Talking to my neighbor this morning I wanted to know if his eps boards pressure ding easily. He went on to tell me he’s never getting another eps board because his last two sucked up so much water after getting small dings that he couldn’t believe it.
I was asking because the last two boards I did with US Blanks blue foam are getting pressure dings everywhere. One was glassed with US composites epoxy and the other with RR2000. Both has 2 layers of 6 oz S cloth on the deck.
In comparision, the clark blanks with the same glass on green foam that I did earlier this year don’t even pressure ding at all. These has the Fiberglass Hawaii 4:1 resin. I did one US Blank green foam with US Composites resin, same glass, and I think it didn’t have any pressure dings after one month of surfing, but it is for sale in a shop in town so I’m not completely sure if it is ding free. I think I would have remembered though if it did have pressure dings.
I am just amazed how easy the blue foam is pressure dinging. I usually use green foam and just got use to no dings at all, or at least not for years, then it would show up where you are squeezing the rails.
So can any of you tell me how quick your eps blanks pressure ding? I’m sure you guys using 1 pound foam get them right away, but what about 2 pound or 2.5 pound density foam?
I just got the epoxy 101 and wanted to carve up some of my own oversized 1 pound eps blanks, but now my neighbor has got me spooked. Should I be starting with 2.5 pound stuff? Does it resist soaking up water better? This whole blank thing sometimes gets very annoying.
Anyway, surf was head high plus and glassing this morning. That always makes one feel better.
Aloha
Hey punasurf–was looking at this archive page–hope this is all still accurate
http://www.swaylocks.com/resources/detail_page.cgi?ID=1029
"Glassing Schedules:
Greg Loehr – Thursday, 5 February 2004, at 12:05 p.m.
2# EPS - Use one layer 6 or 2 layers of 4 bottom… Use 2 layers 6 or 3 layer 4 deck.
1.5# EPS - Use one 4 and one 6 oz for bottoms… Use two 4 and a 6 for the deck.
1# EPS - use two 6 bottom… three 6 deck.
These are minimums. For strength, go up from there."
1# eps is great for composites, requires lots of glass as a core alone…needs a good “bog” sealing…and still it can gas around stringers and boxes when laminating. The SUPs 10’ x 28" over here are being built with 2# as straight cores…again a good “bog” sealing prelaminating, still some gassing in likely spots. “Blue” foam xps? or a blue color density code on PU? I gave up on blue XPS years ago due to excessive gassing…like a 50% success rate… a delam nightmare.
The color density codes are a bit screwy...so is the quality of the foam and the stringer glue ups. I bot a 'blue' Bennet (AU) glued up in Argentina (voids and cracks) but after laming and with flat deck...bullet proof and very sparlky white. Next a PU 7-0 AE from US blanks decent quality but then gassed along the stringer on the deck. Then I picked up a US Blanks 'blue' PU 6-6 or 4 AE with 3 ply stringer only to realized upon templating the stringer was wavey gravy + - 3/8," obviously a second...not a pretty offset. Next, I went to pick out another US blanks 6-6, this time the color was 'red'...really soft like 1# eps but heavier..hmmm. I checked the 'blue' a bit stiffer but not the right blank size. So I pulled out a 'green' Bennet (AU)...just right...a little too much tip flip but good foam and glue up...they've been at it a while. Theres a lot of compromising going on just to get blank production back up to speed in the US. I guess I took the quality and availability of Clark for granted, although on ocassion there was a bad run or a bubbly blank or two. Nothing like what I'm seeing on the rack here...Or maybe the quality is stashed for the high production builders, but most of them bring in their own containers. Hard to build a quality product with questionable cores; glad its no longer my livelyhood. It's a tough living with good materials and a production team. Last thing you need is an unhappy customer.
Back in 1992 I bought a custom Greg Loehr EPS/Epoxy for the bargain price of $350.
Rode it moderately (this is the EC after all) until 1998 or so.
Scraped all the wax off the deck, gave the board a light ultra-fine sanding. Back foot area had some moderate heel denting, nothing bad like a pupe would have. Board was still lighter than a new pupe. Put it on consignment (with about 30 other consignment boards, some gathering a nice layer of dust) at the local shop… it sold the next day for $200.
Btw, if you want the best eps foam, go with Marko foam…just picked up two myself…hyper fused.