A few weeks ago after surfing I noticed these spots developing on my board. I knew that it wasn’t a good sign but couldn’t figure out what happened. Then a couple hours later there was a noticeable dark stain around one of the FCS plugs. Upon close inspection I found it was cracked all around and loose. So I drilled it out and have left the board in my car in the sun all week (it’s been pretty warm here in So. Cal. lately…today was like summer). It’s still wet/damp inside the hole.
So how can I dry this board out? Or can I ever dry it out? Will the stains ever go away or lessen? I figure it has to be totally dry before attempting to put in a new plug.
Anything can be dried out eventually - its a matter of humidity, not just temp. The other thing that helps is to keep the air around it moving, why the service master guys always set up fans in a water damaged home. Did all that moisture come from the fin, or did it get in some other way? If its all from the fin, it looks like it travelled behind the wood, then seeped into the wood.
I don't know the qualities of your foam, but I do know with hws that the cold of the ocean water causes the air inside to contract, creating a vacuum effect. A hairline crack is all it takes, and the board starts sucking the moisture in like a jungle mosquito. I had one day at Malibu I couldn't catch anything - when I came in, I probably poured a gallon of water out of my board LOL!
Ive had similar water damage on the tail of an EPS board and I hooked it up to the vac pump I use for bagging. I put a hole in the nose figuring that I needed a clear 'suck-thru' from one end to the other.
It drew water out but I cant say it got it all. I shouldve weighed the board when it was dry. Not a bad idea to weigh a new EPS board and write it down.
Im still standing it up in the rafters to totally dry out but I think the pump got most of it out and quickly.
In addition to what was previously mentioned about hooking it up to a vacuum pump (with a water trap so you don’t get water in your pump) with a vent hole -you can heat the board with one of those little fan space heaters. I have a box that is also my rocker table that I cut a hole in the side the size of the space heater. I stick boards that have taken on water in there with a sheet of plywood over the top. The combination of the heat and vacuum dries them completely.
I think you’re stuck with the water staining unless you do a major repair like Karl mentioned.
The other thing I do with timber sheets rather than veneer is seal them with heated epoxy well before I vacuum them on - helps protect if water does get in.
I found the fastest method by far is to strip the glass in the affected area and leave it for a few days or longer near the heater or in the sun. You’ll notice how easy it is to strip the laminate. It’s best to don’t leave any spots covered which in your case it seems half the board. This may sound time consuming but believe me its not that bad. The wood will dry out really nice (at least with bamboo in my experience). I would suggest to firstly sand the board in that area where the glass is going to be faired in when you laminate the affected area afterwards. This way you are not likely to damage the wood underneath after you ve done the stripping.
In your case the fcs plugs will probably be challanging, stripping and glassing but they will be nicely sealed in the end.
glass over systems are not really a solution as they are more difficult to repair as opposed to the 10 minutes it takes to replace an fcs plug. just isolate the plug from the skins and core
water you got there is either from lotsa pinholes ore soaked thru from the inside. i would say the later. fix is in the build process or materials. youl never/unlikely to dry the wood unless the glass is peeled . ive seen water migrate up the endgrain of balsa but not so much paulownia and have never seen the staining migrate like that in paulownia so asuming water in entering wood from multi places . which leads me to believe the water is in the eps and is slowly permeating thru the inside . i seal my compsand boards very well on the inside for this reason
I use to repair all kind of eps/epoxy toy (kite,wins,waveski,surf…) made with all kind of technology. My little experience make me say, follow paul advise: seal all wood in and out with resin, make a decent lam on wood and always do a gloss coat (even for a matt finish) on eps boards and set plugs in HD hygroscopic insert.
Llilbel, I think you have gotten good advice concerning removing the glass to get the most moisture out. But I don’t think you will get the stains out. And I wonder if it will be worth it. You are going do a lot of sanding. My two piece bamboo sprung a leak when I failed to plug the end of one of the carbon tubes properly. I did a major rebuild and got all the water out, but not the stains. I did not strip the glass because I wasn’t sure I had the sanding skills and it was an experimental board anyway.
BTW, did you use an under layer of glass which might have sealed the timber? Just curious. You know, I usually do, but for other reasons. Funny, though, you hate to add extra build because you think part of your install will fail. You build thinking everything is going to work as it should. I’m not being critcial, just observing the irony.
I ran over a log a while back, and this is what it gave me. So I sucked out the water, then let the board sit for a few weeks to make sure it was real dry.. and fixed the ding. The wood will still be stained, that just the way it is. The wood will never look the same.
Wow. Thanks for all the repsonses. Good to have you back Paul. I always value your input and you’ve taught me a lot. And Resinhead, when you wrote “I ran over a log” my first thought was, “On purpose??”
I guess I’ll try the vac pump method and just live with the stains. Stripping the glass sound like almost as much work as making a new one. I’ll have to exaggerate the extent of the damage when I talk to my wife so I have a good excuse to make a new one…
The wood is hickory not bamboo. I’d love to use paulownia but have never found a source for full length pieces milled to skin thickness.
I use the 1.5 eps hoping to avoid having to go throught the extra step of high density inserts. I use FCS for weight saving. If I go back to inserts or switch to pro box then I fear the weight penalty (especially on these five finners). Lots to think about for the next build…
All great advice, regarding drying the board out, put it in a closet or bathroom and plug in a dehumidifier, this works wonders for drying out boards. Should dry out completely in just a few days if not sooner, personally would not hook my vac to it without a reservoir, the mason jar looks perfect. My .02 on second thought I wouldn’t hook but vac to it at all, same reasoning I would never reshape a stripped blank, saltwater and tool don’t mix ever.
To work aroumd glass does seem a lot of work but in any other case- strip and reglass. On my bamboo board the stain was say half the size of yours. I redid the board in under an hour. I wasn’t too fussy with cosmetics though- it was on The deck. You’ll notice the stains lessen over night and you can actualy feel if the board s dry.
I guess I'll try the vac pump method and just live with the stains. Stripping the glass sound like almost as much work as making a new one. I'll have to exaggerate the extent of the damage when I talk to my wife so I have a good excuse to make a new one..
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Don't know if I understood this post completely, but wanted to say - if the vac pump doesn't work out, and you decide to abandon this project in favor of building a new board, I will gladly adopt the board for a repair/rebuild. I promise to post everything here on swaylocks. I live in Bakersfield, so drying it out is not an issue LOL.
Jeff - It literally pains me to see the problems you run in to in spite of the great results you get. This board is another example.
I think it was Bert Burger who said he has applied a controlled dose of compressed air at one end and vacuum at the other?
Sucking water with the vac pump will eventually destroy it.
Packing a mason jar (see resinhead post) with dessicant will absorb some of the moisture. A handful of uncooked rice is better than nothing. That's why you sometimes see rice in a salt shaker... to absorb moisture in the air and keep the salt from clumping together.
The Board Lady (see second link below) uses a baffled tube with a drain at the bottom to keep water out of the pump. She also stuffs wicking material in the hole. Plastic sheet sealed over the hole and then placing the board in the sun will reveal moisture via condensation. Eva says she sometimes takes months to dry out a board...
"While substantially faster than any of the above methods, vacuum-drying can take months, if the water had a chance to migrate into the EPS beads: a Northshore Maui board with over 6# of water in the core for half a year, took 5 months to shed 5 1/2#.
Don't wait!!"
The water stains are tough to remove. I've had some luck with water stains on furniture using bleach but the wood would have to be exposed. Hard to say if your veneer is mostly penetrated/sealed with epoxy even with glass removed.
