6'2" hollow poplar XPS surfboard

Florian_R · November 13, 2010, 11:53am

Hi Ian,

i’m not too happy about my leashplug either, i think it’s too complicated. Your leashplug looks really good, simple and strong. I wanted to have no footpad on this board, do you think its a problem when the leashplug is not flush to the deck? Like to step on the leashplug while surfing or during takeoff or something like that? do you think this could be a problem if i use a leashplug like yours without a footpad?

Florian

lavarat · November 13, 2010, 11:03pm

I don’t have any problems with the leash loops but you should check out your wax foot print on your boards.

The down side to this style of construction is if you have a tiny leak it is days of trouble to fix it.

I am a little paranoid after haveing a few leaks.

Florian_R · November 21, 2010, 12:48am

just glued the poplar deck skin on, it starts to look like a surfboard, but without rails yet. That’s why the outline looks so slim…

Florian_R · November 20, 2010, 7:48pm

I just glued one piece of xps on that is going to be a rail. I used tape that is wrapped around the board to keep the xps in place till the glue sets. By chance the xps that is available at our hardware store has the same colour as the poplar plywood. But I think I will paint the rails anyway. I will post a weight table that contains the weights of each component of the board soon. At the moment it weights just above 3kg, unfortunately my scale has a max. mass limit of 3kg, so i have to use the kitchen scale that is not so accurate…

Florian_R · November 21, 2010, 12:35am

After attaching the other rail, i startet shaping the rails. I forgot how much fun this is!

I used a power planer (is it the right expression?) to save time. When i applied to much pressure or the speed was to high sometimes the xps startet melting, see the slightly darker areas at the rails, but not much of a problem.

Florian_R · November 21, 2010, 12:38am

What a coicidence, i’m still amazed how well the colour of the poplar fits the xps of the rails…In the pic you cant distinguish both…

Florian_R · November 21, 2010, 12:41am

almost finished shaping.

there’s some crazy soap bubble action going on

Florian_R · November 25, 2010, 10:52pm

I’m almost finished with shaping, i took two pictures and used photoshop to paint the background black.The weight,by the way, is around 3400g at the moment. Yet have to glass the board.

Here we go:

BgSurfer · November 26, 2010, 12:53am

Nice build. I’ve been thinking about a semi-hollow XPS core with skins.

What are you using to glue your ribs, skins and rails together?

Your project makes me want to start a new project – too many already on the burner though.

hang loose

Florian_R · November 26, 2010, 4:18pm

Hi BgSurfer,

for gluing i use polyurethane glue (PU-Glue), all the wooden surfboard builder use it because it is waterresistant and also fills small gaps really good as it expands a bit when it sets. Next time i will try to use a bit less of the glue, because it ads quite a lot of weight to the build. I also think the xps is perfect for the rails, but for the ribs i will probably use lighter foam next time or 3cm xps instead of 4cm.

should be enough concerning the strength of the board and a bit lighter.

florian

BgSurfer · November 26, 2010, 5:41pm

Is there a specific type/brand of PU glue that you use? So it doesn’t dissolve XPS?

What density XPS are you using for your ribs? Rails?

Florian_R · December 2, 2010, 7:43pm

as far as I know, any PU glue is good for xps. PU glue doesn’t contain solvent or something that could dissolve the xps, its a bit like the insulation spray foam but doesn’t expand as much. It reacts with the humidity in the air or in the wood, to speed it up you can spray a bit of water on the xps, which i never did because my cellar is humid enough… I use a german brand that’s not available worldwide for shure, but just ask at the hardware store.

The xps I use is also from the hardware store, i didn’t put it on the scale before cutting it into ribs.

A few weights of the different parts:

Deck skin 3mm poplar incl. 50g/m² glass deck patch on the inside…835g

bottom skin 3mm poplar…780g

2x3mm poplar inner rail perimeter stringer…470g

PU-glue…391g

XPS-ribs…540g

XPS-Rails…190g

Nose and Tail…72g

Fin plug installation, diverse other things…122g

total weight bevor glassing…3400g

hope this helps with your future projects. I guess you could save a bit of weight with the inner ribs, as mentioned, and with the poplar rails, 4mm poplar should be enough, I glued two 3mm together.

edit: I made a few corrections on the weights in the table above.

Florian_R · March 26, 2011, 10:32pm

After spending hours of sanding and varnishing, the board is finished now. I painted the rails with acrylic paint and made my first ever pinline. As I had some scratches in the nose area of the board that came out surprisingly ugly after glassing i decided to paint it with the pinline colour, i think it looks also quite good. The finish is far from perfect though, for me it’s the hardest part of board building. A lot of small mistakes don’t really show in the pictures, but I learned also a lot.[img_assist|nid=1057977|title=bottom shot hollow poplar xps ribs surfboard|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=262|height=640]

JohnnyK3 · March 27, 2011, 2:48am

Nice job Florian, looks great.

How is that other board coming out, the eps/poplar one?

Florian_R · March 27, 2011, 8:33am

Thanks. had no time to work further on the eps/poplar board, but I’ll start another build thread soon. hope to cut down on weight on that one, because the xps-poplar surfboard turned out not so light as expected.

BgSurfer · March 27, 2011, 2:37pm

What was final “glassed weight?”

Florian_R · March 27, 2011, 7:22pm

Final weight is 4200g or around 9lbs.

garrettfrye · July 20, 2011, 2:04am

how well does it float compared an all foam board near the same dims?