I’ve been searching in this forum for a long time about surfboard shaping and I am really thankful to have found this because I’ve really learnt a lot. After these months of research I’ve been planning to make my own surfboard but I wanted to make a cheap one, because obviously my shaping skills are zero. So I’ve come up with a method and I wanted to ask you guys if you think it’ll work.
The board will be made with XPS foam (really cheap to get here in Portugal) from 3 cm thick, 60 cm width and 2.6 m long sheets (sorry but I dont know how to use the imperial measurement system). I haven’t decided if the system I’ll use will be the parallel profile or just gluing various sheets together and hotwiring. I’ll use polyester resin to laminate the board. In order to prevent the XPS from dissolving I’ll protect it with polyurethane expanding foam (I’ve done some experiments and if you sand the XPS and apply the polyurethane foam the two stick well to each other). Then I’ll laminate with burlap or linnen (the cheapest/strongest fibers I was able to find).
I remember everyone that this is only a prototype - I don’t really know if it’ll be resistant. Since I am still in my learning phase I don’t plan to ride big waves so the board won’t be stressed that much (I hope). The cool thing is that the board will probably cost less than 50€ (63$) to make and it’ll give me the skills to start to think about moving forward and making a board with a decent blank and epoxy.
What do you guys think? Thanks in advance for all the help.
What is you fin plan? Glass on???, box type?? Home made or store bought? Hopefully I did not double the budget of your board?
Also, why all the trouble and prep to make it polyester resin friendly with expanding foam?? That stuff is very expensive and without a mold to stop expansion the airpockets naturally formed with be not uniform in size and be problematic as the build continues.
Your goal is “decent blank and epoxy” resin. I suggest saving or extra job to earn the money to do it right the first time. Otherwise can the PE resin idea/expanding foam and get some epoxy resin with the current plan you have. Post pics please and best of luck.
Thanks for the reply bb30. Actually I’ve found a place here that sells the expanding foam really cheap (3€/3,7$), and one can equals 45L. The air bubbles are indeed a problem that I don’t really know how to deal with (I guess that I’ll have to be slow and careful in that part of the process).
The thing about epoxy is that it is really expensive, like 3 times more comparing to poly (I’ve contacted multiple companies), otherwise I wouldn’t even be thinking about the expanding foam.
Regarding the fins, it’ll be glass on. I will be making them myself (I hope so).
Thanks newschoolblue. Something like house paint would be cool to replace the expanding foam, although I have never heard of anyone using it. I’ve heard some theories about coating with white glue, which I tried with really bad results. Still, something like housepaint or a similar material would be cool as long as it has a good adhesion to the foam. I’ve seen some guys laminating with PU glue (in this forum I even saw a burlap lamination with PU glue). The thing is that using that glue would probably end up really expensive. Do you guys know any materials suitable to coat the XPS?
I have made several boards in XPS. Getting cheap epoxy is the key. My boards cost be about 60 Euros each with finplugs. Go for no stringer and use some thick fiberglass along the rails for strength. 200-300g/m3 for the railbands
I used stringers in all my XPS boards and have the feeling that the extra bonding strength of the glass with the stringer adds a lot of strength to the board.
I’m curious why you advice against stringers.
On topic: I also advice on just using epoxy. But I’m curious to see the poly on XPS results (or the disaster).
That is really cool northern_shore! The thing is that the cheapest epoxy I can get is really expensive… And so is the fiberglass. That is why I’m searching this alternative method to make a board. Any idea on how to coat the xps?
it will only take a pinhole for the poly to enter the blank and eat away at it. either save up for epoxy or buy a poly blank.
or get the xps and shape it for practice. then re shape it into a smaller board, then re shape it in to another smaller board. then you’ll have 3 practice shapes under your belt and should be ready to buy some real supplies.
Do you think you are the first to try to save money and build it cheap? Every single step you mentioned is tried and proven to fail. So if you don’t realize it before you finish and quit, and actually finish it, it will ride like poop, fall apart, and end up in the trash dump.
I get what you’re saying but I guess it’s worth to try right? Otherwise the risk of making my first board and failing is huge. Even if it doesn’t work (if it rides like crap) I’ll still have shaped the XPS and gained some experience in the lamination process. And I won’t be losing that much money (comparing to a real blank). I was just asking you guys for some tips and to share your experience in the subject. But like I said, I understand what you are saying and I’ll think about it before moving on with this project.
