I have a longboard that was snapped in half. What is the correct procedure for putting it back together? Any help is appreciated!
Like Jerry Lewis’s kid? Is that who you are? Leave it broken.
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On the one occasion I was forced to consider options in a similar tragedy, I wound up reciting “Humpty Dumpty”.
The correct procedure is to go to your home break and bring your broken longboard pieces with you. Ask the shortboarders who normally sit inside you in the lineup if they know anyone who can fix it good. If they smile and say “sure” it means you’re a cool guy whose longboard deserves to be fixed, and you’re not a pig. If however after they see your broken longboard, they start dancing and doing high fives, well that tells you something too. I’ve actually seen this happen. Share the fun.
Putting the peices back together is a tough job, and the board, no matter how well put back together will never perform like it once did. That said, who cares if it rides like a dog right? Depending on your ability level, you might not even know the difference. Or you can sell it for a few hundred. Or just give it to a kid! Anyhoo, this is from what i have gathered the better way to do it. Take the two pieces and clean up the two cracked edges as best you an. No water, no soggy foam, and no sand bits. Take some 60 grit and scuff up the foam enough to clean it off, but take care to keep the “jigsaw” edges as true as possible to their broken form. Mix a up a thick batch of resin with crished up glass till you have the viscosity of mayonaise. Fill it in both siddes of the crack and make sure you kick it pretty hot. (Carfeul not to use UV additive. No sun, no cure). Once yo have both covered real well slap it together as tightly as possible. Make sure that you sight along both rocker and foil to make sure it is back together as evenly as possible. After that sits for a day, you’ll need to add bracing to give the board strength. take a handheld table say and make two cuts on either side of the stringer (4 total) running about 4 feet in length parrallel with the stringer. You can cut stright through the board so the slit goes through both the deck and the bottom, but that makes finishing the bottom more difficult. From the crack you have a 2 feet on either side of the stringer per cut. Next, take 1/8" thick floor planks, or any wood thin and long to fit into the slots. this where the strentgh comes in. You will in effect be adding several half stringers. Again make a batch of resin/chopped up glass and paint the insides of the slots in the foam and the outsides of the planks, and simply wedge them in! You can put a layer of glass over the planks, but if you do it right then all you 'll need to do is sand the planks flush to the board and paint some resin over the exposed wood. If done well, the board might never break again, but the flex will be all messed up. So my advice, would be to sell it after you fix it and by a new blank and make a new board. Good luck!
The method I use is to sand back the glass top and bottom almost to the foam for about a foot either side of the break, bond the two pieces together as mentioned above, I like to use a q-cell mix to keep the weight down, and then reglass both sides. This works quite well for short boards and you dont have an excessive weight gain.