ive been shaping foam blanks for a while now and since clark has shut his doors, im wondering if epoxy/styrofoam is the way to go. is shaping epoxy/styro blanks the same?? i read the article on the sandwich construction which i suppose i could try and tackle at some point, but it seems really involved. can anyone give me any insight?? what about cost for materials?? peace and aloha
hopefully this will help ?
Welcome. I’d recommend reading all the previous posts on the topic before asking people to cover the same ground again. You can start with the “sticky” topic you surely saw at the top of the post index called “epoxy and eps construction primer”.
If you’ve been shaping/glassing you shold have no trouble. There might be slight differences that you’ll get used to very quickly. As mentioned, read the first ‘stickies’ about epoxy and eps. Then read all of Bert’s posting.
I’ve made 7 boards in the last three years. My first two boards were ‘Clark’ with epoxy and carbon/S cloth. Then I began with EPS. I bought a block 10’x2’x1’ and hot wire cut it. All of my tools and equipment are homemade and on the cheep side AND they work just fine. I’ve been vac/bagging since using EPS and it works wonders. First 10’ balsa composite was 21# (that was number 5) the last one was 9’8" and is 14#. YOu’ll learn as you go but you’ll find that the first one will work GREAT and each one that you complete after that will be better and better and better! It’s GREAT!
Have fun and keep us posted!
Les
Oh! and to answer your question…
I’ve been finding cheeper suppliers and have gotten the price of this last one (9’8") down to $200. That’s a EPS/RR Epoxy Balsa composite with 2 layers of 4oz. S glass.