Did the gloss coat yesterday. Did the deck first, as planned, and didn't seal it with anything. I did rough it up with a green scrubby pad, like the kind of sponges. I can't think of the stupid name right now. I figured it would help to rough it up a little bit. All went well on the deck, although it did take way longer than the ten minutes it's supposed to take. I didn't use straight gloss, I used a mix of lam resin and gloss resin with more surfacing agent added. I did this on 002 at the recommendation of someone on Swaylock's, it supposedly makes the gloss coat, which is very sensitive, a little more stable. It seemed to work really well, so I did it again. That's the only reason I can think of that it took so long, because I used the right amount of catalyst for the temp. But yeah, so it took about a half hour to gel, during which time I was worried that the gloss would get too thin as it stretch across the board. It turned out fine.
Originally, I signed on the foam with a white charcoal pencil, figuring it would look cool on the dark color. It did, but then when I glassed it, it basically disappeared. It wouldn't matter anyway since I ended up painting again over the hotcoat. So I got the bright idea to sign it again on the paint, but right before I was going to gloss, as I was wiping the board down, I decided that it might be a good idea to remove that, as the pencil could cause the gloss to not adhere properly in that area. I had thought of sealing just that with clear acrylic, and I should have because that would have solved it. But instead, I just decided to wipe it off with a sponge and the green scrubby pad. But the paint must have been thin there, so instead of just wiping the pencil off I wiped the paint off as well, which wasn't so much of a problem because of the painted blank, but the result after gloss was this:
And this just because a futile act of vanity? Not really (besides, I still have my name on the stringer). I think it won't look so bad after I sand it and the resin is even, because then you'll just see the messed up paint. Something similar happened towards the nose on the bottom.
Kind of a bummer, it looks like the paint might have gotten too thin, and maybe when I roughed it up I went too thin. Still, it's good that the blank is painted, or else those spots would be white, which would really look bad. I think when sanded it will look OK. So, lesson learned: If I would have sprayed a clear coat over the paint, this wouldn't have happened. Still, since it went well on the deck I didn't think it would be necessary, but that's what I'll do from now on. Still, it's acceptable for me this time, as long as I learn from it.
I usually listen to music when I'm working in the shop. I've got a stereo amplifier in there that I hook the ipod to when glassing or doing things that aren't noisy, and I put headphones under my earmuffs when I need ear protection but still want to hear the music. Music definitely makes things go easier, except when I accidentally put on a Boris album that is not the one I thought it was but a half hour droning feedback slow-explosion that just keeps building and intensifying and grinding your brain, and all this while doing my first lam coat ever. Or when I put on the Dreamies album, which is an amazing album and you should check it out, but also another one that can make the listener uncomfortable at times, especially when you are doing the hotcoat and time time is of the essence, as they say, and all then the music blends into a mix of repetitively plodding acoustic guitar strumming, loud clock ticking, and popcorn popping more and more until it sounds like machine gun fire. Mix that with some samples of sirens and tidbits from Beatles songs and you've got a very disconcerting listen while doing your first hotcoat. So it's wise to choose not only music you like, but music that won't drive you crazy during an already tense situation. Now that I've gotten a bit more comfortable with glassing and I'm not quite as tense as that first time, I can listen to a wide variety of tunes while doing this stuff, but it's still good to choose wisely.
So yeah, without further ado, I've decided I'm going to post a song or two from now on that I listened to while working in their and found worthy. So, without further ado, music to gloss by.
Boris - "Heavy Friends," the first track off their 2002 album entitled Heavy Rocks. Dig it.
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