So I took the wax off my 8 month old eps epoxy, and noticed a slight buckle on the deck! This thing was glassed 6x6 on the top, 6 on the bottom, and is 2 5/8" thick(heavier than my normal poly glass). Needless to say I’m a little disappointed since this cost me over $100 more than a PU/PE. I ride poly boards all winter here in Hawaii and my epoxy is showing way more damage than any of them, even though it is mainly for smaller surf. It also has a bunch of little impact cracks on the rails and around the fin box.
Has anybody else had problems with their epoxy strength?
All my epoxies are holding up well. My go to board is Vacuum Bagged and still looks new, no dings, no cracks, only a couple of slight pressure dents on the deck. I’ve been surfing this board for a year and a half now. I have 2 others from the same shaper that are not Vac bagged and the bottom and rails are perfect on both boards but there is more denting on the deck. I’ve had both of those for just under a year. The shaper who shaped and glassed the boards has been working with EPS/Epoxy for probably close to 15 years.
The only Polyester board I’ve had that comes even close to the durability of my Epoxies was an Egg that was a Clark Super Green Blank glassed with double 8oz Volan on the deck and 8oz Volan on the bottom. That was one heavy board but it still surfed well.
sounds like your glasser or shaper may have presealed with spackle,some swear by it, I feel it is good enough for those who are satisfied with good enough, the rest of us are all pre sealing with epoxy resin and cabosil, better compression strength,still light and no delams! many tried spackle early on, good percentage have switched to cabo/epoxy seal.
I wonder about the epoxy quality if it’s cracking. Usually epoxy will dent but not crack because it is more flexible than poly.
As far as the buckle goes S.A. probably nailed it.
Any board can get beat in certain situations, I’ve had a board break in 2 ft. (HI) barrels, but have surfed many times in DOH barrels and have yet to break a board in those conditions, luck maybe. I wouldn’t write off epoxy just yet.
Interesting. I’m not sure about the pre-seal spackle thing.
The core is EPS(Marko), can’t remember the type of resin, but I know it’s not Research Resin and the guy fixing my board said it’s one of the highest quality epoxy resins out there. The board is 6’6x19 1/4x2 5/8x11 5/8Nx14 3/8T. No idea about weight.
Even if you don’t know the exact weight I’m sure it was light with that lam schedule. Correct?
Sometimes your small wave board gets beat up more because you’re doing more wacky sh*t on it. Mine do.
I have heard nothing but good about the Marko foam. I doubt that’s the problem. IMO, the dents and cracks are
a resin issue and the buckle is a bond strength problem(spackle?) that could be compounded by the resin’s apparent
“brittleness”.
fostachild is right, don’t give up on epoxy just yet. When it’s done well, the results are more than satisfactory. Are you on Oahu? If so, I can tell you where to see some pretty good examples.
I noticed my 9’2 epoxy had a slight buckle last spring, too… like you… when I stripped the wax off for the summer. After the, “oh, sh#!” moment passed, I just waxed it up and rode it anyway.
And I’m still riding it today. It’s been a year, and I’m waiting for the thing to snap and it just won’t. I think I feel it flexing… sort of hinging… not too bad, though…when I come hard off the bottom, but people who borrow it for a few waves don’t even notice.
I think mine buckled when it was on the roof rack of my car on a really cold day here in New Jersey. Other than that, it’s a mystery.
No, I’m on Kauai. So is there a big disparity between different epoxy boards out there these days? It seems like there’s alot of little issues such as sealing, brittle resin, sanding, cloth weight etc., that could cause problems if the right combo isn’t used.
The weight of my epoxy was lighter than my poly’s, and it sat higher in the water. It seems if I add more cloth, the weight would be pretty close to a regular poly. I definately think I would need to trim some of my dimensions because the rails did feel corky, although using a Future fin hatchet loosened it up a lot.
My shaper has been doing epoxy for a long time, but never as much volume as now after the Clark foam debacle. I know he is very well respected over here and is known for having a high standard of quality workmanship, but there’s still little feedback on epoxy’s out here and are kind of rare.(Hence my last post on trying to find shapers on Oahu, just to experiment)
I’m actually trimming 1/8" thickness off some of my board this year, so I’ll probably replace the epoxy. Not sure if I will try an epoxy again though. I just got a poly board that I love from him so it’s going to be hard to justify the extra cash.
It might also be a glassing issue with mixing the resin corectly - Epoxy is very temprementle if not mixed very well. And the chemistry is a lot more finely balanced, if the ratios arent spot on and/or the resin isnt mixed well then Epoxy very easily becomes weaker than polyester. It behaves more rubbery… if that makes sense…
Buckle upward would be a bonding issue. A downward buckle means that the EPS if of relatively low density, especially if the stringer didn’t break at all. We only get buckling with these shapers that insist on 4lb boards and use 1.5-1.7lb EPS. None of the buckles have been upward, or delaminating buckles. Adding more cloth helps reduce this greatly, while still keeping the boards lighter than superlight polyurethane boards. For my personals, I choose denser foam, and actually use some fiberglass. I’ve only had one failure since, which was a clean snap, but if you saw the wave, it was no suprise. For the record, we’ve had no delamination failures at all with spackle, and my boards are postcured at 140F and then live in my black car for months at a time here in sunny Hawaii. None of the buckles and snaps have exhibited any exceptional peeling at the break. I’m certain that some are having problems of this nature, but I’m not one of them.
To sum: light foam and insufficient cloth = buckles. Get a denser blank and/or add more cloth.
i hear you greg – i do feel that spackled boards dent more for sure , the buckle may or may not be related to the spackle, and brittle resin could also be an issue. I tried em all as well as combinations of one for lam and one for hot coat and all the resin related problems stopped when i decided to use r.r. exclusively – s.a.
poly resin is poly resin, but epoxy resin is kind of like saying beverage. Do you mean soda (coke, pepsi, sprite), milk, wine…
Lots of variation… in this case if he is an experienced epoxy builder it is likely a quality epoxy, but still saying epoxy is not a clear defining description…