Over the years i have heard a few stories of folks building a board one day and paddling it out the next. sorta a cool idea to me for some reason, so i thought id try it. i have not been shaping much lately, so i started the board on friday after work to give myself a little head start. got it shaped and lammed the bottom, so far so good. saturday i lammed the deck, hot coated, sank all plugs and boxes, sanded and glossed it. feelin pretty tired too... soo, sunday im crawling out of bed all sore and feelin whooped, but ready to fine sand the gloss coat and go surfing. well the board got done and im fried, i have no arms left to paddle with.... ill surf it next week...
the board is an 8'2"x22"x2 7/8 big guy with 2+1 fin set up.
it was fun and something i have wanted to try, but i learned a few things. first, i should have not waited till im almost 50 to try this, second, maybe i should have shaped something smaller and with only one stringer. ill post pics later if i can remember how.
i would love to hear from others have done this and how it went for you.
I've only done it on my own personal boards. 24 hours or less, for foam boards, and 48 hours for a balsa board. The first day is to buy the balsa, and glue up the blank. The second day is shape, glass, sand, gloss, and surf before dark. Trust me when I tell you that I was forty years younger, and could NEVER do that today!
These were all my own personal boards also. The one good thing about using UV cure is that it reaches full cure in less than 5 min each side. You seem to get less healies in the decks when surfing directly after sanding the board-josh
DANG, how do you guys go so fast!?!? thee hours? i spent that much time waiting for fin boxes, hot coats and gloss coats to dry. Bill, i cant imagine doing a balsa board that fast, on second thought, i wouldnt know where to start on a balsa board!
its easy to do a board ina day but not recomended.
i like to leave shapes overnight . they look different in the morning. but yeah it only takes a couple of hours to glass sand and finish a board in UV with fusion boxes. but spending more time will yeild a better board under lights and close inspection
That’s it, I’m sold. Switching to UV resin. Too many days of waiting until after work to glass a deck and then waiting until the next day to do the next side.
UV does make it straight forward and very do able in several hours. In the 80’s pre UV, I would do what I called a “sketch”…meaning a 3D version of what you might sketch on paper.
The problem back then was the boards would be green (uncured) and dent from building it that day and riding it that afternoon. As Josh mentioned, with UV, the board is fully cured so no harm no foul. Plus you’re not sanding resin off a board cured with MEKP (catalyst).
Some guys don’t believe the board can reach a full cure in one day, but I haven’t seen anything to the contrary when I build them. I did a same day rush for a guy going to Indo and the board held up beautifully and he rated the ride 10 out of 10… still has it after a year and it looks solid.
I consistently do boards in 3 to 10 days and a demo for a shop last week end in 2. I’m 58,and I do 100% of all my boards whether they are UV poly, epoxy, vinylester, whatever. I also glue up some of my own blanks and such. Bill can relate to that stuff after all the years he’s spent to be a master.
UV is a miracle, godsend, best invention since wax.
…a point for what I see lot of crappy boards hanging round
with gross mistakes and scratches everywhere that don t sit well in a leveled rack
the only way that you can build a board in 3 hours is hot wiring a EPS billet or machine shaped and boxed fins without any color
but I doubt about the process
plus the resin under the fin boxes not fully cure
no matter if you use 5 min epoxy or whatever
plus is not possible to obtain custom 100% handcrafted with glass ons and you make the fins specifically for that shape with gloss finish or speed finish with full colors (solid and vibrant colors) or intrincated designs
or shape with special tail blocks or stringers
all the custom shapes have some different specs in rocker, bottom combosetc
so give me a fuckin break with all this stupid fast rules
cause fast in handbuilding is not that fast to obtain a superior product
i would only do a personal board quick and even then if the forecast is all time
UV has its drawbacks btw. i mainly use only use it for sanding and finish coats
why? well you have to handle the board unless you have indoor cure lights. so there lots of plastic bags/gloves involved so as not to get the board grubby. also its hard to time things for clean cut laps. its very easy to overcure laps so the glass will bruize when cutting it. i also had a board warp a great deal on me curing it on a very hot day. also the blue lam resin with UV the laps are clearly visible. so i use the clear resin and even then the laps have a slight greenish tint
not good for showroom boards
as reverb said a custom poly from raw blank requires dialing in in rocker .and foil .concaves and edges
i see lots of factory boards with scree marks. machine marks . proud stringers. lap bubbles
3 to 4 hours to shape and a few cups of tea and then put it on the wall and come an look in the morning. you will see things you didnt see the day before. not worth rushing if you are getting good money. my poly shortboards are 700$ so i can take my time and enjoy the process .
with glassing the extra steps make all the difference
It takes me 7-8 hours to build a board start to finish. I’ve tried to trim off time, but I’m never happy with the results. Like silly, I like to come back the next day and look at the shape. I usually find something that needs a bit of tuning or something I missed because I was looking at it too long. I don’t do this for money. Just for my own amusement. If I was trying to make money I’d probably make an arrangement with a computer cut guy. If I charged 700 bucks US that comes out to 8-10 bucks an hour. I don’t lift my planer for 8-10 bucks an hour. My stuff isn’t worth that kind of money anyway. I do it for the pure joy of riding something I built with my own hands. Plus, I just love surfboards, plane and simple. Mike
Silly and reverb both have good points. I would NEVER use uv in production glassing. The main issues i see with is the variables of dirt, bugs, fingers smudges, with uv theres alot of moving the blank around. Also with the fcs fusion plugs the uv resin tends to leave little air bubbles on top of the plugs. Using UV resin for my board is Kinda like listening to a teacher that says do as i say not as i do. One thing with uv is that when your doing a batch of say 5-6 boards. It almost is not time benificial to do the uv. With uv you really can’t lam a board then put it on the rack and go to the next one. the resin will start to drain on you then you got more problems to deal with. You really have to lam it let it cure, move to the next board, theres alot of down time with this. Unlike with normal resin, lam it then set it and forget it, and move on to the next board. 2 hrs later flip. Also another neg with uv resin, is hot coats tend to be funky. If the resin kicks to quickly with the sun then the wax solution get stuck in between the layer and remains tacky. Then your wasting sand paper to get through it. Pluses and minuses for everything. Single boards Uv will do ok, great to learn how to laminate, but glass jobs in my opinion are not a clean and tight as with catalyst induced resin. Theres just something about a good tight poly glass job. Remeber what you do at each stage of board building sets you up for the next. If you have a nice clean tight lam job. It makes a huge difference in time when your sanding. -josh
You guys are all pussies. I made a surfboard in 1.895 hrs....rode the best all time!! Full cut lap, color, air brush, pin striped, artworked posta pen'd mother fucker!!! Custom rocker, winged swallow tailed, quad set up, widow maker pintail son of a bitch!!! Did a full analysis on the rail release coficient, foam densities in 3 fricking languages. Took it to the trainer of Orca the killer whale (custom AIRBRUSH to look like a school of salmon)and "we" all did a free previewing of the COVE (we meaning Me, Trainer...and the ORCA) while the board cured for 1.32 hrs......Thats right MO FO do the math, that means that I shaped, glassed and sanded a board in 35 minutes.
um, i used uv resin....... didnt make me fast. i thinks i spent my normal ten or so hours making the board. im not fast, but i think the boards gonna go like a bat outa hell. i hope to get a surf in this weekend, ill post a report.
Haha yep, when it gets cold here my schedule starts to stretch out a lot longer. My excuse is resin not curing but the reality is that I handle the cold like a tiny dog, a lot of whimpering and tail between my legs.