I am 16 years old and from Northern NJ where the closest beach is about an hour away. I built the frame for this hollow wood alaia out of broken skateboards, scrap ply and lumber from my basement. I
I used gorilla glue and titebond III to glue everything. I am making this board because I built a solid pine alaia this summer and it hardly floated and broke on the seam when my friend was trying to ride it. Luckily it only costed about $40 to make.
I want to cover this in thin ply skin and then maybe glass it. Hopefully it will float and paddle better then a sold pine board.
Dimensions: 6’5’‘x15 3/4’’ nose x 15’’ middle x 16 1/4’’ tail x 3/4’’ 3/4’’ single bottom concave
There’s a guy from the UK who posted in the “Show us your wood” thread who has been building wood veneered boards and sealing the exteriors with linseed oil and pine tar instead of fiberglass and resin. He’s apparently using 1.5 mm (3ply) veneers over foam, not plywood over a frame, but I would think the application could still work for you.
Other people have been sealing solid and chambered wood boards with marine varnish. Roy Stewart apparently just does several coats of epoxy without any cloth on his exteriors.
The reason I find those approaches interesting is because I think that wrapping wood with fiberglass basically adds to the stiffness.
I noticed Roy was laminating a layer of nylon instead of fiberglass on the inside of his deck and bottom panels, apparently to better seal them. He said something about the nylon being more flexible. On Wood Ogre’s epic hollow SUP build thread he used some kind of sealer on the interiors to prevent them from rotting if/when there was water instrusion.
Thanks for responding, yeah I sealed my original alaia with marine varnish which was expensive and was not very effective. From hitting the sand, bare wood was exposed. With thin plywood I would want to make sure my heals dont break through. How would I go about glassing the board without cloth?
I found some 3/16" ply at my local big box store that is made from a lower grade balsa, and its pretty light. Strong enough, too, I don't think you'd need to worry with the framework you have. I think the finishing without glass (not really glassing if there is no fiberglass cloth) is just a matter of painting the resin on, sanding when dry, and repeating until the finish is where you want it, then fine-sand and polish. I have heard of guys using varnish for the final coat, but never tried it.
You might try laminating a few layers of cloth on formica and popping them off after they kick. Then glass them on without the plywood. It might work since there is little contour in an alaia.
Hey Huckleberry, wouldn’t the resin crack without the fibreglass cloth?
I’ve heard some blokes who make there own longskates add a coat of varnish before laminating to stop the wood from soaking in too much resin, thus sparing an extra coat.
I think epoxy resin flexes pretty well. IIRC Roy Stewart uses epoxy resin without fiberglass on his "flex" boards, I haven't tried it myself, but it seems like it would work in this instance.
I finished glueing on the plywood skin and now I just have to wait until it gets warm to glass it. I shaped the nose like a displacement hull for fun. The bottom doesnt look very pretty so i think i will do some drawing and a colorful tint on it.I think I am going to glass the deck with one layer of cloth and do the bottom with no glass
[img_assist|nid=1057166|title=Peanut with ply|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]