I thought I would do this build thread as i’m interested in feedback as we are building a facility on the Central Coast NSW Australia to go with our new retail store.
We are doing a epoxy only facility as it was way easier to get through council and be approved, yes it wont be everyones cup of tea, but good thing about epoxy (as we all know) it can be used with foams - just need to educate the customers coming in
So it will be 2 shaping bays 4.5m long by 2.2m wide and 2.7 high, sanding bay same size and glassing room 7m x 3.5m and 2.7 high
we have put the frames up and now working on the lights and power points.
So my first feed back point:
what height do you like your lights at? i’m thinking 42 inches ( 1.05m) I am trying t get it to suit most people? I was doing it 95cm in my last bay but im shorter…? thoughts
I guess it depends how high your shaping stands are - the two work in conjunction.
That looks really nice!
I glass all my boards with epoxy, I think it’s better than poly.
I built my backyard shed, I covered the walls with waferboard before drywall, so you can hang anything anywhere with a screw gun, forget the studfinder.
The bones look nice. You will ultimately probably find something you wish you did differently, but a new space is very nice. I wish I had a crew working with me on my space. I have a lot of room, but I am the janitor, lead technician, electrical engineer(zero skill), carpenter, idea guy, financier, etc. so my space leaves much to be desired.
One thing I recommend is taking the time to do a very nice planer vacuum system. Mine is always hindering me from continuous work. If I had someone else with an opinion we could figure out a good solution.
Also, the self check out at Home Depot is your friend. By a few get some free is my motto.
Thanks Guys
yep vac system and dust extraction - been looking into this with a mate who is a mechanical eng.
So through council they haven’t had anyone do a set up like this to be used for customers, so they said build it and then we will check… so trying to make sure I dont have to redo
Not good product. Those kind of in Line axial fan don’t work good with sanding dust filter. Need centrifuge fan wich keep flow under pressure. For your sanding room with old scholl polisher as sander need far bigger than that ! 2,2x2,7x0,5x3600=10692m3/h for horizontal flow. If you extract outside you can use G4 filter (dépend local low) so under 250Pa pressure. If you want to recycle need HEPA filter, lot of pressure an lot of money.
I have some knowledge on ventilation because i have to engineer some ventilated room for plastic industries and i teach it in my engineering teacher work. For my own board building room i use an home made centrifuge box with G4 filter for extract air and an axial fan for intract air at opposite, both arround 1000 m3/h at pressure work for 3,2m2 cross section. It’s a way too small flow for sanding with polisher but i use à roto orbital sander with dust vac connected on.
Guilhem Rainfray had some custom electric(?)/hydraulic(?) racks installed in his board making shop to allow the board to be raised during the glassing process. This enabled him to easily tuck the laps as he laminated without having to stoop and reach under the board.
I would think if someone were building a facility that this type of rack would be a nice addition.
And yes… adjustable racks AND adjustable lights. Some of the pre-fab racks now can be raised, lowered and ‘stretched’ in length… an obvious advantage if doing both long and short boards.
Thanks Newmaker
Epoxy resin is just that a resin, It can be used on PU blanks (normal surfboard blanks) with little or no difference in the performance of the board, but if you want a lighter board change the core to an EPS blank, which sounds like what you described.
3 reasons we are using Epoxy only:
we developed Surfset Epoxy/Acrylic Resins, so it would be good to break the perception that you described .
Council regulations - we have set up 500m from the beach in a semi residential area, to have Polyester being used we would have to either spend massive amounts of money to make our factory 100% fume free and workcover would of been breathing down our neck at every turn due to customers using these chemicals or move our factory 30-40kms out west into 100% industrial area and hide the fact that its a “surfboard factory for hire to be used by customers”.
insurance costs - Epoxy and the clean up process of ours greatly reduces the risk of fire. With the fires in surfboard factories around the world in last few months insurance companies over here are looking at this.
This is the same in Sydney I know of few board manufactures that have decided to go epoxy only making their boards out of PU blanks. and their customers are loving that the boards are lasting with the same performance.
Not that it would necessarily be the same here in the states, but what is the deal with getting insurance on a for hire shop like you are gonna be running? More specifically, the customers using the planers/power tools. They can easily destroy their digits using the tools. Are you liable or what is the situation with this. I basically run an underground shaping bay rental/shaping lessons thing. It wouldnt make any sense for me to go full time as New Hampshire would be a tough area to be able to make a decent living doing this. We really just do not get waves consistently enough.
Actually it wasn’t too bad for insurance, had to tick some boxes, CCTV in each bay, glass sliding doors so you can see in, reduce VOC’s (epoxy instead of Poly), safety gear need to be worn (white paper suit or saftey vest, masks, closed leather shoes, etc…)
Then the rate reduced to similar that you get if you were hiring surfboards for demos!
though had to increase PI insurance as well.
