Part 7: Crafting a Legacy - Hollow Wooden Surfboard Series Glassing

[@bradymcphail9690]

Excellent series sir, I have learned a ton. Would you be willing to make a video on the tools you made & used for this. I’m very interested in the Strongback that you used to clamp the decks on with. I recently retired from 50 years welding and heavy construction work. I plan on surfing and building stuff with my grand children for the rest of my life. My wife and I are going to build our dream house and my dream shop on the beach in Oregon. Praying to live our best life in the 2nd half.

[@johnkras967]

Thank you for watching and thank you so much for the feedback, I really appreciate it. I do have the footage of making the setup ocker table. I was thinking on making a video of that after my surfboard video. I also welded up the shaping table. I am not a great welder and could certainly use a leeson from someone with 50 years experience. Good luck with the new house and shop. What an awesome way to spend time with your grandchildren. Surfing will be with them all there life. I cherish the days I spend in the water with my sons and daughter. we are working on boards for them as well.

[@bradymcphail9690]

@@johnkras967- it would be great to see how you built all of your specialized equipment. My boys got into Ice Hockey, my youngest son played at a high level until his Brain injury made him retire early. Now they want to move to Minnesota to give our Granddaughter a better shot at hockey. She will be a good surfer with hockey balance. Maybe in the summer I’ll get her on the beach with me.

[@robertcain3426]

The name 'hot coat' came from polyester resin lamination. It was the application of a filler coat of resin to fill the weave of the glass lamination. It is resin with added wax in styrene solution so that the board could sanded. The term 'hot coat' came from the resin and wax formulae being made hotter by added promoter. 'hot coat' in America and 'filler coat' in Australia.

[@Jamesondk]

Hi John. Very entertaining and informative. You posting this has come at a good time as I'm getting ready to glass a similar board. Couple questions if you dont mind: What grit did you sand to prior to laminating? Im using entropy resin with an 8 foot board, so I'd be curious to know what volumes/weights you used to try to minimize waste. Thanks!

[@johnkras967]

Hello James, Thanks for the great feedback. I sanded the board down to 220- grit. I wanted to make sure that I removed all the sanding scratches from the coarser grits. I found that 303 g of Epoxy and 130 g of harder for the laminating coat on my 9ft board left just a little epoxy left in the pot. You want to make sure you have enough to do the coat. You don't want to stop and mix more during the laminating process. Here is a great video form entropy about weighing and mixing. kzbin.info/www/bejne/a2Sbc3l3eLF4g6Msi=HUmXf1ksQnMt7cKf They go over the formula to use to get the ratio of epoxy to hardener correct. Good luck with the build and most important enjoy the process.

[@Jamesondk]

Thanks John, thats very useful, I was afraid of sanding to too high a grit and not getting a great bond. Did you find the wood produced any bubbles underneath the lamination as the epoxy cures? I'm debating doing a cheater coat of only epoxy before lamination. The board looks great by the way!

[@johnkras967]

@@Jamesondk I did not have any issues with bubbles. I had a few tiny bubbles in the laminate coat, they were easily removed with the hair dryer. I don't think you need a cheater coat. I watched allot of videos and read some manuals and none of them suggested coating the board before the laminate coat. When I finish my current board I am going to use the same procedure I showed. I was very happy with how my previous board came out. Thanks, the board looks awesome. Good luck with the board.

[@dave1082]

if you are glassing wood with polyester resin you do need to pre coat and let it dry before lamination. epoxy is different.@@johnkras967

[@allsurf]

Heavy metal and epoxy. 🤙🏼

[@robertcain3426]

Is there a reason you didn't lap the glass on the rails as with a traditional surfboard lamination?

[@johnkras967]

Robert, I followed the Grain surfboard glassing manual. I am not sure the procedure for lapping the glass on the rails. Do you have any examples of the procedure? What is the benefit? Is that adding an extra piece of glass to the side rail?

[@robertcain3426]

@@johnkras967 Yes, it (lapping) is to add more strength to the rails with the least amount of additional work, since it's easy just to lap the glass under and achieve double the thickness on the rails where it's needed. It is a little more difficult for the novice, but not a problem for proficient laminators. Watching surfboard laminators will help the inexperienced. Cheers

[@johnkras967]

@@robertcain3426 Thanks for the info! I reserched a little further after I replied. From what I found. The wood core is much stronger than foam, so traditionally the double lapping rail on a wood board is not needed. At least that is what I found.