Made rocker templates from masonite. Made stringers with PVC plastic.
We have four blanks that need stringers so we want to experiment and learn.
Used a hot wire cutter to split the first blank in half. The blanks are at my house. Ben has a band saw at his place but it’s raining and we did not want to transport the foam. I have a jig saw and a hand saw that might get used on one of the other blanks. The blade is too short on the jig saw. I’m going to the tool store tomorrow to check out longer blades. This photo shows Gorilla Glue spread onto the blank. That’s masking tape down the sides because we always make a big mess!
Before I post more photos lets ask some questions…
What do you think is the best way to cut 2# eps blanks in half. JIg saw, band saw,Skill saw,hand saw,Giant hot wire thing.
What are you using for stringer material ,where did you buy it?
If you used a PVC stringer did you sand it before you glued it? (We sanded ours)
We are using Gorilla glue. The instructions say to wet one surface before gluing. We did not want water near our project so we skipped this wet step…Pros/cons???
I’ll try to post more photos now…
Stingray and Shipman gluing up their first EPS foam blank.
So Cal full winter gear.
We only have four bar clamps, Hope thats enough!
Check out Shipman’s latest board on the bottom of the wall rack.
We got hail today along with rain and strong winds !!! Strange weather for San Diego county
Will the cold affect the gorilla gule ???
Stingray, I’m working on a technical paper to post here. One of the things I’m looking at is relative break strength of various stringer materials in EPS. I use PVC regularly, but I’m not fan of the stuff. I have a hunch, and hope to confirm/deny, that high density EPS could make a decent stringer if it is wide enough. Say 3 inches or so. That would make it easy to drop a sheet of EPS stinger in the EPS block and hot wire your blanks without the extra step of adding the wood or PVC stringer.
Doing the calc’s today. Hope to post soon.
A bandsaw, if the throat opening is wide enough. If you wobble, you reverse the sides so your ‘factory’ cuts get glued to the stringer and your wobbly cuts are on the outsides (& will go away when you template). Matter of fact, you can cut the centerline with anything you want, even a serrated bread knife, and swap the original outsides to the inside for gluing up the stringer 
I like to split my 2# into 4 6" wide pieces. 3 gorilla glue lines are as strong as a pvc stringer and the hotwire still goes right through…
The water is kind of important for activating the pu glue. I just spread the pu on one side & mist the other side with a kitchen sprayer. Solid in 3-4 hours, depending on the weather. If its cold & humid, you might be fine without the water, because the humidity in your air might be enough - I learned that the hard way last winter when I left a half a bottle of pu glue uncapped in my cold, wet garage - a week later, it’d gone off & watsted the glue. 2# eps won’t absorb any extra water, so no worries about the mist.
We got hail today along with rain and strong winds !!! Strange weather for San Diego county
Will the cold affect the gorilla gule ???
yeah it’ll cure slower
So Ben, In your opinion if I glue up triple laminations of #2 eps with glue it will be as strong as a single stringer board? The glue lines strengthening like a wood/pvc stringer? Mike
Quote:
… What do you think is the best way to cut 2# eps blanks in half. JIg saw, band saw,Skill saw,hand saw,Giant hot wire thing.
What are you using for stringer material ,where did you buy it? …
I don’t make my own blanks, but if I did, I would use a table saw with a fine-cut carbide-tip plywood/panel blade and an extra tall fence then just lift the ends of the blanks while cutting to keep the material around the saw blade flat on the table. That would give you smooth square cuts with no ripples or crust from a hotwire.
Here is an eps/RR epoxy with a 3/8" (double 3/16") mahogany stringer. (The board is turned slightly.)
Quote:
So Ben, In your opinion if I glue up triple laminations of #2 eps with glue it will be as strong as a single stringer board? The glue lines strengthening like a wood/pvc stringer? Mike
YES 
Greg Tate…
Why don’t you like PVC Stringers?
We considered different stringer materials ,I like your idea of using a 3# strip for stringer but what do you use for a reference when shaping.
Benny…No stringer just 3 glue lines??? I’ll think about that one… Sounds like it would work. It was very wet out when we glued up the stringer on the first board. Let it set up over night. Looks like it set up good. I guled up blank #2 today and dampened the stringer. Looks like the gule expanded better on this one…
Thanks for the input
Ray
Quote:
Stingray, I’m working on a technical paper to post here. One of the things I’m looking at is relative break strength of various stringer materials in EPS. I use PVC regularly, but I’m not fan of the stuff. I have a hunch, and hope to confirm/deny, that high density EPS could make a decent stringer if it is wide enough. Say 3 inches or so. That would make it easy to drop a sheet of EPS stinger in the EPS block and hot wire your blanks without the extra step of adding the wood or PVC stringer.
Doing the calc’s today. Hope to post soon.
10 Boards, 10 Good Boards A Year
Greg, glad too see that you are gonna solve my stringer questions once and for all… 
You had tons of good info on my EPS stringer vs stringerless thread a while back!
Just as an update, i have done 3 stringerless boards since that thread, with no breaks yet!! Varying degrees of glass, the ligtest being a 6+4 top, 6 bottom, with rail channels. Super nice flex and feel, and no denting or snaps yet.
I friend of mine is building a 6’2 stringerless with a 4+4 top, 4 bottom to use up some leftover materials. No rail channels…I figured it would be a good learning experience to see how it snaps, when it inevitable does…and just to observe how a board glassed soooo light will perform and feel. I donated him a blank, so we will see how it goes!
Ray… how’d that blank look today? did it warp? did the glue expand to much? We got so excited at hot wiring up the foam that I forgot that my blank, the one we put the stringer in was suppose to be left with out a stinger because I was going to do a balsa compsand thingy… doooh! What was in that V8 I was drinking? I think we should use my bandsaw or a hand saw next time we cut one in half…
Nasty cold day, The hail, the rain and the rainbow made it all that much better.
Ray side slicing
Stingray’s shop at almost full capacity.?
Ray! Where did you get the PVC material from? And how much??
Hi four fins…
Shipman bought the stringer material some where in San Diego
If he doesn’t post here I’ll call him and get the info
I’m really stoked that SURF4FINS set up this whole deal
With out you I would be foamless!
Blanks one and two were glued up in a horizontal postion using saw horses and clamps. Blank #3 was glued up tonight in a vertical postion because Benny1 posted photos like this and I wanted to experiment. Looks like four clamps is not enough but that’s all I have. 6 clamps would be much better. Blank moved around alot but this one is for a short board so we have lots of extra foam to play with…
https://swaylocks7stage.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/1015820_webblank13.jpg
https://swaylocks7stage.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/1015821_webblank13.jpg
