baseline recommendations

The glassing technique for the first lamination is so ridiculously simple I won't waste words on it. That's what the DVD is for. See it - you'll get it.

The notes here address conventional glassing concerns and details, as they relate to these boards.

Longboard:
16 oz top : (6+4) first lam + 6 second lam, or (4+4) first lam + (4+4) second lam
14 oz bottom : (6+4) first lam + 4 second lam, or just (6+4+4) first lam

Shortboard:
14 oz top : (6+4) first lam + 4 second lam, or just (6+4+4) first lam
10 oz bottom : (6+4) first lam

Those are good starting glass amounts that will give reasonable weight and good strength.

A 10 oz or 12 oz deck might work, but my first attempt at that gave marginal performance - several superficial stress cracks, and eventually a crack that leaked a little. But I had sanded into the glass in a lot of places on that early board. With a thick hot coat and careful sanding, a 10 oz or 12 oz deck deck might work.

Please try any variation you think will work. Right now I like the 16/14 and 14/10 combinations, but I don't think I've really found what's ideal or what's minimally sufficient.

Carbon fiber, hemp, bamboo cloth? I don't know. Try it.

With a 10 oz or even 14 oz lamination, you can't afford to sand into the glass very much. Of course, you don't intend to hit the glass at all. But there will almost certainly be irregularities in the lamination that make it unavoidable. Look for holes after sanding the hot coat and patch and re-sand them before moving on to the gloss.

Because of the way epoxy cures, you don't need to sand between coats if you apply the next coat within a day or two (and you're using a blush-free epoxy). But the sooner the next coat goes on, the better the bond between the two coats will be. So you want to plan your resin application sessions in a way that lets you get to the finished hot coat as quickly as possible. You're going to sand the hotcoat anyway, so once you get it on there, you can take a break in your build schedule.

Plan to do at least two epoxy applications a day, alternating the side of the board you're working on, so no coat cures too long before the next coat tries to bond with it. I'll include a sample glassing time schedule with these instructions.

Due to the difficulty of cutting the lap with a blade, I wouldn't recommend doing more than 14 oz for the first lam (generally on the deck). Usually I do a 10oz first lam as a layer of 6oz under a layer of 4oz. So, for 16 oz, do 10 oz (6+4) for the first lam and another 6 oz layer later, in the more conventional way, with a spreader - which brings up second lams:

When applying additional layers of fiberglass you will simply pour epoxy onto the fabric and spread it with a squeegee, or plastic spreader, in the conventional way. Do not pour all the resin at once and let it sit there in a thick puddle. Your first lamination has numerous pin holes and the pooled epoxy will seep into them. Instead, pour your batch of epoxy in a few quick stages and roughly spread each stage out just after you pour it. A thinner layer of pooled epoxy is much less likely to seep through the pin holes. On the other hand, if you want some drips to form on the inner surface - for the look - you might pour all the epoxy at once and let it sit for a minute before spreading it. Either way, just be aware of the implications of the pinholes in the inital lamination.

How much epoxy for first lam? I don't know exactly. Because I've been mixing epoxy in small batches, and because I often dump the last ounce or more for various reasons, I don't have a good figure here.

If you use my first lam approach, you won't need a total ounce number to get the job done.

If you're trying some other method of applying resin, like a spray setup, or some other efficient applicator, or a resin with a really long pot life, and you want to do a whole side at once, in one batch, I would initially budget 3 oz, or maybe 3.5 oz of resin per foot of board. (Still assuming you're only working on one side of the board at a time.) Then, hopefully, you can adjust the amount down from there, once you see what it really takes.

Do the hot coat with epoxy. I know no other way, but I understand that some people put polyester hot coats over epoxy laminations. I don't think that makes sense for these boards. You want the added strength of an epoxy hot coat. Epoxy is harder to sand than polyester. Good.

A double hotcoat might be good, especially on the bottom, if you only have 10 oz of glass there. With 10 oz. you really can't afford to sand into the glass very much.

Beginners: Consider doing a double hot coat. This gives you more room to sand the surface smooth before you start hitting the glass. You don't want to sand into the glass if you can help it. If you're sanding and hitting the glass a lot, and still not scratching the surface in the middle of the hexagon cells, you should probably stop sanding, blow off the dust, and apply another hot coat. You might even consider adding more glass patches if you've done too much damage with your sanding. (I've had this happen a couple times. The second hot coat gave really good results.)

I always do a final epoxy gloss coat. I don't attempt to sand and polish it - I just leave the epoxy's gloss and the gloss coat bead as they are. I've started to move the gloss tape line/bead up higher on the rail, out of the water flow area. A minimal, clean bead, really high on the rail isn't much worse than a pinline. "Yeah I meant to do that. It's a clear pinline. Cool, huh?"

Steve asks you to consider skipping the gloss coat, and all the intermediate sanding. So far, I've found that the sanding and final gloss coat are required for these boards, to partially smooth inherent lumpiness caused by the core, and to build up enough layers of epoxy to plug all the pin holes.

There will likely by many pinholes after the first lam. Any subsequent lams will plug most or all of these.

A 10 oz first lam (6+4) with a hot coat will probably still have some holes. After sanding the hotcoat and applying a gloss coat, remaining pinholes will probably be filled.

A 14 oz first lam (6+4+4) with a hot coat will have fewer holes.

A 10 oz lam with a subsequent second lam (say another 4 to 8 oz) and a hot coat will probably have no holes. And after sanding and a gloss coat almost cetainly will not have holes.

After sanding, I just wipe the dust off with a fresh, clean, dry towel, thinking that any holes or deep dimples that might have survived might hold a bit of dust, and be well plugged by the gloss coat.

Closely inspect the board for pin holes as you do your final gloss coat. Often there are none, or just one or two. If dropping more resin on them doesn't plug them (and usually it doesn't - they open again in a minute or two) you should either find something to cover them with, or let the gloss coat cure and plug the hole in a later patch job.

When trying to plug a hole in the wet gloss coat, you can use a tiny scrap of tissue paper. With tweezers or a toothpick, manipulate the piece of tissue so that it lays flat on the board surface over the hole. This will be enough to plug it. The tissue's absobent nature will let the gloss coat flow over it and make the tissue patch almost undetectable. The edges of the tissue might try to to bend or curl up. Make sure the little piece is cleanly cut and flat to start with and maybe this won't happen.

You don't absolutely need to post cure your board, but I would recommend doing something like this to harden it up faster and to be sure it has no pin holes:

On a warm day take your board and a drill with a small bit out in the sun. Let the board heat up for a couple minutes. (Or set up the equivalent situation in a warm space or room.) You might notice the hexagon cells begin to bulge out a little if it starts to get too hot. That's a good sign that your board is air and water tight - no holes - but it also means it's getting ready to explode, so drill a little hole in an inconspicous place and let out the pressure. But before you drill, you also want to listen closely to the board. An otherwise imperceptible hole might be audible in this situation. If the cells don't begin to bulge or you didn't get any pressure release when you drilled the hole, you will need to search for pin holes later, and patch them. But either way, with your tiny hole drilled in the board, leave it out in the sun, but covered with something like black plastic, black cloth, large dark beach towels or something like that, to help it collect heat but also to protect it from UV light. Place the board on a soft surface, like a bunch of folded beach towels, supported along most of its length, because the heat will probably soften up the epoxy somewhat, and if the board is in some stressed position, it might warp slightly, or you might get indentations in the surface.

Leave it out for several hours. Maybe flip it once. The next day patch your little drill hole. I would recommend having the board around 75 to 85 deg F when you seal it. This should allow it to withstand higher temperatures without delaminating or blistering - though I haven't tested this thoroghly.

Avoid Heat, or Install Vent

Don't expose the board to extreme temperatures. If for some reason you know it's going to get extremely hot, drill a hole in it, and remember to patch it later. If you're going to regularly abuse the board with heat, build in a pressure release valve. Look around the Web for ideas on how to make your own. That's too much trouble for me, so none of my boards have them. Keep your board at moderate temperatures and it should be fine.

Disregard any of these notes if you think you know better. For instance, I say it's too hard to cut the lap on the first side of the first lam if you do more than 14 oz. I use a box cutter. Maybe you're going to use a dremel tool, so cutting through 16 oz or more is no problem. Yeah, so you know better. I'm counting on it!