My Boardworks TEC longboard has a coin-sized ding near the tail. When I press on it water seeps out, so I will have to dry it out before repairing it. I have googled around and also checked this forum, but would like to get some coherent expert advice before proceeding.
I have read elsewhere in this forum to first rinse the ding with fresh water in order to flush out the salt, because the crystals will cause future problems. How exactly should I do this - just cut out the ding and then splash some water on there? How will I know how much is enough? I don't want to make the board even more waterlogged if possible.
I have read about drilling a hole in the nose and then using a vacuum pump to suck the water out. I would like to avoid doing this if possible since I don't have easy access to the equipment. I would also like to avoid using a hairdryer for fear of damaging my board. How can I be sure that the board is dry enough to repair? Is there any way to tell, or any rule of thumb for how long it should dry?
How should I best position the board to dry?
Does anyone have any specific experience with drying a Boardworks TEC that would be helpful?
Every body has access to a vac system, you can subsitute a shop vac for the pump. All this is made with stuff around the house, tape, ziplock bag, sponge pad, mason jar. All you need to buy is the clear plastic tubing? I know you can figure out how to do a one time conection to a shop vac and the ding? enjoy. A eps blank will suck about 4 oz of water, and will take weeks to drain. best way without pump is to let gravity work.
Once the water is out, the ding will dry completely in a day or so. If you do the gravity thing, it might be a week or more depending on the weather.
Howzit rider, Bills way works fine and once the salt is out of the ding you will be surprised how fast the foam will dry. doing a quick hit with a shop vac won't hurt either but I used to just put them on thr eacks and let them dry out and in the sun helps too. Aloha,Kokua
Thanks for the advice guys. I got a shop vac for only 30 bucks. However, the situation may not be as bad as I initially thought. The foam seemed dry today after two days of the board laying out. I used the vac too but not a drop came out, so it seems that not a lot of water was in there. I’m off for the weekend so it will have two more days to dry out, and then I will repair it.
Howzit rider, If the repair delams when it gets hot then there was still salt in the foam since the salt crystals disolve and then it delams. Aloha,Kokua
EPS suck a lot more water than poly. The ding above pulled almost 1/3 of that jar of water, If i let it gravity dry I'd still be waiting for nature to do its thing.
using some kind of pump to suck the water out will get you back in the water 3x as fast. You can suck the water out, then let the residual dry in a 1/2. So the dry time is just a few hrs at most. For eps repairs I think it's the only way to go if you are in a hurry to get back in the water.......Of if a client is in a hurry.
I ended up buying this shop vac for $30 USD and it did the trick. I had to cobble together some attachments to make a nozzle I could jam into my board:
