hey all, my last two boards have been made using 2lb EPS with perimeter stringers. I’ve used Komatex for the stringer and reattached the off cut for the rail. I’d like to try a denser material for the rail. That would be either Balsa or 3 to 4lb EPS. I’ve got &*^$load of 2lb EPS. Any ideas on getting a small amount of the denser EPS for the rails? The other idea is Balsa. This is non vacumm bagging. I’ve gone through the archives. Here are the basic ideas I’ve found. (most of which if not all came from the compsand guys) There are many more but the basic theme is make a balsa lam.
So, anyone got any lines on small amounts of 3lb or greater EPS for rail bands? Or any woodworker/compsand guys (which I am not) have any advice on using balsa? Where in Orange County or near has the balsa needed?
thanks!
A.)
1) Cut out the outline of the blank, but don’t skin it yet
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Trace the rail profile onto a fairly thick (the thickness helps later on when you’re tracing) sheet of paper
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Cut out the profile, making sure to cut just inside of the the line (you want to aim for pieces that are roughly 1/16" (perfect) - 1/8" (getting worse) smaller than the rail itself)
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Roughly layout your pieces of balsa so that they match up with the profile (this will require angling the ends of a few of the pieces, but as long as you keep the pieces fairly short you should only need to do this with the ones near the end)
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Trace the profile onto the balsa using a sharpie (you’ll easily plane off the pen marks later on)
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Use a roller cutter (the one’s made for fabric) to cut out the panels
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Attach the pieces to the rail, one at a time using wood glue (held up just fine) and the cheapest tape you can find (one roll of $0.45 3/4" tape did the job for me) working from one end to the other
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Repeat steps 4-7 as many times as needed to get the thickness you want. Don’t worry about the glue still being wet on the previous layer, just lift the tape, put down the new piece, and tape again (many times you can actually reuse the tape that was holding the previous layer on)
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Do the same on the other rail
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Retape the outer layer with as much force as you can get out of your tape
B.)
If you still have your templating offcuts, that’s the only real shortcut. Connect pieces of balsa on end to the length you need. Superglue works fine for that. Leave them wide enough to cover your whole thickness/rocker scheme. If you have like 5" of nose rocker, you don’t have to use 5" wide balsa, just cut a butt joint at an angle to tip the front rail section up…
Make 3-4 pieces to length for each side. Epoxy or gorilla glue onto the edges of your blank, wood glue between each 2 pieces of balsa.
Now go to your U-shaped shaping stands. Drop a 2x4 in the bottom of the U. Next, one of your rail offcuts, then a stack of rail balsa, still wet. Then the blank. The other rail stack, the other offcut, and the other 2x4. Big bar clamps across the whole mess - some on the top & some on the bottom to even out your clamping. 3-4 hours later, you’re all set. Plane the balsa to deck & bottom, then start cutting rail bands.
c.)
Depending on the amount of bending required I use different thicknesses…
1/4" thick balsa strips on areas without alot of heavy curve and 1/16"-1/8" thick strips alternated with 1/8" cork sheeting on the heavily curved sections. One piece of 1/8" cork and 1/8" balsa to match the 1/4" balsa but it’ll bend a hell of alot more curve like in the nose and tail area… It just takes more pieces and time to glue things up.
I start from one end and work my way up the board then go back the opposite direction to create the overlap on the seams.
I’ve gone up to 1" to 1.5" thick 4-6 pieces of 1/4" but you could probably get away with 3/4" thick balsa rails depending on how you end up shaping the rail…
Here’s a new trick…
Use a nepoxy slur or 5 minute T-88 epoxy glue to attach the first wood layer to the foam.
Then use superglue or t-88 5 minute epoxy to attach wood to wood …
Very fast glue setup time means you only need to keep the pressure on until the glue sets
Much much faster than a titebond weld or gorilla glue attempt which would require an overnight set before going on to the next strip.
If you can get away with it a complete pre-glued balsa rail strip is much easier to deal with than putting it togethor in pieces. I’d go no further than 1/8" thick alternating with 1/8" cork if I was going to do it this way. Probably way faster doing a whole rail section at a time… Only would take you eight glue ups of 1/8" thick bands to build your 1" rail line.
Use the green tape to hold the wood in place to the foam or the industrial saran wrap around the whole board until the glue/resin sets…
