Can someone ‘talk’ me through / show photos of the process , please ?
I have a 5’5 x 19 1/2" concaved deck fishy kinda board that I want to convert for kitesurfing [a friend has had to return the board he borrowed ].
thanks , all help appreciated !
cheers !
ben
Tsippa…
from my understanding one way to do it is to have inserts embedded into the board… simplified it would be like this:
1.) route out the shape of your insert, say a nice oval shape about maybe 0.5 cm - 1cm deep… this acts to spread the load over a greater area…
2.) resin these inserts in…?
3.) glass over the top?
4.) A little hole in the inserts to where the footstrap screws into…
5.) do a little dance…
Heres a good website that explains it a bit more:
http://www.geocities.com/~kleb/windsurfn/buildboard/inserts.html
Ant
Yeah Chip real simple. I made 8 windsurf boards for myself when I lived on Maui during the 80s and never had a strap insert pull out. Just route the hole, wrap the insert in a layer of wetted out 6oz or two, and then insert with a cabosil mixture. After that dries power-pad it smooth and put a patch of glass over it. After the hotcoat you can drill and tap it. I think I might have poked the routed out hole with a pencil so the resin would go in those pencil pokes. No different than a fin box really.
thanks guys !
and on the way home from a surf just then , I called in at the longboard shop and lo and behold , the owner Ross had a 5’2 kiteboard !
…So I picked his brain , too , checked out the straps , and
[‘lavz’ , I saved the little dance for when I got home mate !]
…all good !
cheers !
ben
Chip, it’s exactly the same process when you install a fin box.
…the inserts and plugs are what I need to see , so I know what they look like , and what I will be attaching to where …
cheers !
ben
This is what they use usually.
Don’t use “1 position” inserts: I did and failed, since they dettach and turn into the core when you tighten the screw too much.
“2 positions” inserts are OK- ref.CHTF2.
Simple: route the rectangular hole, pour resin, sink a patch of fiberglass using the insert and it’s done. Like a finbox
ahhhhh…very good , THANKS heaps , Neira !
(seeing the shape of those , I now understand your ‘finbox’ comment !)
thanks a lot for those photos ! I did a ‘google image search’ , but nothing that helpful came up .
cheers mate !
ben
p.s. - I hope those are a fairly universal box ? We have a pretty big windsurfing and kiteboarding community here in Perth , so I’m thinking I “should” be able to get something similar to this here . If I get it sorted , I will take some photos , of course . Even if I maybe never kitesurf , I may still have fun on it as a wakeboard type setup one day , maybe …
…now , WHERE are ‘boardcrazy’ and ‘kitesurfer’ , I wonder ??
One more thing:
Unlike fin boxes, mast boxes and footstraps inserts are suffering from “pull out” forces more than “tilt” forces.
You need to improve mechanical bonding between resin and foam. If you don’t, resin+insert block will get out of the board at first run.
What I usually do is route a “tapered walls” hole instead a “vertical walls” hole, so the wider side is at the base(foam) and the thin base is at the top(deck).
Someting like this:
Yellow=resin
Cian=glass
Orange=footstrap insert
thanks for that Neira …
do you mix any milled glass with your resin , or chopped cloth ,
or
are you using epoxy resin ?
cheers
ben
Yes,
Chopped mat into the resin but roving mat around the insert.
Epoxy resin always, since sailboards are built from EPS cores. But is PU boards you can use poly.
Don’t make hole a lot bigger than the insert, just slightly tapered. Remember how hot a bunch of resin can become.
Speak to colin at surf supplies chip, he has the footstrap doohickeys that are shown in Neira’s catalogue image…
thanks Ant !
Ross said the same !
now I just gotta get the straps…apparently ‘Ocean and Earth’ makes 'em …just gotta find an agent / supplier HERE !
cheers !
ben
thanks also , nativecustoms , neira , for replying too …
Hey neira,
I’m curious as to what the little pole at the bottom of those footstraps are? What part do they play in the whole footstrap setup?
I held one of these at my suppliers shop and couldn’t figure it out…
Cheers
A
Hola Lavz,
No, no, no… footstrap inserts are just at the bottom of the page.
The rest of items are mastboxes (for sailboards) and finboxes(for sailboards and surfboards).
Boxes with the plate/screw gap at the rear are mastboxes. They usually have that plastic cilinder. I don’t know really what thay’re intended for. Maybe for not to allow mastbox to penetrate down the foam since it’s resting directly over the bottom glass??? Mastboxes suffer from continuous push/pull efforts when you’re planning at full speed.
Hey chipper,
To date i’ve made three custom kiteboards and fitted these type of inserts to all three in quite a few different set-ups. I.e lots of inserts! All have been fitted into straight routed out holes and fitted with only resin and glass fibre bubbles, with no glass matting placed over the top! I’ve never had one come out and one board has been used and abused for well over three years. I’m not suggesting that the way i’ve fitted them is the strongest but it seems to be more than adequate. Kiteboards and fishes which ia ssume you’ll be using are much lighter than windsurf boards and the footstrap inserts are under no where near the same sort of loading.
Your biggest problem is likely to be the screws you put into the inserts, if they don’t have a VERY course thread then they WILL pull out of the insert. Of course they’ll need to be stainless as well.
Sorry no photos to show. Will be making another kiteboard in a month or two but i guess you’ll be done by then.
Cheers KS
cheers Chris !
I could wait a month or two for you to post photos here …
it could be a while before I get the straps , and seeing photos of the process WOULD be very helpful , thanks !
There is no screaming hurry for me to get this done , it would be more like another one of my " on the backburner " projects like , for instance , the 8 wheeler skateboard , and various fins, and skateboard decks I have lying around , needing “renovation”. (At least the Hardy kneeboard re-shape is done now , anyway …
cheers !
ben
No worries next time i fit some straps i’ll take photos. I’ve been using Neira’s method of using a bevelled router for fin boxes and i’ll use this for the footstraps next time as it seems like a sensible idea to me at no extra work load.
Cheers
KS
No worries next time i fit some straps i’ll take photos
thanks mate
[just make sure they are shots of the ones on your kiteboard ,
and
NOT the ones you use on R*********** on your …er…weekends away in your pink mobile …
you can keep THOSE photos ‘private’ …]
cheers !
ben