About a year ago I bought myself a board from a company called Legend Surfboards based in NJ. They are hand shpaed eps boards. The board was made with only a thruster setup (future fin boxes). I want to add two more ultimately leaving me with 5 boxes. I also want to add more layers of glass because the board is too brittle. I was glassed with a standard 4 x 4 on the deck and a single layer of 4 on the bottom. How sould I go about installing the fin boxes. Should I route right through the glass job?
I will post pictures of the board tomorrow. I will keep you guys updated with pictures of the process…
First of all, I would find an old piece of foam to practice your Futures on first. Just a flat piece that’s about a foot square will do. I’ve added Futures to a finished board before but it can be a bit tricky so you may want to get something that goes right through the board like XM’s. But if you route the hole a little deeper than normal, and make the flange a little wider and taller than you normally would, you can have some cloth contacting the foam and sitting over the box while still being flush with the rest of the board. You can move the jig forward/back etc after the flange route and repeat to make the flange wider/taller. If this seems like too much trouble then I would just router a little deeper. That way you can still put a couple of layers of cloth over the box and still have it flush with the rest of the glass. The glass won’t contact the foam but you can’t win them all. Just have a good yank on the fins afterwards to see if they pop. If they don’t you should be fine.
Its not like i haven’t done futures before. I’ve done pleanty. However I’ve never shaped eps so i don’t really know how it will react. I want to make sure I don’t just route through the glass job and damage the eps foam underneath. Theres nothing I hate more than when you route through a stringer too fast and you blow splinters into the foam.
No worries on adding futures after glassing. I just did it on the most recent fish. I almost think its easier that glassing with them in. Stong as heck too with no added glass. I busted one off clean at the insert portion and no delam! Just a brused leg to prove it. might have to add a bit of epoxy to fill in, but no prob. BTW no hard feelings.