I thought it be good to eliminate the blank-splitting-glueing-stringer step. I’ll be making thicker, mid-length shorties…
Anyone try stringerless EPS shapes?
Alternatives to splitting the blank to glue/clamp the stringer?
Looking thru some hotwire cutting eq cats I’ve seen plenty of groove cutters…in rectagular and Vee cuts…this would eliminate the splitting step if one could implement an easy to install stringer alternative…thinking all the time…
I did a 6’0" stringerless and then did a 6’6" using a 6" wide fiberglass stringer sandwiched full length. Both boards are 2 5/8" thick but you can definately tell that the 6’6" has the stringer. Not nearly as flexy. I did have a problem at each end though. I used a 2"+1" EPS combo and I had the 1" peice on the bottom. I ended up hitting the seam while planing/sanding, so I had to peel about 1 ft of stringer off of each end and then sand/spackle where the stringer went back into the foam. I guess I now have a flex tail board, LOL.
So, I am thinking if the 2" piece is used on the bottom and rocker is bent in, that maybe the seam/stringer issue won’t be a problem.
g’day headhigh !
just a couple of questions re the stringerless…
how did you find shaping it …was it difficult for example planing it with the added flex ? or did you use a sanding block and other stuff to shape it ?
and, how did the flex feel to surf say coming off the bottom and into / out of cutbacks and perhaps off the lips ? Did the flex speed you up or did it feel bogging down mushy kinda feeling ?
I’d be keen to hear, because after my 8’ mal, I’d like to then shape the 6’9 [polyurethane] stringerless blank.
thanks mate , your comments and observations much appreciated !
ben
well, unfortunately all I have is 2 shaped blanks right now. I have done these over the past 2 weeks and the weather has been too cold to do any glassing and its just going to get colder. Sure wish I had a nice warm place to do it, because I can’t wait to ride them.
It was relatively easy to shape the stringerless 6 footer. The flex wasn’t too bad since it is so short, but it might be an issue in something 7 ft or longer. I like my boards beefy in the tail too so I guess that helped. Just used basic tools; elec. planer, surform, sandpaper. One noticeable difference in shaping the boards was that the epoxy seam was a lot easier to sand compared to the elmers glue seam. Also, when I placed the 2 EPS sheets together, I had to shift them a little and the stringer got moved around a bit. Next time I plan on leaving the stringer a little longer than the planned shape and tacking it to the foam just in case it needs a little last minute adjustment.
if you glue them up with your approximate rocker bent in you should be able to keep the glass stringer inside the board tip to tail.
just a though, my EPS glued rocker, stringerless is still waiting for the garage to be cleaned out enough to shape. It’ll be a 6’ egg. Hope to get it shaped this weekend.
There are router bits that look sorta like one half of an hour glass or more precisely a sphere at the end of a slot. I’m thinking you could rout something like that top and bottom and fill with epoxy / glass / roving or a strip of carbon.