the time especially on tails and noses to hold the glass down while it sets.
They should never fold glass, it should always be rolled.
Cheers
Rich
yeah you tell em rich, never never never ever fold woven mat.
it creases badly, and the folds move fibres so you get ugly spots.
OK. NOW WE HAVE SUCCESS!!!!!!
i got 1/2m of woven mat (now i know to call it woven and not just mat) that i used on the deck to reinforce the foot hold areas.
the FG was folded, but i was able to iron out the creases. it sat nice and flat.
i ditched the idea of using a squeege, and went to using a brush (imo, as a fibreglassing expert now, dont use a squeege, unless you are good at it!!!!) and i got a great result.
there are some areas that need more resin applied to give a nice shiney finish, but i might try white flowcoat for that.
i tried a PEEL test, and i could not peel any resin off like before, the course sanding did a great job of supplying a surface to stick too.
and with fibreglass you dont need a smooth surface to make it look good.
ok, so i sanded back the edges of the glass on the deck, feathers out real well, and actually sands back quite fast. (all sanding done by hand)
so happy with the woven mat that i went and got 2m and started on the underside of the board.
not knowing if i would be able to get the woven mat to wrap arround the sides, i taped off half way down the rail.
cut the glass to completely cover the underside, mixed the resin (all i had left) and went to work.
got a great result first pop, very happy so far, lots of sanding to do now.
anyway, it's my anniversery today, 17 bloody years, (you get less for murder don't you?), i wont have the board ready to test today, bugger it.
but at least i'm allowed to go kitesurfing today.
she's not a bad wife, she just has a bad husband!!!
Love ya babe!!!!!
thanks for warming me up this morning!!! wink wink.
(she reads what i get up to)
photos to come very soon (of the board, not the warm up)
oh and btw, thanks a million for the vinegar tip, you are a ledgend!!!!
Here are the latest photos of the board.
Fins attached, straps attached, in need of deck grip or wax.
is it ready to test?
apparently stickers make them turn better , go faster and leap higher pete ...same technology that increases your aerodynamic coefficient when you wear boardies over your wettie.......on a more constructive note!
i would probably put a small deck pad/sticker/something over those rear fin screw heads as they don't look to be as countersunk as the front ones and there are enough pointy sharp bits on a board to skin you as you will discover.
be interested to see how the board goes now that you have changed the fin camber/toe in position to parallel ....although with tiny fins like that it may not have as much effect on the turning...should go like a dream in a straight line ..turning ..let us know?
top effort!
thanks.
re the screw heads, i will drop them all below flush, eventually!!!
and i am about to apply some deck grip of sorts (slot together rubber matting cut to shape) with double sided tape.
i only need them to stay on for long enough to test the board.
i do want to apply a nice coat to top it all off.
give it a tough skin all over.
should i use resin, or flow coat?
the fibreglass (i added) does not cover all of the board.
the underside is fully coated with glass, the deck has the footpad areas and between them is covered, with the foredeck and tail being unreinforced on the top side.
the footstrap plugs were added and reinforced by digging out foam from under the deck glass, making the epoxy glue form a plug much larger than the hole drilled.
the fins are fitted through holes drilled in solid resin blocks. the blocks are solid resin between the boards fibreglass skins. in the shape of a long slot, the fin boxes were cut fron the underside, filled, sanded, and covered with the added fibreglass woven mat and epoxy resin.
although i need to apply another coat of resin, the weight has not increased too much imo.
it does feel heavier, and its not hard to tell it is much more ridgid.
still not finished, but almost there.
later....................................................
where can i get a large seabreeze sticker??????
Man, your rear foot strap is a long way forward?? When i put straps on one of my old surf boards i used a 5 hole plug, found it really good as i have some room to adjust my straps..
yeah it is.
resin on the underside to seal the board.
deck later today.
leaving the board out in the sun to warm up seems to help the resin flow into the smaller holes better and sit flatter.
it looked like it was going to be very streaky, but it has started to settle quite a bit.
i could not have done it with a squeege, no way.
At last it is ready to test.
i gave it a light sand with 360 wet paper to knock the pimples off, and give it a mat finish all over.
my wife just said 'looks dont matter, it's strong and thats what counts'
looks like wind in the morning.
You may be a little tail happy with those tiny fins?
I got a quad kiting board with standard fins and it seems right for carving, let us know if it is awesome fun getting out on the fruit of your hard labour.
Nice work
first test runs done today.
am i happy? YES!!!
was it worth the work? YES!!!
my mate ben was down at conway beach today, i asked him to come and comment.
the board was great in the flat water, even in very shallow water i was able to edge and keep away from the beach.
once past the small flat area and into the breaking waves, shallow beach chop, the board was easy to get over the white water and hold an edge.
out a little further, into the full on choppy water it is ugly and not nice at all. but that is not where i intend to use it.
my aim was to turn a surfboard into a strapped kiteboard, that i have done.
i wanted a board that would be good in 8 to 10 knts in shallow flatter water, that i think i now have.
overall i'm very pleased with how it feels, it fills a hole that only a large board would fill.
one problem that did arise is that one fin broke through the side of the fin box, maybe it was not drilled quite in the centre, and was weak on one side.
i'll fill the holes with resin, and redrill the holes.
what you guys have said about the tail being loose, you are correct, it is. but i only felt the tail slide out once. i let the board sit flatter in the water, without much heal preasure, and felt it slip, caught it by edgeing more.
i'll look into longer fins, any suggestions?
Some great work there mate, with the fins I would imo change the front fins to an M3 or M5 FCS fin and leave the rear ones as is. With a set up like that you could flat turn it no worries
Nice to see someone mucking around and helping others out.
IMO your rear foot placement is FAR to forward, this will be ok for cruising around but once you get it out in the surf your will lack the ability to really pivot on the wave. Look where surfers put their rear foot, right on top of the fin box, that is where you should have yours. Its easier to ride around with the back foot forward and if you want to ride strapped a lot of riders will move their rear foot out when cruising around to the forward position where you have the strap then slide it back in for the waves.
In regards to the fin mounting, there is no strength in epoxy/resin alone, best would be to mix fibre glass and resin. There is alot of force on the fins especially if you hit objects.
Look how they install fcs boxes, there alot of how to vids on the net.
Bending the screw like that I don't think much will handle that kind of knock, if you want to ride in shallow waters have a look at skim boards and boards that incorporate channels instead of fins- with that board you are halfway there with the channels. Aliah boards work on a similar principle but you may have to sharpen your rail so it can act as a fin.
Just some ideas.
Cheers
Rich
Drill the fin holes out with a 10mm drill, fill the holes with a resin /chopped glass mix. After curing drill out with 6mm and refit fins