9’ x 22.75" x 3" EPS with walnut veneer 4 oz under 3 x 4oz over on the deck and 4oz
under with 4oz over on the bottom. Ceder perimiter
stringer with poplar bending ply rails. I think it is easy
to see how this one is made by looking at the pics. I have pics
of the various stages that I can post if there are requests.
Very nice job Marke, have you got it wet yet?
How does it ride, what sort of weight is it?
I really like the walnut. It makes a very unique looking board, good job!
Gonna take it out this weekend. It weights 15lbs without the fin so it will be a nice change from my hollow that weights 22lbs.
thats a really cool looking board
great work
walnut looks great marke
Marke,
yes I think it’d be interesting to see how did you build that beauty.
Please, post them o send them to me at
Quite nice. A work of art.
Are you kidding us man? That’s what this place is all about… Showing off what you did and how you did it. I too love the look of walnut, and would like you to post your process. Is this a straight up lam, or is it bagged? Also could you let me know how the dark wood does in the sun? I’ve been a little sketched out on using dark woods, just cause of delam fears(Whether legitimate or ungrounded, I don’t know. I’ve built Cedar strip canoes using dark Western Red Cedar, and haven’t had any problems. But there is only wood between the inner and outer glass, which doesn’t gas like EPS when heated.) Did you vent it? And what brand of epoxy did you use?
That’s a sweet looking board.
I’m surprised that with all that glass, it seems to be pretty light.
How is the fin box set and reinforced?
Having done this (and I assume it’s not your first), what do you see as the significant advantage(s), if any, over a PU/PE surfboard (looks aside, which to some extent could be recreated with creative airbrushing).
I glued up 3 sheets 1lb EPS with 3M spray adhesive and cut the profile out with a hot wire. Then I shaped the board all the way out to the rails.
Next I cut 5/8" off the outline all the way around the board. This 5/8" is made back up with the perimeter stringer and
the bending ply. rails.
Then I glued 1/8" cedar along the sides and bending plywood on the nose
and tail using Gorilla glue. I used masking tape to clamp the strips until the
glue dried.
Then I bagged on the veneer with 4oz glass underneath. I used the Greg Loehr technique of spray glueing the glass to the
board and then painting the RR epoxy onto the glass. Only about 12 oz for each side.
In this picture you can see my home made vac. press.
I cut the veneer 1/16" bigger all around the board before I bag it so that I can plane it back the the perimeter stringer
once it is glued to the blank.
The next step is to build up the rails using bending ply.
I plane each new strip close to blank as I go along.
Once the rails are built up I screen them.
I lost my nerve when it came to vac- bagging the glass. I am not to sure about the breather concept and I was afraid
of getting creases at the nose and tail.
The vent was put in after laminate. Thanks to Neira for his help there.
I made the board this way partly because I save on the cost of a Clarke blank (delivery cost) and becauseI enjoyed the process
of making a hollow board last year and new I would enjoy this process. I work with wood every day so knew I could
make the various materials work together. The vac bag threads have been fun to read and I guess I wanted to be a part of it,
I will let you know how it does in the sun.
Mark
Took it out yesterday and caught a ton of 3ft waves. I was a little concerned
that it would be corky but i was able to set a rail and get down the line nicely.
It got pretty hot in the sun but when I took out the vent plug there was no hiss of air like there is with my hollow board. I am glad I put the vent plug in for peace of mind but I would like to know more about the amount of air expansion in EPS and if it is really necessary to vent. Has anyone done any experiments along these lines.
30 degrees celsius , before delamination …
seal at 20 , damage at 50 …
great looking board , great craftsmenship …
vent adds piece of mind…
a gas expands 1/273rd of its volume for every 1 degree celsius rise in temperature , or a 27 degree rise will add 10% of volume …
dont forget the beads themselves are gas filled and will expand as individual units , creating pressure on the voids between them …
many falsly believe that only the void between the beads is where the expansion happens …
if you had a box of baloons in a sealed space , boyles gas law applies equally to the whole interior , even if it is segmented …
have to fly …
regards
BERT
Marke, very nice board & great photos of the process! I really like the cedar rails first, then the veneer & plane back to the cedar. From the first photos I wondered how you got the light/dark like to be so perfect. 
Does it really need triple 6 on the deck? Is all the walnut just 1/32" veneer? Paper backed or allwood?
Ben
The veneer is 1/32" paper backed and triple 4oz not 6oz. Actually right in the
middle of the board (no center stringer) I can feel it compress a little under my heel. I am hoping that the EPS has enough spring back that it doesn’t de-laminate over the time. The rest of the board is bullet proof. Don’t have to worry about rail dings.
Marke
I’m in agreement with Ben your perimeter rail then applying the top and bottom lam is an excellent idea.
way better than wrapping the veneer over the rail and trying to keep all the lines clean.
I still don’t know how you and Shwuz did it with that thin veneer which is usually applied over a hard wood surface instead of foam. At least that’s what regular veneering seems to be all about.
Everytime I’ve done it I’ve gotten delams and veneer bubbles where it released off the foam or wood below.
In desperation I finally applied the thin veneer over a balsa lammed board so the veneer would have something solid to adhere to like you did to the door skin on the previous board. Still doing the rail wraps and keeping all the lap lines clean on a multi-wood board is next to impossible… So I like the idea of fastening on the rails later as a seperate function. Pretty similar to what Sabs does with his…
The fish on the right is Mahogany/Birch veneer over a balsa.
You can see how terrible the Bamboo/Sapele one on the left came out when I sanded the cracked edged Sapele off the balsa rails underneath. The fish didn’t have balsa rails but patching this thin stuff is a nightmare.
Here’s a cutaway of the fish tail before I added the block and you can see that there virtually no thickness added with this 1/32 veneer stuff… all you see is the balsa layer. Again on the board underneath you can see how splotchy the rail wrap gets when sanded off the balsa rails. better not to wrap in the first place.
Staying with 100% balsa is ten times easier than this thin veneer stuff. I can see why CMP has been doing it that way all these years… Much cleaner when the wood is all the same especially balsa…
I even thought of applying those 1"-4" veneer strip rolls to the rails afterwards to try and clean up the lap lines…Maybe you could alter that with bending ply or cork to build out the rails prior to shaping them… It’s just so much more work with a higher rate of failure than just using balsa…
Although you’re more of a woodworking pro than a hobbiest… The finished product is still very impressive definite wall hangers…
