Nice going!
- just a head up,make sure wax doesn’t get on board before glassing (your last photo) it will act like a repellant to resin*
Thanks Greenlight! Love your videos, very simple and understandable.
I will have a look in the workshop if i have enough agave scraps to work with.
Thank you all for the positive comments. I feel very excited it all worked out until now and i truly appreciate all the help i got on here from you guys. Especially gbzausa and JM, You guys pulled me through the process, thanks!!
For fins i’m thinking about steve lis fins just a tiny bit smaller then the ones posted in his book.
specs;
base width: 8"
height: 4 1/2"
double foiled
no toe
no cant
Honestly i never surfed a board like this neither did i surf a twinny so it’s a guess on research and feeling.
i am thinking little less fin surface because my maximum wave height is little bit over head and my weight is 145lbs.
fin update;
My first attempt i got a big crack in the agave fins. Second one is looking better but also there is a tiny crack in there. I will post a close up picture soon.
Will it be strong enough if i put a couple layers of fiberglass and epoxy over them? In this stage they are freakishly fragile and light.
I am looking into epoxy and came down to two different combos.
Greenpoxy 56 + SD surf clear
Greenpoxy 56 + SD GP 505 V2
Second one is the most green epoxy available here at the moment. Downside, gardner scale of up to 17.
Insights color wise if i would use this GP 505 hardener? Last and darkest color on the scale of gardner is 18.
Hello Vincentv-
Your project is looking great.
I would glass the fins separately before glassing them to the board. When I make fins with a flat side, I glass the flat side first before cutting out the outline as it seems to help the fins from cracking while being made.
There is a good tutorial from Bert Burger on making wooden fins somewhere on the site.
I am not familiar with your epoxy system. I have used Resin Research (the standard), Greenroom (current favorite), CPD (locally made), and Probuild (from local supplier). The first two are designed for surfboard applications with a slight blue-ish or green-ish tint from the factory. The third is also used for surfboards but does not contain any brighteners. The last one is a general purpose epoxy that I got from my local supplier. If I remember right it came out of the container a little brown-ish which would look good with a wood project.
I did a light-colored plywood boat coated in Greenroom Old#7 instead of paint or varnish and it looks great (except where I have dinged it) after being outside for two years in sun, rain, and snow.
Keep up the good work!
Regarding wooden fin making… just my .02 here. If I’m making a flat sided fin I lay up about 10-15 sheets of fiberglass and put the wood on top while resin is wet. Add a sheet of wax paper and put a flat weight on it. Foil the wood and cap with 4-6 layers of fiberglass.
If doing a double foiled fin I again lay up 10-15 sheets of fiberglass only with wood on each side. Foil both sides and cap with 4-6 layers of glass.
There are other methods but I’ve seen MANY examples of what happens with wood fins that are merely glassed on each side with little to no ‘bead’ around the edge. They’re fragile as hell and leak when cracked.
Given the fragile nature of agave I would be tempted to give the fins a plywood core skinned with the agave. You wouldn’t have to worry so much about fin failure.
Really coming along nicely BTW.
Bravo Zulu.
I would have oriented the grain of the wood at 45 degrees. Do you have any left over?
Hey everybody, it’s been a while and i am ready for the next final steps.
I ordered Greenpoxy 56,SD surf clear as a hardener, a roll of 4oz fiberglass and a couple of sqeegee’s.
First step will be sealing the board. I’ve been experimenting by adding microballoons to my epoxy mixture to get a toothpaste like consistency and applying this in a really thin coat on the agave. Thing is that because of the microballoons it turns out white so i have to spread it on real thin if i want to keep the colors of the wood. (2nd picture)
I am wondering if there somebody out here who has good experiences sealing agave without the microballoons?
Wouldn’t the viscosity be to low so that it would run through the pores in to the wood?
3th picture is the second experiment i did where i also used microballoons in the mix but this time used a very thin layer. I did 2 layers os those. this one is drying now but looks like the sealer coat is working.
Hi vincentv , glad to see you are making progress , a couple of things you should know before you go any further , thicken the resin with , cabosil / airosil , it is very light and difficult to mix into the resin but it will do what you want it to , seal the wood without adding weight and it will be clear when it drys , to seal the wood , first sand to 350 / 400 , make sure that at the fish tail you do not have any hard edges , min of 1/8 or 3mm round , make sure there are no pen or marker lines or any other marks that you do not want to show because once you seal the wood the marks will be sealed in , I would suggest that you seal the top deck first as it will give you a little experience before you tackle the bottom , and any little mistakes you make on the top will be covered with two layers of glass cloth and wax , so will not be seen , first tape all around the board at the midway point of the rail using wide masking tape , make sure the tape is pressed tight to the rail at the top where the resin contacts it , but pull the tape away from the rail at the bottom edge to let any extra resin drip off . mix up the resin and cabosil/airosil to the consistency of peanut butter , it will take a lot of mixing to get the cabosil/airosil to mix into the resin , when you have the right consistency add the hardener , mix carefully you may have to add more cabosil/airosil because the added hardener will thin the mix , spread the mix onto the board with a spreader not a brush , use a plastic spreader the same as used in an auto body shop to spread body filler , spread the mix over the board and both press the mix into the wood and scrape it off at the same time , you are not trying to paint the wood just seal it , work quickly try to scrape off as much of the mix as possible , when you have finished there should be no pools of resin mix on the wood , let it dry , the next day look at it carefully you will be able to see where the resin mix has sucked into the board and there may be areas where you need to put on a second coat , you may need to recoat the whole top deck , it is important to seal the wood properly or when you glass the board you may have area that are dry because the resin has drained into the wood and it will look like shit , so take your time , when you think you have got it right , do the other side , don’t forget to pull the old tape and retape the rail , when finished you will have to lightly sand the board all over again with 350/400 , next step glassing , good luck .
After a couple heavy work weeks, a surf trip to portugal and an order of aerosil here we go again.
Today i seeled the deck. I’ts only one layer but until now it looks like it will do the trick.
Tomorrow is time for the bottom part.
Looks good vincentv
I sanded down the little bumps and edges starting with grit 60 and down to 100. Pretty difficult to sand it at this point. Should i go until grid 240?
That resin really brought the color out nicely , if you are going to glass the board 100 should be fine , I would suggest 4oz cloth , 1x 4oz on bottom 2 x 4oz on top.
You think 2x 4oz on the bottom Will be overkill? I Will do the deck First So ill have Some time to Think it through.
vincentv , there is no right or wrong way , it’s your choice , but if you use 4oz cloth especially S cloth that will be fine , it is usually done by glassing the bottom first , one layer of cloth wrapped around the rail and up the deck about 1.1/2 - 2.0 in , and then two layers on the top deck , the first/bottom layer wrapped to about mid rail and the second/top layer wrapped beyond the first layer to the bottom of the board , both top layers are glassed at the same time , again I don’t know if you plan to do a free lap or a cut lap but you need to plan ahead , either way will work , another thing you should plan out before you start is how to wrap the fish crack you will need extra pieces of cloth to get complete coverage , it is a bit complicated to explain but there is a topic on Sways about glassing fish cracks with pics , good luck
Well, i got to say, glassing for the first time is an exciting process!!
So far so good, the bottom just had one layer of 4oz cloth and is completely dry.
I went for free lap because my gut said this was the way to go.
I had some trouble wrapping the tips of the fish tail smoothly as you can see on the pictures, i am sure with some extra beauty work i can make it smooth again.
Some pictures;
