What a saga of board building fixups. One darn mistake and fixup after another. Here is the final product:
You know what is behind the green band. One damn mistake after another.
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[ 3]No new ground covered here with my construction or shape, but cool quad fins from Halcyon, don’t you think?[/][/]
It was my first compsand and I made so many mistakes on this board that I was in a foul mood every time I looked at it… I gave up twice and finally decided to finish it just so I could wring out all the mistakes and feel like I had a shot at doing it right the next time. Here is the list of screw-ups:
Trimmed/shaped the rails too thin (depth) and quit the first time. I came back later and cut off the balsa rails and did them again.
I shaped the whole board too thin. I cut a ½ layer of EPS and vac’d in on the deck and shaped again. (Probably why the board is so stiff).
I dropped the stupid planner on the bamboo and cut a nice little gauge out of the bottom.
I over cut the tail block and had to patch it. Looks good, though.
While trimming the balsa on the bottom flush with the bottom of the board, I cut into the bamboo veneer with my planner. I quit again. I came back and finished thinking again that this would be a learning experience. The fix was a bottom rail band in a complementary color to the fins. (Design Masters from Michaels art) Not my best work, but decent at a distance. Ha.
Of course, I forgot to spay some clear lacquer along the tape line and had to use the old sandpaper over the razor blade trick to clean up the paint line.
When I cut the fin boxes in, my router slipped and I CUT THROUGH THE STUPID DECK!! Pardon me. Hate to shout. I was able to cut a patch and insert from the bottom and clamp it in place, then sanded the deck. Can’t tell it happened. Luckily.
We have a big frontal system on the way and being in a hurry, I forgot to put my logo and measurement sticker on. No biggie. I guess.
When I painted the green rail band, I forgot that I had tape covering the fin box openings and had to redo that.
Lastly, I remembered at the end I had planned to use 2.5 oz cloth on the bottom. Could have saved some weight.
Which is a good point to talk about construction. I used 1 oz under the bamboo, and 4 oz over both top and bottom. Given the strength of the bamboo, that was probably overkill and too much weight. At 6-10, it comes in at about 5.75 pounds without fins… I really like the bamboo, though. Tough, good looking, no assembly required. Just roll it out and lay it up.
I was surprised how easy shaping the rails turned out to be. Just wrapped some 60 grit sandpaper around it and drew it along the rail. No hand or electric planner.
On the next one, I think I can save about .75 or more by reducing the glass on the bottom and the extra layer of EPS w/resin to bond it. Probably could skimp on the whole glass schedule for a little weight savings, but don’t know if it is worth it.
One little digression on construction. I thought I could over cut the deck bamboo to the dimensions of the overall outline then come back and trim. My plan was to use a dremel tool to cut along a tapeline as shown below. It worked, but not as well as I wanted. I still left a little tape behind under the bamboo. Next time I’ll attach the first balsa layer to the foam first, then cut both top and bottom and build up from there.
Here is the little tool I dreamed to cut the deck at exactly the right place inward from the rail line and exactly at the right depth. Sort of like a rail marking or rail band cutting too:
Turned out nice:
Anyway, this was a prototype for me. The next one is already in the works. All in all, love/hate.
But I see what all the excitement is about on compsand construction.
After all the agony, your end result looks really nice. Job well done! I’ve been eyeballing the Bamboo flooring as a fin material. I too would like to know where to get the Bamboo material you used. Care to share?
Bill there is a Bamboo place on morena Blvd right by the intersection of Clairmont Mesa and Morena kinda near the Jack in the box that sells fairly cheaply a thin Bamboo veneer. You can’t really miss it as they have all sorts of tiki stuff out front.
guys, thanks to Oneula, I got it online at www.certainlywood.com. He posted several other places to buy it. I think it is cheaper than skinning with balsa. And a world tougher. Its like warp glass, with all the fibers running in one (the correct) direction. It followed the compound curves well with vac bagging.
Bernie, hard to tell from your pic, but my stuff may be thinner and therefore more moldable. Your stuff looks like it could be laminated into blocks for some seriously strong fin material.
We should all be so lucky to have our mistakes come out looking that good. sweet board. What density EPS? How thick was the veneer? I’m just wondering because you said the glass schedule was overkill. 5 oz total plus bamboo? Give us a ride report soon.
This place offers edge banding for bamboo plywood. It comes in 7/8" wide X 500’ lengths. It might be the ticket for long strips on 8’+ boards? The veneer panels generally are 8’ long.
John, I saw that bamboo band material a while back and have been thinking hard about how to use it on a board. Built up rails?, stringer material. Problem is that it is 1/42 thick like the sheets, which is plenty strong, but why build up when the sheets are already wider and you can cut what you need. I think its only attribute above the sheet is its 3/4 width and I just don’t know where I need that narrow stuff.
1 pound foam and , I think 1/42 inch veneer. Very tough (in the engineering property sense) material. All the fibers in one direction like warp glass. I’ll give a complete report after the maiden voyage.
And why do they call it a “maiden” voyage? What’s it got to do with maidens?
I have some scrap that I’m willing to share. I missed Keith’s get together but was planning on bringing bamboo to share. I live in OB and will pass it on to you whenever.
I was thinking mainly for cosmetics in longer board lengths. Veneer sheets only come in 8’ lengths so you’d have to butt ends together to cover a longer board or perhaps splice sheets in an angled pattern. By taping the edge banding material together side by side, you could have the appearance of full length veneer with bamboo pattern going lengthwise on a long board.
It might also be easier to wrap rails and deck contours than with a full width sheet?
Am I understanding correctly that you use the felt-backed veneer? Just wondering how this effects characteristics of the board. Would you recommend 1/8 or 1/16 thickness?
John good thought. I don’t know about laying up strips lengthwise (tedious), but what about wrapping the rails transversely with the tape? Compared to building up balsa rails (very tedious) you might have a better looking board. I’m thinking you shape the rails in foam and then glue the tape across the rail. Maybe cut with a rail mark sort of a tool (like my dremel above) and then lay out a sheet of bamboo on top and bottom. And glass over that. Hmmmm. Wheels turning. I may give that a try. Only thing is, I think the fibers are going to run length wise to the tape. Not good for the rail idea, but good for the length wise strips.
And, maybe I shouldn’t dismiss the length wise strip idea too quickly. I don’t know.
The material I had was less than 1/16 and had a light “scrim” backing. Light enough that it came off with sticky tape. I left it on and with my tests found that the bamboo was saturated with resin anyway.
I didn’t know you could get 1/8. Way too thick for decks and bottoms, but might be great for HWS’s and for building up rails on compsands and HWS’s.
