10. Oh Fiberglass...

Remember how I warned to expect failures, here is one! A big one! Thus far, I have been referencing the Instructables guide to making a longboard and I came to the stage where it said to begin applying a layer of fiberglass for strength and flexibility. I had never used anything of the sort before and was just following what I had read up to this point. The simple instructions that the man at the hardware store gave me ended up being incredibly misleading. Not knowing any better, and not having researched it enough, I went ahead and prepared the concoction to my board. Altogether the process included covering the board with a specific fiber cloth, mixing together a resin and hardener and then coating the cloth with the mixture. Sounds easy enough.

The predicament began when neither my friend nor I knew exactly the proper ratio of resin to hardener to mix. The container explained that a quarter of the tube of hardener was equivalent to a quarter of the canister of hardener but at night in the dark and outside, it was very hard to tell how many drops you actually put in the mixture. All we knew was that fiberglass supposedly dried very quickly and we had to work quickly. So we took our best guess and crossed fingers.

-What an ordeal-

Thanks to the very inconvenient maritime weather, it was freezing cold and wet outside so we were forced indoors.  Shop #3 became a small space inside right next to the exterior door for at least some warmth and the critical air circulation. Fiberglass is indeed a toxin with quite a potent smell. Unbeknownst to us, the smell had wafted throughout the building so we were stunned when an RA came barging into the room, in all his fury, to kick us out. Shucks, back out in the storm.  We braved the cold yet once again but we weren’t able to last long as 10 minutes yet another RA and the front desk attendant found us outside and inevitably shut down the whole operation. Turns out the smell had carried through the basement, up the stairwell and into the main lobby. Oops! At that point we called it quits, packed up and left the board with its new coat of fiberglass to dry. I shamefully made my way back inside expressing my deepest apologies to everyone for stinking up the residence…  Another lesson learned.

Come the next morning I went outside to collect what I though would be my nicely coated board but what I found was that the resin still hadn’t set in the freezing temperatures.  Shocker. Combined with what may have been an incorrect resin to hardener ratio, I had one cold and sticky board.  After 36 hours of begging the board to dry via sun (vs heat - remember the temp), and blow dryers, the board never did quite dry. Plus the smell was so strong that it wasn’t safe to bring it inside so I hit yet another barrier.  With my class deadline looming, I had to make the call to scrap the fiberglass altogether and start all over again with my second board that I thought I would use as a tester.  

-Although it was sunny, -10 degrees don't quite do the trick-

-I gave up-

Needless to say, this is the first and last time that I will ever work with fiberglass! I would not recommend it to anyone unless it was absolutely necessary. Plus it is not at all environmentally friendly.