Okay, I’ve mined the old posts and read about the techniques and pros/cons, as I’m planning a compsand with just balsa skins and carbon fiber taped rails. Anybody want to report on how theirs have held up? Did the “brittleness” cause issues? Are the flex patterns impacted greatly? I’ll post my construction, but I’m just in the process of getting materials right now.
I’m not a proponent of carbon rails, but I have some experience with carbon in surfboards. The main thing
I can tell you is that carbon is much too brittle to be used alone, it has to have some help in the lam schedule
(or in the weave, that’s why there’s so many hybrid cloths with carbon as a component) from a fiber with
complimentery physicals. To keep it simple, just use e-glass with the carbon, it serves the purpose. Or you
can get as exotic as you desire. But carbon alone is asking for trouble.
Thanks Mike. I ran into Kirk or Eric, I don’t see them enough to know the difference, at Doubles and asked him a few things. He gave me a few points to consider and I had planned to have the first lam of carbon wrap beneath the top & bottom balsa skin, then finish that off with 4 oz. laps from top and bottom on the next bag. I didn’t plan to do the whole thing at once, as I want to be able to clean up any fibers if any strayed.
Caught some fun waist high with some chest high sets at the inlet at dawn this morning. Kids out of school and just two other longboarders. Gas prices do have some benefit, eh?
carbon rails is a waste of time other then cosmetics
id like a board with a carbon bottom for LOOKS
but cant see any other reason to use it with sandwhich skins
Under or over Core-Cell or even balsa deck skins… It works fantastic in compression and would nearly eliminate heel dents…
I use it mainly under deck skins… it toughens up low density eps cores…
Kiterider…
From my understanding of carbon bicycles, it is great for customising torsion & flex properties but not so good with impact.
Pompano,
Sure seems like the carbon rail(s) would flex different than the balsa possibly causing issues. Would love to measure the flex of one to see how it compares to boards like the Coils etc. I have been measuring a lot of boards and the ones that ride well seem to have have the right flex in the right places. Just throwing this out there for further discussion.
regards,
Dave_D
hi dave, can you give us more info reguarding how you measure the flex and the ones that ride well have the right flex,
i measured a few boards by over hanging the back of the board by 2ft and useing a spring balance to pull down and measure the deflection on a scale , my sons favourite poly board was about 25lb to deflect one inch ,most of the compsand boards i have done where in the 33- 42 lb range ,so a lot stiffer , pete
Pete,
I made the setup like Mike Daniel described in the “Flex Measurement” thread. I have a stringerless ResinX Marko board that flexes very similar to a Coil. I am considering the Coil the benchmark. The only boards that I have measured with similar flex are very lightly glassed pu/pe team rider boards. I can pm you some numbers if you like.
Dave_D
Okay, I’ve got the materials now, and I just saw Grasshopper’s post on his carbon fiber rails, so I’m going to start laying up my foam tonight.
Unfortunately, I know Greg L. says foam should be cut, not glued, but hey, I’ve got the foam already and all I have are hand tools (besides the vacuum pump).
I talked to another person from work who does aerospace composite layups with graphite, and he gave me a few more pointers.
It’s all good in the garage.