fiberglass

[savagegarrick]

O.k. I have been researching different sealants,epoxies, etc... to throw on my new skate to make it indestructable. Anyone ever lay down a sheet or two of some fiberglass when epoxing your skate?

[Le Jalapeno]

fiberglass is just unholy to work with..... yuck, lots of sanding and stuff. Its worth it though, if you've got the cajones

[erikmonty]

fiberglass hurts my soul...my buddy was real good at it a while back...wear a mask

[Hecti036]

if you want somethign that will one up fiberglass go for carbon fiber, its even more indestructible than fiber glass and weighs less it also looks cooler.

[electricsnow]

A few people I know of have used fiberglass to repair cracked top decks from bi-levels. One of these repaired decks have not be ridden (but will be this summer ) and the other one was ridden and they said it worked well. But like someone else said, there's a lot of work involved...this other dude needed a belt sander or something?

Either way, I want to try working with it this spring because I've got a couple of projects i could work on.

[bachlonso]

yes, fiberglass is a lot of work, but once you get the hook of it, you can build the hottest stuff. i haven't used fiberglass for building boards yet but i have build various things, like speaker boxes, dashboard and gauge panels for my baywindow. they turned out awesome!
it is very usefull to have power tools though because it really is a ton of grinding...
and wear a mask...

[savagegarrick]

Eh, I'm in the navy and have had plenty of practice using fiberglass. I like it, it's not too bad. I wa just curious too see what if anything anyone had done to their boards with it.Hecti036, LOL. yeah carbon fiber would be sweet, but expensive, no?

[wakeskatedude]

savagegarrick, normal glassing like on a surfboard is not enough for a wakeskate, the fibreglass not hold on the skate, you must do it like mr. schmaltz or with a vacuum bag, search on google with "vacuum fibreglass bag selfmade", for selfmade you can use a pump from a fridge as vaccum pump

[Hecti036]

actually savagegarrick, carbon fibre isnt as expensive asmost people think, its just the process thats kind of expensive, that is if you are making formula 1 racing cars, all you really need are carbon fiber sheets, the right epoxy, and a vacuum bag,( and heat if you are really desperate to get the last little bit of performance out of it)
once cured in the vacuum bag there should be no need to sand it as opposed to fiber glass.

[Kay-Kay]

wakeskatedude, if it works on surfboards why won't it work on a wakeskate? I remember helping my dad glass a wood skimboard when i was little. Didn't seem to bad at the time.

[Le Jalapeno]

wakeskatedude, I never had to use a bag or whatever

Hecti036, carbon is sick, but a super duper pain in the ass from what i've seen

erikmonty, i feel your pain

[bachlonso]

Kay-Kay, i know what wakeskatedude meant cause i've seen the board he laminated. due to the flex of a skate the fiberglass will delam if not vac-pressed. if you have a really stiff board it might work but elsewise it will surely delam...
but go ahead and try. you might succeed. and if not it's always fun to do a little work on your beloved items.

[feelnjstfine]

Alot has to do with what kind of cloth and resins you use when it comes to strength and delamination with glass. With skates, you want to use a totally different type of glass than on a surfboard and usually use epoxys instead of polys. Vacuum bagging definately helps.

[flwakeboarder80]

epoxy and carbon fiber

[Hecti036]

definatly!!!!

[wakeskatedude]

the flex is not the real problem, sorry bachlonso
the edges are a problem because of the small radius, very thin glass fibre can be used for solving this problem
and hitting rails is a real problem, surface and edges!

good solution for all this problems is a vacuum bag because of

* glass is strong epoxy not, use the smallest amoung of expoy!
* like every glue, pressure helps, vacuum bags produce a lot of pressure, the connection between the glass and the wood will be stonger

why not wrapping?

missing a rail or falling and the skate crashed agains a obstacle, a peer, or ..., or only falling the skate down on the edge by something

if you have a vacuum bag than use form, sidewalls, and upper and a lower glass sheet set like on snowboards, kiteboards, or omen skates, or integrity skates and all is superb

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x103fj_pareoshapesmall-la-strat-dune-planc
http://www.dailymotion.com/barracudakitos/video/x1rft5_operation-demoulage-de-flamby

but always remember: a real skateboard is out of wood and nothing other and it breaks from time to time

[electricsnow]

thanks for the info, wakeskatedude!

[wakeshredder]

My zariel I just got is fiberglassed.. it seems strong as hell!

[coricluster]

i just got done putting a new floor in my ski nautique, i had to glass over it with 1 1/2 ounce cloth. it was not fun, the trick is to do it in 2 coats. the first coat. mix 50/50 resin and acetone, the acetone penetrates the wood and brings the glass into it. let that dry. and then second coat use cloth. i know when i glasssed ravens 4trac it started to chip off. and later i found out the acetone trick. have fun and wear latex gloves. im sitting here typing rigt now and my fingers are sticking to the keys.

[wakeskatedude]

wakeshredder, the zariel is for sure pressed

coricluster, nice idea, but vacuum is better, but if it holds all is perfect