compsand number 3 with digital fleece print by experimentation

General Discussion
1

blablabla

goal on left side

SKINS:

LEARN: i Taped AND spackled them… mucho work… not a big result, and no: it was not easier to sand down, and yes i did use a lot of bubbles, mayonnaise consistency - maybe i do st wrong

next time i will quickly tape up, just so it is transportable to blank…

– just fill the gaps in between balsa [after skin is cured] with a mixture of glass fibre powder and epoxy, just before i lam… saves a ton of work

rail build up is shit

first some corecell rail build up, skinned:

LEARN: Corecell CAN be bent to rocker with heat, Though it cools down fast, and it is not perfect, takes a lot of time…

i had some corecell missing on some parts of the rails, had to glue extra corecell on

LEARN plus: ALSO put the bottom skin on, or you CANT shape the thing properly !

do it just like bert showed, it is easy, fast [gain $ instead of heat forming corecell,]

looks well rockered

sticking rails on

LEARN: rails in bag WITH FOAM UNDERNEATH - balsa rails glued with epoxy, no foaming stuff [messy, shaping, sanding, yellow, disaster]

NEXT TIME: prefab rails in off-cut , glue on with balsa - less hassle, i am not a businessman, just want st easy stressless

rails side view [i grounded the rails down, too wide, pity]

YOU can see it is higher than the table, otherwise the balsa dont fit well

oh, LEARN: put st in between eopxy and your bag, if you dont want to clean your bag from sharp epoxy left overs… that puncture your bag…[ no it did not happen]

2

rails are on and shaped down to thin boxy

LEARN: chill the fuck out and concentrate, mark the rails instead of feeling them… i took all the balsa down and hit the weave on 1 inch on top skin near tail rail right side, i am too rushed.

now to put fleece on, stiff fleece with print

so i wetted balsa first, about 70 grams, including top side with a cutlap…

WHY? to stick her down well, and impregnate balsa

i want it on WITHOUT wrinkles, so i thought foam will compress nicely, so i made a bed:

EXPERIMENT:

after i had stuck fleece with 2oz over on BOTTOM [you can see the prints black cuts in this pic]- i put it to sleep

cover her up, linnen first

some more linnen

and then some warmth:

Polyethyleen-30mm

Then more and heavier pe

LEARN: PE with a SMOOTH OUTSIDE [so i can TAPE it up to slide it in bag problem free]

tape up

in bag:

as of now, GMT+2 15h44, it is still in the bag with slow hardener [hoping for better balsa penetration] and flexy 2040

prolly a mistake, whatever, i hate thinking - love doing, even if i fuck things up.

so… more tomorrow, when i take it out of the bag,

LEARN:p.s. i do need to set up a new vac system, for the smoke out of those fridge pumps is killing, and you need to nurture them with oil

Pressure used: 0.7 bar, afraid of denting blank… is it too much? always that fear…

3

i can explain the shaping too, without pics unfortunately

but:

bert inspired experiment:

i looked at board, decided where and how to make concave and CUT convex shape out of softer cardboard…

and pressed it on in bag

LEARN 2 things:

  1. It works, though you do have to finish shape a bit, for cardboard edges are visible. Dont want to make a

  2. MARK where the nose and tails ends have to go - you can see in pic a black line on the nose side, where nose of balnk has to go. You dont always see your blank…

only used 0.2 bar pressure

4

Very cool thread Wouter. Can’t wait to see the final results.

5

yah wouter!

i’m liking it, keep us updated

6

All right,

Good news [for sways and myself]

and bad news [just for me]

Good news:

complete wrinkle free fleece print on bottom, with 2oz on top [this pic still has peel ply that looks fumbled and wrinkled]

part 2

LEARN: do it again!

Bad news - part 1

BAD: The complete deck side next to the rail right hand, has been indented.

Just there where the glass and epoxy is.

I now have to fill that up with more balsa and reshape.

Should i remove the glass? Or is the thickness a more important definer of the flex. I do want r and l to flex the same, gnarly shit.

LEARN: less pressure and preciser shaping both sides.

I have now decided, how to get the best looking surfboard though, for i was wondering how to get a blasa deck, but black rails… [do have to cover up the ugly cuts of the fleece]

So now the COMPLETE board will be black, with red epoxy pinlines… woohoo, nice side effect of this disaster. Dont you think?

Bad news - part 2

An unwanted peel test was performed. The epoxy did NOT penetrate deeply into the balsa. No big deal, just a little epoxy and stick it back, but still.

p.s. the board is Liiiiigght!!

to be continued…

7

Wouter the mad scientist works in his basement laboratory, if only the civilians in his

neighborhood knew what was going on down there under the cover of darkness…

Two questions, why did only the right side indent, and how light is liiiigght?

8

Mike,

Why only the right side???

Combination of reasons, i venture:

  1. Right side of skin was thinned out more than the left side...
  2. More resin on right hand side...
  3. Vacuum of 0.7 bar crushed first two reasons down.
    • Meaning: more resin makes for a more flexible wood, you can really feel the indent on the edge of where the 2oz glass goes.
Light = 1485 grams now. Without 4oz deck lam, rails reinforcement, 2 hotcoats and glass on fins [for which i need advice, pics later]

Goal = < 2500 Grams.

I already know that the fleece weighs 90grams/m2, and i could have done inside bottom skin with 2oz only, but used 4oz. so i could have saved a full 5oz on bottom only… or 140 grams. Next board will be ridiculously light, and hopefully strong AND flexible, it soooo difficult to get it right, and i dont get that balsa fully saturated…

Thinking of buying a second coil and giving up on shaping alltogether.

I mean: How many more before i am happy with my own boards, how many more before i overcome my own shortcomings? Counter says 20. I will now only refine 1 model till i like it. Way easier.

W.

9

1485 grams at this point is not bad at all, if you’re careful you should make your 2500 target.

Did your skin on the right side get thin from overshaping?

10

Well,

Looking at the board with the right light: completely fucked up, way too much pressure, 0.7 bar.

not worth finishing anymore, but i will, just for the fun of it

bottom is warped, deck is warped —> everything is warped.

just for the heck of experiment i will finish it and ride it, it now has a single concave nose, leading into double concave through the middle, leading into single concave at tail, with last 2 inches flat… something that i never shaped it to be…

hell, no more pressurizing it. next time less PE foam and less pressure, -0.3bar max vacuum.

So people, take notice, and you can avoid my mistakes.

Wouter

11

Live and learn, right? (or bag and learn in this case).

Go ahead and ride it, you might be pleasantly surprised. Sometimes a few flaws don’t really

matter when you get it in the water. I doubt if the ocean is going to look over the board

before it lets you ride it’s waves.

(but do start putting away a few euros for that next Coil)

12

so in the end i did finish her

it is great to ride and has only 1 drawback, not enough volume.

from all the people that rode it the message was the same, rides great paddles like crap [and catches waves less easy thus]

weight excluding wax is 2450 grams

rails are wafer thin, i think 2/3 of my coil roundpin maybe

big concave

very flexy feel in the hands, flexier than the coil if you pull the nose to you over your elbows…

anyway, another one, mucho experience gained

now going to finish another fuck up, the longboard.

wouter

13

Nice pics, gotta love the ‘‘street scene’’ backdrop. Hey!. I know that address! Didn’t I ship a couple of boards there in the recent past?

I think your work came out looking pretty damn good after all. Did that one go to France with you?

And don’t go comparing flex to the Coil and saying we’re stiffer. I’ll have all the ‘‘stiff is better’’ guys placing orders, adding to my backlog…:wink:

14

haha you’re the “into stiffer stuff” guy

dont mean to say anything other than it feels very flexy though, i dont use words like better or worse.

it was hard choosing whether to take mine or not… i already had 2 coils on the roof you see, so switching it for a coil??

my girlfriend had a final saying –> 2 boards only

later

15

sways has a saying: get a new girlfriend.