Part 7: Post Glass Artwork (Optional)

Once your board is fine-sanded to 400, you have the option of adding some artwork using Posca Water-Based Paint Pens, or even Water-based spray paint. The sky is the limit on what you want to do at this stage, just make the board is nice and clean (wipe down with acetone or DNA) and don’t spray anything on too thick. If you are doing any taping to mask or create lines, make sure you use high-temp masking tape to avoid bleeding though the tape lines. Any artwork you add at this stage should be protected with one or two coats of clear spray-on water-based acrylic. This will ensure the artwork doesn’t get rubbed off when you are removing or putting on wax.  

Pinlines

If you did a cut-lap glass-job and plan to gloss-coat your board, you may want to consider adding pinlines. The pinlines can cover up any sloppy areas of the cut-lap, and also add an additional element of style to the board. If you only sanded your board to 120 grit and plan on adding a gloss coat, then you should take the time now to sand the pinline area down to 220 or 320 grit before you begin laying tape for the pinlines. There are several options available that work effectively for pinlines and epoxy glass jobs:

 Posca Pinlines

This is probably one of the easier methods of putting pinlines on your board. The first step is to use high quality pinline tape to create the borders of your pinline. Basically, you want to make sure the pinlines cover any jagged areas around the cut-lap line, so make your borders wide enough to cover these areas. Laying your tape in a nice, clean curve can be tricky. It might take you a few tries to get it right, so make sure your tape has a strong adhesive that can handle a few “redos”.

 Once you have laid down your tape boarders, use an opaque Posca Paint Pen in your color and width of choice to fill in the area between the tape lines. This creates your pinline with a nice, sharp border. When the marker is dry, pull the tape, and VERY LIGHTLY sand the pinlines with 400 grit sandpaper. Slightly roughing it up will prevent your gloss coat from running over that area.

Acrylic Paint

This “old school” method requires the same border-tape preparation as the Posca method, but instead of using a paint pen, you use opaque acrylic paste from a squeeze tube and lay a thin layer of this paste in your pinline area and smooth it over with a gloved-finger. This is probably the most difficult method to master, but will get you good results if you have the patience to practice.

 Opaque Resin

Another common method of creating pinlines is to use pigmented epoxy. The same taping method applies to tape your border, then mix up a batch of pigmented epoxy and brush it into the tape-border with a thin paint brush. Make sure it isn’t brushed on too thick so you don’t create a bump in the pinline area. You want to pull the tape when the resin pinline is no longer tacky, but not so hard that it makes pulling the tape more difficult. Add a little X-55 epoxy cure accelerator to the mix so the resin sets up quickly and doesn't run over the tape.

Once your pinlines are applied and dry, it’s time for the final step in boardmaking:  Gloss Coating and Polishing your board to a showroom shine.