Here is a piece of the bamboo offcut that I will use for the Gearbox covers.
I used a squeege to wet it out SUPER dry. I pulled as much resin out of the bamboo as I could.
Cheers, nice of you to say, it was a sad day and the veneer looked so purty…
This is looking awesome!
I am definitely one of those people who needs wider pinlines…haha.
Been working on the gearboxes. It’s my first time doing them and I have been taking my time. The routed hole of the Gearbox system is really tight. If the boxes are being installed in a normal foam board, I imagine this makes for a perfect fit. With the lightweight EPS and bamboo veneer of my build, I was having trouble setting the boxes in the board. I had to push the boxes pretty hard to get them to go in but, they would “skip” past the bamboo veneer and get caught underneath the edge. It was kinda frustrating until I realized I could just use a sanding block around the edges of the boxes. Once I did that and checked the fit a few times, I had the boxes going in their holes no problem. After that, it was on to the covers. Pretty straight forward gluing the bamboo onto those. Had a couple minor hiccups but not a problem. After that, I went at them with a box knife and it was pretty easy to cut out the insides. I borrowed a dremel from a buddy and will clean those up tomorrow hopefully and get the boxes finally set in the board. After that, I can glass the bottom.
Are you making some swim trunks too? 
You guessed it!
I don’t know if I am going to be able to make the cutoff… The job has called me in for OT this week again. We will see
Nice work Chris! I’d like to see more pics of bagging the cork. Like how you wrapped and trimmed the rails? Also, are you going to leave it exposed or glass it?
No breather cloth necessary? What did you use for lighting (side lighting?)
Anyways the board is looking great.
Maybe I missed it.
What was/is the thickness of your bamboo skin?
It is veneer Stoneburner.
.6 mm iirc
Alright, back in the saddle… It’s been 2 weeks since I have been able to touch this board. My “real job” called me in for a bunch of extra hours… Anyway, here we go… I taped off for a fin patch. I decided to try this one differently than others I have done. I taped it off for a cutlap/inlay. Never done anything like this before and learned a lesson. I should have cut the glass closer. No reason to have all that glass hanging down it just sucks resin and is unnecessary.
While that was kicking, I got ready for my leash plug. I have never done an underglass leash plug… I used a scrap piece of cheap pine and drilled some holes in it with forstner bits. Then routed some holes in scrap foam and picked which one was the tightest fit. I like using the router because it makes a cleaner hole.
Then, I got a piece of cardstock and sprayed a light dusting of Super77 on it. Next, I layed my rice paper on that and smoothed it out. Then I used scissors to cut the excess rice paper around the edge of the cardstock so they were the same size… After that, it’s into the printer to print the logos… After it prints, it’s easy to pull up the rice paper IF you only do a light dusting… I get better results using the Super77 than I ever did with the tape. When I used to use the tape method, I always had trouble with the rice paper pulling up and messing up the print. This way, I don’t have those issues…
AND, my new wettie showed up! It’s a cheapie but it will get into the rotation so I can have a dry wetsuit. Stoked!
Peel up the rice paper and cut 'em out. The fin patch came out nice. I used a razor blade around the finboxes and it worked pretty well it seems. I don’t see any bubbles. Big thanks to Bud808 (iirc) for that tip he posted a LONG time ago.
Here’s the prep for the deck patch. I need this for the leash plug and I extended it for a tail pad. Measuring first…
Also figuring out where to put my leashplug. I would normally put it on one of the tail tips but, on this board, I decided to put it in the middle where it could sit in the XPS so the hole is water tight. In hindsight, it probably won’t make a difference either way.
Prepping for the cutlap. Before this board, I had never done any sort of cutlap. I really like how clean they come out and will be doing more of them in the future… I also used some Montana Cans Gold to spray the spot where my lam will go. After the paint dried, I scratched it up a little with some 100 grit.
And, of course, it wouldn’t be my build if some kind of weird thing didn’t happen.
I noticed these letters in several spots on the board AFTER I lammed the bottom… I KNOW the bamboo was clean before I lammed, these must have been on my glass??? Oh well.
BEAUTIFUL!