http://www.speedneedle.com.au/index.html on the front side it says he has built board blanks from buiding insulation? I can buy all the blue, white, green and pink foam here (extruded polystyrol) but they are max 50cm150cm10cm. I once shaped a kayak out of these but I had to join several to get a good block. The plug was then only used to laminate and not to stay inside the craft. How would I join the styrodur boards to get a good bond? there ain’t no 2m insulation boards, do they? And what to use as a stringer? has anybody made there own blanks here?
You can get larger blocks. Around here the building industry have blocks that are about 60x10x240 cm, big enough for a midlength. They don’t want to sell to me though. Also they use 60x60x240 cm for road constructions. If you have a manufacturer nearby, you can get a very large block. I’ve glued up 60x10x120 blocks to create a few blanks. I’ve used epoxy and Sikaflex 221. The sikaflex is great for glueing up the stringer, but it blows out at the block joints when shaping. Nothing a little spackle/epoxy with filler can’t fix. I don’t worry too much about cosmetics. Tom Sterne have had success with gluing the stringer with Elmers white glue. I don’t know if it works for gluing up the blocks. Use a hotwire cutter to cut the foam into blanks. There is more about this in the archive. You have to use epoxy with this foam, but you knew that already. regards, Håvard
A finnished board using this technique(or lack therof) http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/Detailed/427.html regards, Håvard
If the thickest you can get is the 2 inch, trace out your rocker outline on the face of the 4X8 sheet. Glue up the ten pieces. Kinda like what Linden was doing with his recycler model.You’ll have nine glue lines - but the price is right.
Glue lines might be bad for shaping and weight, but they will add strenght to the blank I guess. Just like in Skateboards.
Hej Håvard! In Sweden we probably get the same blanks as You do in Norway, I’m halfway through my first board from Blue xps (trades as DOW Roofmate). If no one will sell it to You (sounds weird) go to a building site and try to buy one. sometimes they get some left over. I ripped my blanks off of a building site in my hometown a long time ago in my ignorant teen days. Well, in my opinion the blanks are easy to hotwire but more difficult to handshape than say Clarkfoam. The sanding blocks can easily get stuck in the blank and produce big ugly marks and they also dent easier than C-foam. On the plus side i think they’re lighter than C-foam, have a homogenic structure (no water absorption)with fused cells and are also supposed to have good flex characteristics. The board I’ve shaped is a flat fish with low rocker 5’9"x 20"x 2 2/3" and I managed to fit the board into one blank by bending the blank. I bent the blank by putting it in the sun covered in big plastic bags and weighing it down on both ends. Someone told me You can also bend the blank in a sauna A good idea is also to make Your side (foil and rocker) templates slightly thicker than Your actual desired shape. My blank got slightly twisted after i had the stringer glued in, probably from the extra bend i forced into it. I took the twist out while shaping it but ended up with a slightly thinner foil than i planned for. Hope to post some pics when I’ve finished the board. /Erik
Hi Erik, I’ve though about nicking a big block too or just paying a worker for handing it over. Havn’t gotten that far just yet. I had some of the same problems with my hotwired blanks, blank got twisted during glue up of stringer. Ended up being a little thin for me, so I’m shaping it for a friend who is a little lighter on his feet. Fish sound like a good idea for the conditions we normally in this part of the world, I’m making a slightly bigger version tho. Do you surf the baltic sea? travel much? regards, Håvard
Yeah, I live in Skåne the very south of Sweden so we surf the Baltic sea but also on the west coast in Skagerack and Kattegatt. We also go over to Denmark occasionally if the conditions are very good. Might go check out Norway this autumn. Is it worth travelling up to surf the area around Stadt-Ulsteinvik-Aalesund-Molde or is the surf just as good around Jaeren in autumn? Yea I’ve done a lot of surf travelling, South Africa, Oz, New Zealand, Madagascar, Morocco, Canaries, and my favourite destination not only for the surf INDO!! Next summer nothings gonna stop me from going back to Indonesia, I’ve only had 5 days of surf this summer! How has the surf in Norway been this summer? /Erik
Hi, please email me at I’ll answer your questions and I have a few for you too… If you’re coming to Norway, maybe we can hook up and catch some waves together. regards, Håvard