Veneer and clear topsheet bubble elimination

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hmarlow
Posts: 2
Joined: Sun Nov 24, 2019 3:39 am

Veneer and clear topsheet bubble elimination

Post by hmarlow »

Hi guys, long long time lurker but first time poster. Ive done a bit of a search on this topic and it seems to be a fairly common issue regarding how to eliminate bubbles between a clear topsheet and veneer layer. I thought i would bring it up again as theres no real conclusive answer but some of the threads are quite old. So does anyone have the silver bullet for this issue? I thought i was making progress, my first boards I had the use heaps of resin approach and flood the bubbles out but I found that left me with a couple of huge bubbles on each board. I then went the opposite with just a skim of resin, I was close to perfect on one board but on another I had lots of micro bubbles in the grain structure. So I thought the natural progressions was to sand the veneer surface and use just a skim of resin, I tried that on my most recent board and I feel like Ive gone backwards. No massive bubble but the "micro" bubbles in the grain structure are more significant this time round. Does any one have any air reducing magic tricks.
Cheers Harry
P.S. using a heated pneumatic press with full width bladder and aluminium cassette.

If your interested in seeing my work you can find me here

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SleepingAwake
Posts: 175
Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:06 pm
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Re: Veneer and clear topsheet bubble elimination

Post by SleepingAwake »

Bit of a detour but i made a veneer behind topsheet snowboard that turned out crystal clear no bubbles with vacuum infusion.
Basically you stack the topsheet, veneer and the reinforcement fibres, then peel ply and a flow media, vacuum bag it, and then do the infusion. After curing you have a laminated sheet that you bond onto the core when laminating the rest. I do all my skis and snowboards this way. You will get a perfectly void free laminate which on the compression side is especially important.
mammuth
Posts: 449
Joined: Tue Oct 28, 2014 3:48 am
Location: somewhere in the alps

Re: Veneer and clear topsheet bubble elimination

Post by mammuth »

Pre soak the veneer, so trapped air is minimized. That said it was pita for me to do this in a pneumatic press...

@Sleeping: Clever solution, didnt think about that!
Tom
SleepingAwake
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Joined: Mon Oct 11, 2010 11:06 pm
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Re: Veneer and clear topsheet bubble elimination

Post by SleepingAwake »

https://youtu.be/o11Q4Iv7LuI here is a video where you can sort of see the process, without wood tho
MadRussian
Posts: 712
Joined: Thu Sep 30, 2010 12:32 pm
Location: USA

Re: Veneer and clear topsheet bubble elimination

Post by MadRussian »

I don't have problems with bubbles.
iirc epoxy roller should take care of bubbles

"The bubble roller tool is for getting air bubbles out of freshly laid fiberglass, "

I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work.
Thomas A. Edison
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