Quick and dirty skin and frit for impatient imperfectionists

Tutorials
81

I would 100% iron that before you use it

Sure. I use fast cure epoxy for my basecoat(s) and slow cure UV stabilised rpoxy for my finish coat(s)

Use less resin. Look on youtube for videos of how to hotcoat a surfboard for general resin application ideas. Most people make the mistake of using far too much resin. The aim of the game in lamination and hotcoating is to use the absolute least amount of resin possible to wet out your part.

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82

Oh great, was not sure whether it would damage the fabric.

Makes sense, thanks!

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83

Careful with the iron tho! Too hot and synthetic stuff melts. Iron on back, under something else maybeā€¦ :thinking:

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84

Yeah a towel or something would be good

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85

Would definitely recommend ironing but I found that the straight folds will be able to be smoothed. I wasnā€™t able to get mine completely ironed out and you canā€™t tell one bit.

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86

Seems like you are really experienced with this, i hope you can help me! I was wondering, when iā€™m doing the final sand and clear coat, i of course will sand the non fritted areas but what about those that have frit? You canā€™t do it with sand paper, so maybe a scotch brite pad? Or leave it not sanded

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87

Welcome @Stanley you saw my message awesome these guys are the OGā€˜s of skin and frit so have fun

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88

Yeah, thanks a lot! Weā€™ll see what the masters have to say. Iā€™m curiousšŸ˜œ

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89

Definitely this for the fritted part.
If you time your coats, you donā€™t have to sand at all beyond deck prep/stripping.

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90

My whole ethos around this is fuck sanding

Have a read through my guide, make sure you click all the little expanding triangles.

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91

Not to sound stupid and all but i didnā€™t even look at the triangles, and i was like where is the tutorialā€‹:rofl::rofl:. Great tutorial by the way, gonna get the graphic printed this week. Polyester 100% is the best, right?

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92

I think everyone uses polyester satin. Spoonflower is good for custom prints in the states, otherwise some use local print shops.

Definitely check out @rosco 's frit tutorial as well, lots of good info there as well as the comments below.

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93

What weight should the polyester satin be bro? ~180?

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94

Thats a great question. I donā€™t get that option at my supplier.

I believe i have seen the 170gsm number recommended before, so 180 sounds good.

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95

I ordered Lucen Satin (120 g/m2) from contrado.com (they seem to be international):

Lucent Satin Fabric Printing | Create Your Own Satin Prints

Hope I got it rightā€¦

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96

120 seems light, make sure you use a good solid white base

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97

Do you think I should cut my losses and order a heavier fabric?

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98

I am going for 180

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99

I would wait and see what it looks/feels like

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100

Brown5tick used 172g where as spoonflower is 75g.
So 130 will be a happy medium.
Iā€™m interested in trying heavier next go around as the light spoonflower is quite easy to warp your image and is insanely hard to get sharp straight lines(if your image has them).
I imagine executing the layout you want is easier with heavier fabric.

Only downside I could think that would pop up is possibly deep contours and sharp plane changes(drop down transition) may be harder to pull off with out issue. (Pure speculation there)

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