I’m just a garage guy who shapes one or two boards over the summer. Did my first board, a fish back in '04, using Dow Blue XPS. The only delam problem I had was in an area that I’d sanded too smooth. The board is still hanging in. My kids learned on it.
I’d like make a couple boards this summer using Dow High Load Styrofoam but am having a really hard time finding it. I live in Connecticut. Anybody know of a good source?
Hi Peobus, use spray glue and not epoxy or foaming glue. No retailers I know of. Maybe look around in your area where they are building and just use their garbage.
I had planned on going stringer-less, relying on the epoxy lines to add strength. Will spray glue accomplish the same end? What brand of spray glue would you recommend?
I know that my idea of precutting lengthwise cross-sections sounds weird. My thinking is that I could get closer to my desired shape doing that way. Originally I had planned on preparing the sections with only the bottom rocker contours accounted for, leaving the deck flat. Once I had the bottom concave worked out could then work on the deck and rails. Too much trouble?
If you cannot find it at Lowes or Home Depot. Try lumber yards, construction supply companies and commercial construction contractors.
In you area of the country, it should be commonly used for insulation in home and commercial construction.
I believe Dow has a phone number you can call to locate retailers of their products in your area.
Evidently the “high load” product is used primary by concrete contractors. They use it beneath poured foundations. There are distributors in Brooklyn and New Haven. Unfortunately, they sell it by the pallet (50+sheets).
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That is why you need to find a local contractor who does concrete work. They typically buy more than they need for a job – because they get it by truck load. They usually have several sheets unused at the end of a job, not enough for a new job.
That is how I found some. Dow gave me the name of a contractor in my region that buys from time to time. The contractor uses it now and then for commercial refrigeration jobs – my region is too warm for foundation insulation. I called, and for cold cash, the owner sold me several sheets at an affordable price.
By the way, my plan is to cut vertical, nose-to-tail cross sections (length sections?) from the sheets and glue them together to form the blank. I was even considering accounting for bottom rocker and concave. Perhaps running some sort of cross section rod at the nose, center and tail during the glue-up process. Haven’t figured out what kind of rod would remain free of the epoxy, though, as I’d want remove them once I made my way to the rails. Plan shape to be Simmons-esque.
Thanks. I’ll be looking.
The strips work fine use your stringer as a template.
Allowing for concaves in the strips may be a bit complicated. No need for dowls during glue up, if you keep the glue away from the edges it makes shaping the blank much easyer.
Try Allied Roofing Supply in NJ.
I have not tried it. But 3-M makes a spray adhesive specifically for XPS/EPS (3-M 78) that will not melt the foam. I do not know how well it sands though.
I have considered trying Titebond II or III for the vertical strip method – leaving a glue-free space around the edges of the foam strips as much as possible. I suspect a little surface roughing with sandpaper would be needed before gluing.
As Surfifty mentioned, in addition to foundation insulation, XPS is used for commercial roofing insulation also.
Sharkcountry and TaylorO haved used the vertical foam strips/slices method:
http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/how-to-really-build-xps-board?page=2
Sharkcountry:
(pretty sure sc has a another pic of thinner XPS slices with rocker pre-cut into them somewhere around here)
TaylorO:
I figure if your going to the trouble of drawing out your bottom rocker your may as well do the deck side at the same time then you only need to shape the rails and whatever deck roll you want. The pic was my sim blank glue up stringerles eps. Takes a fair bit of time cutting and glueing all the strips. Should be able to see the strips in this pic.
How big are you going?
I did a few perimeter stringers using epoxy and glass to glue the EPS rails on. I don’t think the epoxy/cloth added much stringer-like strength (I snapped all these boards).
I just did a glue up between EPS sheets with epoxy/resin so that the sheets would hold rocker. After I had cut into the glue line I had glass fibres mixed with eps beads to clean up. Lots of glass needles in my hands!
Yeah have used it like that before tommorth, what density are you doing there?
Heres a blank i glued yesterday , used high density eps for central pieces and Green XPS for the rest, going to be a 'MINI" type craft too…
Its just light weight stuff about 1lb hence the little pu square where I was planning on putting the leashplug. Rails are pu also.
Droped it off the stands when I pulled the tape from the hotcoat landed straight onto the concrete on rail didn’t make a mark.
Will you leave athe green visable nocean ? would be a cool effect.
What did you glue the strips together with? What density XPS are you using?
Hi nocean,
What is the reason for the EPS in the middle?
Is it just looks or is there a structural idea behind it?
Actually, in addition to the Simmons I’m planning, my wife and son want me to make SUPs for them. I’m thinking of making them Simmons SUPs, no longer than 8’ and probably approaching 30" in width.
Hi, yeah tommorth I will leave at least the bottom exposed as it does look kinda funky, its actually a little greener than appears from the pics…
Hey stoneburner, not sure on the density , its just the insulation xps we can get here, its pretty hard though also comes in purple and light blue so might have to do an all colour one next:) The rocker segments are glued with polyurethane glue or “gorilla” as it is sold as here.
Hi Hans, Yeah theres a couple of reasons for the eps center, I had some left over so it made a good bulker for the overall width of the blank without adding any extra weight, it gives the board a nice centerline to shape to and will give the board a balanced look once shaped,Ill make this board a stringerless maybe with some high density rails or just carbon rails. Theres no real structural benefit but it is quite high density eps so it will be strong enough…
