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My first Alaia

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downunder
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Re: My first Alaia

Postby downunder » Sun Nov 06, 2016 2:51 am

Did you seal your wood before glassing?

The FG looks dry coz probably risen onto the surface. Not sure if u used a vac but the idea with it is to hold a FG as close to surface as possible. Tell us how did you glass and we might know more...

The way to salvage this might be to strip the fg off if possible. If epoxy still not 100% cured. Did that once or twice, improved a process after, finished great.

D.

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PugetSoundKiter
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Alaia Repairs

Postby PugetSoundKiter » Wed Aug 16, 2017 8:52 pm

Cool project :thumb:

My Naish Alaia glass is worn to the mat in places (dark blue arrow examples) and corners are chipped out (light blue arrows). I made a foam pipe wrap (wrapped in tape) protector to prevent future transport corners/edges/tip damage (bottom picture).
AlaiaRepairs.jpg
Looking for tips on what to use to fill & seal the chipped corners, and what to use to resurface the board before the exposed mat wears away?

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Re: Alaia Repairs

Postby RalfsB » Thu Aug 17, 2017 8:52 am

PugetSoundKiter wrote:
Wed Aug 16, 2017 8:52 pm
My Naish Alaia glass is worn to the mat in places (dark blue arrow examples) and corners are chipped out (light blue arrows). I made a foam pipe wrap (wrapped in tape) protector to prevent future transport corners/edges/tip damage (bottom picture).

Looking for tips on what to use to fill & seal the chipped corners, and what to use to resurface the board before the exposed mat wears away?
To restore a board like this I would clean off all the wax (if there is any), clean the board with acetone, then cover both sides with a layer of epoxy (like, using a paint roller), then sand it smooth. Regarding the corners, the simplest is to file or sand them round before covering with epoxy. They can also be rebuilt, for that I would get a wood dust (e.g. what remains from sanding), mix it with epoxy so that I get a thick paste, put it on corners, then put some thick paper along the top and bottom of the board around corners so that the paste is held in place; I like using the polyethylene-coated paper from milk cartoons because it does not stick to epoxy. After epoxy hardens, the corners can be sanded to the right shape.

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Re: My first Alaia

Postby PugetSoundKiter » Fri Aug 18, 2017 8:23 pm

Thanks RalfsB

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Re: My first Alaia

Postby PugetSoundKiter » Thu Oct 19, 2017 8:32 pm

Dried the board out for several months, de-waxed, cleaned with xylene I had, brushed epoxy on the bottom. When it cured I noticed moisture/air tried to escape and created a few bubbles (red circles in picture below) and burst a few bigger bubbles (blue circle). Then I coated the topside with epoxy and sprinkled clean sand (I had washed beach sand and dried it) for a grit finish (when I made skimboards years ago this worked and lasted great). Picture below shows the sanded top, not as pretty, but more practical (I don't like waxing, de-waxing, re-waxing, cleaning wax off gear, keeping sand out of the wax...) No bubbles on the top, I assume because the topside has not worn thru the glass/matt like the bottom side. I plan to sand and re-epoxy the bottom side to coat the bubble holes and have an extra thick layer to prevent wear thru too quickly. I really only need the second coat on the non-concave/flat areas and rail/sides the board. I could avoid adding more weight to the board this way. Do you think if I taped off the concave/center part of the board and just applied epoxy to the outer sides and rails, then fine sanded the taped transition area to the concave edge that would work out?
AlaiaReEpoxy1.jpg

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Re: My first Alaia

Postby BWD » Thu Oct 19, 2017 8:45 pm

refinish center concave and feather in edges? yes that could work fine.
You will also get a bubble-free epoxy coat if you make sure to coat in falling temperatures.
Bubbles usually are caused by a board heating up after you put the resin on.
Just a few degrees temperature rise will make every tiny bubble under the resin and/or glass expand, and porous cores like wood can make huge bubbles.
Keep in mind you are fighting the epoxy reaction, which also gives off a little heat.

Glassing or coating in the evening, turning on the AC after you glass, warming all your materials in the sun before you glass then glassing in the shade or in a cool room, can all help avoid the problem.
Just be very careful how much you warm epoxy! 75-80 deg F is plenty warm enough for most. Out of control epoxy reactions are a smoking sticky disaster.

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Re: My first Alaia

Postby downunder » Fri Oct 20, 2017 2:55 am


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PugetSoundKiter
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Re: My first Alaia

Postby PugetSoundKiter » Tue Oct 24, 2017 3:07 am

Thanks downunder, watched the video and a few others, but didn’t need the vacuum seal or blow torch tips from the video.

Thanks BWD, for your tips about not heating the epoxy and actually cooling the board after application, this technique worked. I sanded the first coat, cleaned and used an extra amount/heavy second coat. Having extra epoxy applied made it flow and level nicely. I turned on a fan in the garage to circulate the air and cool the board for a few hours. Came out very nice. :thumb:

Now that I’ve had some success, I’m going to re-coat another old repaired & dinged up Naish Skater I have. Not going to sand/grit finish the top on this one but plan to add traction pads when I’m done . Thanks again all for the tips.
:cheers:


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