Thanks, yes Lob’s fish with the 3" balsa stringer came to mind to me also.
Gotta take advantage of getting a multi-stringer look into this… I think I’m procrastinating now 
RiffRaff has the right idea, glue it up and get on with the task at hand 
-Cam
Great thread Guys
Ben would be proud…Love the step by step photos
Ben Shipman never shaped an EPS blank but he helped me glue up a few
The fourth blank was Ben’s…He never shaped it…I’m shaping a fish in his honor with that blank…
Ben and I were working on this one when Ben ran out of time…
I copied the template from Ben’s fish and made an EPS/Epoxy fish. The blank is 2# EPS with Komitex stringer (PVC). Blank glued up with Gorilla glue. Some day I will finish glassing and post in the archives…
Very nice Ray,
We just want to make sure we produce something that will honor Ben’s memory.
Should be a good journey… If I can ever decide on the stringers
-Cam
Thanks for posting Stingray… It means a lot to know we are welcomed in doing this… I wasnt sure what the reaction would be since we never physicaly met Ben. My brother passed away on May 22nd two years ago, also from cancer (a very rare, very aggresive one) and for a long time I was a bit weary of people that never knew him talking to me about it but one day (only recently) I realised that people dont have to have met a person in the flesh to understand something about them… often they understand an aspect of them very well without meeting them by having been through similar experiences. I hope we know enough about Ben, and shaping, to carry this off to the degree it deserves. But then again maybe the thought is enough? its a tough one to resolve. Im inclined to give it all of my effort and make it as good as I can - or we can - the sways community.
Your boards look good… really good! please look on as the thread continues and make suggestions where you think fit. I really want this to involve sways. This was where we met Ben so this is a fitting place to make his board. Im off to the garage now to take some more photos so I’ll post them in the next half hour…
rif.
ok… next set of pics…
this one shows the quality of the cuts since I taped the templates. Really smooth and almost no variation in the surface… I found the easiest way to make the cuts is to push the hot wire along the top cut and then pull it up and along the bottom cut (I was cutting with the rocker facing up… i.e. with the bottom of the board to the top)… the result is a surface better than the factory surface on the foam (seen on the side of this plank) which is fine because the rough surface is still smooth to the touch and allows for a better bond when gluing…
And here is the taped template against the plank pictured above…
re[eat that for 1hr and you will end up with these…
And also some of this…
luckily our bins get collected tomorrow…
Here is one plank out by itself. This is the same one pictured above… Im really happy with the way these came out.
Those lines across the plank above cant actually be felt. If you run your fingure along it it feels smooth…
So… now Ive cut 17 planks and the first 7 I glued together yesterday… They were not nearly as good as the ones Ive cut since but they will still be fine to use…
This is the blank once it was glued up.
you can see the surface is a lot more bumpy but I took this photo to highlight that.
I glued the planks together 2 at a time then glued the pairs of two together in a final step.
I just stacked them as you see in the pic and placed weight on top to act as a clamp (gravity clamping)
Wow… the above pic looks way worse than what it actually is… the uneveness at the end of the blank is due to the end cut, not the matching of the planks… I cut it freehand. Also the shadows over emphisisethe bumps… the worst bump is maybe 1 or 1.5mm…
in the pic below the same blank pictured from another angle to show the rocker and foil.
Thanks again to thefishexp for the templates. They worked a treat.
well… thats all for tonight…
untill next time - go catch some waves.
rif.
RiffRaff, nice project.
Quite simmilar to what I’m running now.
That’s EPS from scratch. I wish I have your EPS sheets.
Hey
Very cool and noble project!
Can I ask why you are using the panels of EPS rather that one big block? Aside fron the option of multiple stringers? Are the gluelines not just gonna create hassel? How do you shape those? I find that eaven with the planer they are the devil!
Lookin forward to seeing the updates on this one!
Christian
Hi Moksa,
The panels are about 3" thick and I thought about cutting two sections 1’ wide then gluing a stringer between them but the panel wont bend enough for the rocker without breaking.
All the foam I have is in panels. I thought the best way around that was to cut planks and glue them side by side similar to how Ive seen guys on here build Balsa boards. So far its working well…
Ive glued the blanks in a way that the glue doesnt come to the edge of the join so shaping shouldnt be a problem as I wont ever be sanding the glue. Ive dont a test on a peice where I shaped using a surf-form and then sanded with 300grit abra-net which is a mesh like sanding screen - the result was really good so Ill try that and see how it goes. I dont plan to use my planer on this one - I enjoy the hand work.
I bought some different glue last night and have glued a test sample so I will check it when I get home to see how it comes out and if works I’ll swap to that and post details…
cheers,
rif
Nice work riffraff,
Can you tell us where the foam came from and how much you paid? what density is it? does it come in longer sheets (above 9 foot) ?
Thanks,
scot
Hey there scot,
The foam is building insulation foam and the sheets are standard building sheet size (1200x2440)
Im not sure if it comes in bigger panels… dont see why not…
I got this from a friend so there was no cost but I imagine it would be relitively cheap ($40 per panel or less). 1 panel will be able to make 1.5 boards up to 8’
been to cabarita recently? that used to be my no.1 go to break but I drove down that way over christmass for the first time in a couple of years and nearly fell over… when I first saw casurina developing I had no idea it would end up like that… heart breaking…
rif.
rr,
yeah cabba has changed a lot in the last few years.
i lived in kingscliff for a while so i used to get down there a bit.
i’ve got two little ones under 4 and another on the way so my surf time has reduced dramatically.
now i just join the crowds at snapper and dbah for my 1/2 hr prework surfs if i’m lucky.
scot