Cool it, Brothers....

      Malcolm X's last words, while supposedly uttered to his assassins moments before he was killed, could also be said to this Summer, because it has been hot, and indeed needs to cool it, brother. (Summer is personified as the male Sumarr in Norse mythology, so the "brother" here works. Ah, wikipedia...).

     That being said, I did finally get to do both lam coats yesterday. I wanted to do them on Friday, but by the time I got everything ready, it was 90 degrees. Too hot. As it was when I started doing the bottom yesterday morning it was 85 and rising, and even when I did the deck at one in the morning, it was 85 in there. But, it got done, and despite the heat causing gel ten minutes too soon, I still managed to get everything done, and better than I have in the past. It's reassuring when progress is apparent.

     Speaking of progress, let's regress for a moment. Yesterday Jeannine and I went to a thrift store we had never been to before, and it's right in Little Egg Harbor. I forget the name, but I saw a medium-sized wooden box in the corner, and as it is any good thrift store forager's nature to open closed things, I opened it, and I was greeted to the above surprise (though all the paperwork did not pop up like that in pop-up book fashion). It's a Century Fast Check Tube Tester, complete with tube charts, original warranty card, invoice, and other interesting paperwork. Wow, I said. Still, with no prices on anything, I assumed the worst, but when I asked the gentleman who was working there how much it was, he asked what it was. I  told him, and he responded with, "Gimme two dollars." "Sold," I said. But what would I use a tube tester for? Well, I used it when I got home to find out that out of the five tubes in the little AM radio in our dining room, none needed to be replaced but two do have minor gas leaks, which could account for the slight humming when on. I'll order them shortly. I can't wait to test all my other tube-powered electronics. So, if you have any tubes that you suspect are faulty and could use testing, I'm your man.
     P.S. The guy at the thrift store also gave us a sewing machine complete with table that works, and a pretty cool looking sewing bench. What a guy.

Eggplant.

      Please, do yourself a favor, and listen to Voice of the Seven Thunders. Really great music from Rick Tomlinson, perhaps this description on the releasing label Holy Mountain's website says it all, "Voice of the Seven Thunders is already drawing comparison to the heyday of '70s acid rock and the likes of Amon Düül II, Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac, Japan's Flower Travellin' Band, early Pink Floyd, the Velvet Underground's drone jams, the electronic kosmische of Cluster and the unhinged organic grooves of International Harvester." Are you kidding me? If I hadn't read that after I heard the band, I would have already loved them. Really solid jams here, some droney, some not, all good grooves, some amazing mind-melting electric stuff, equally amazing mellow acoustic stuff. Listen below, and check out the album.

GO HERE TO LISTEN TO THE SONGS!

Track 03 - Out of the Smoke
Track 06 - Dry Leaves
Track 09 - Set Fire to the Forest

     That's it for now, off to see Inception in a few, which will hopefully prove as mind-bending as it looks. Time to make popcorn!

Happy New Year!

We two have paddled in the stream,

From morning sun 'til dine.
But seas between us broad have roared
Since auld lang syne.

For auld lang syne, my dear,
For auld lang syne,
We'll take a cup of kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

Was finally able to do the lam coat yesterday. Above is a picture of the bottom of the board all ready, with the single layer of 6 oz. glass folded up, ready for the laminate, that is, the graphic.

 

With the laminate on. I used a little lam resin and squeegeed it into the foam. The pointed piece is a fin patch to hopefully add a bit more strength to the fin area. I wasn't going to do it, but the tail is so thin on this board that I figured it couldn't hurt.

Both sides went reasonably well. Gel time was exactly as expected, about 25 minutes. The nice thing about the painted foam is you can clearly see where the cloth needs more resin or where there are air bubbles. I did a free lap on this board, because all the masking tape I tried pulled the paint off a little. It was nice not having to cut the tape, but I do like the control that the cut-lap method offers.

Like I said, both lams went reasonably well, but unfortunately it looks like there is some of the crystallization I've read can happen with painting the foam, especially with darker paints. I think this happens because of moisture, which is strange because the board dried over a week. Maybe there was moisture on the board, and the paint trapped it in? I don't know, but it's kind of a bummer, especially because the paint looked so clean on the foam. I could paint over the hotcoat and cover it up, but I probably won't. Fortunately, it's mostly the deck that this happened on, which most of it will be covered with wax.

The real bummer is spots like this, which are on the rail near the nose...

...and spots like this, which are very close to the tail where no wax probably would have ever gone. Oh well though, a surfboard is meant to be ridden, with aesthetics an added bonus. But maybe I'll still do something to cover it up, we'll see, but for now, some pictures....