Had a buddy give me some carbon to try out - built this board this weekend.
2 lb eps - i dont know the specs on the carbon.
6’0 x 18.5 x 2.25
appears to be unidirectional - looks like a weave till you look up close - the cross weave is not carbon…
feels like snake skin!
tape off the blank top and bottom rails and sprayed a dust of adhesive spray for the carbon to stick to (thanks greg loehr in the swaylocks archive!). when i laminated them, i folded the carbon up on the deck and brushed on resin to the foam rail, then folded the carbon back down and brushed some resin on top, then squeegee
cut the laps…man was this a bitch! the carbon actually cut really well but it was really hard to get it to bend for me to put my razor blade in the crease between the foam and the tape. i tried to put multiple layers of tape to build up a ridge to use as a ‘blind’ guide but it was not thick enough to show through. a lap cutter would be the ticket, but i like to taper my cuts so that wouldnt work for me…
sink some boxes…bottom cut lap got gnarled up some because i taped it off right on the bottom rail edge…
laminate…2x4oz bottom 3x4oz deck only lap one layer each side (already plenty strength/stiffness from carbon rail)
carbon rail looks pretty sweet! holographic in the sun! lets hope it give a sweet sweet ride - good flex with loads of springback - thats the idea! i think this carbon tape might be a little bulky - board may be kinda stiff - only one way to tell! i will give a ride report in a couple weeks hopefully!
Looks sick - was thinking of giving something like this a go. Do you have finished pics? I also thought of maybe tapping the carbon in place then cutting it to rail shape before glassing so as to skip cutting after lam when it is so hard??? Could this work? Aloha
you could do that - but it would be really hard to get a clean edge - the carbon seemed to fray very easily and then the fray mixes with the resin to leave nice black smudges. this was my first attempt so i am no expert - anyone else try something like this with/without tape off and want to share some tips?
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Looks sick - was thinking of giving something like this a go. Do you have finished pics? I also thought of maybe tapping the carbon in place then cutting it to rail shape before glassing so as to skip cutting after lam when it is so hard??? Could this work? Aloha
After much frustration with several solid pigmented cut laps I now use my rail band marker and adjust for the thickness of the lam. Your board looks sweet! Can’t wait to hear how it rides.
laminate…2x4oz bottom 3x4oz deck. only lap one layer each side (already plenty strength/stiffness from carbon rail)
no scale - probably about same weight as really lightweight poly. carbon rails added about as much weight as a single stringer would have.
came out a good bit lighter than a perimeter stringer with same foam and glass job and similar volume - but the perimeter stringers were 1/8 ply and it was a quad (extra fin) and i used proboxes -and those things are heavy as a mother…
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Very cool looking. Nice shape. What glassing schedule did you go with? what was the final weight?
Great looking board GH. So, whaddya think? Want to do another one? I’ve made three CF railed boards, and am pretty sure I have that out of my system! I think you’ll love the way it rides though.
Looks great, and I’ll ditto about cutlapping carbon being a bitch. I didn’t have any trouble lifting and cutting it, just did it at the right time in the cure cycle, but MAN was it hard staying on that tapeline!
But… what is the purpose of carbon in the rails if not for appearance? If you want a “stronger” board it would have been better using that carbon as a strip over the stringer.
Amazing how consistently a little basic Mechanics of Materials theory and application seems to completely bypass most shaper/glassers.
If we were building a half million $ sailboat academics and engineering is everything to predict the outcome of the project. Our boards are are a chunk of $dough to us but not a life breaker so we can experiment, maybe the outcome will have “something” about it we like, who knows? And if the performance is equal to the regular method, no loss and the carbon rails look great to some us, and its a custom, home made, out out of the box experiment to give some things a try. Somebody had to reach out to try putting a fin somewhere on these planks. And there’s great satisfactipon for some of us in riding and showing up with something built by us and when its beautiful like the carbon rails even better. Watch out for those rails getting too hot in the sun, my carbon board gets too hot just walking from the car to the beach.
Really nice build grasshopper, I wish I had your skills.
just a question about your glassing schedule, i’ve done a few #2 EPS with 3 layers of 4oz on the deck and had problems of the deck compressing in the stomp areas. I went to 4 layers of 4oz and added patches to my last build but still I get a front footprint.
just wondering if you have done others with this schedule and if you have encountered this.
Im using RR epoxy and Hexel cloth.
Any help for a newbie would be good.
Maybe I’m just a leadfoot!
“Any advice I give is worth exactly what you paid me for it!”
But… what is the purpose of carbon in the rails if not for appearance? If you want a “stronger” board it would have been better using that carbon as a strip over the stringer.
Amazing how consistently a little basic Mechanics of Materials theory and application seems to completely bypass most shaper/glassers.
That actually won’t make it stronger but stiffer.
If you use carbon rails around the stringer the carbon will snap more easily!
I believe carbon rails can be fun because they can add reactivity whitout stiffening up your board too much.
But if you want to know the real difference you’ll have to try it.
Triple 4 decks should be enough depending on your weight and how you surf. I usually do double 6 decks with a 4 stomp for the tail. The thing I’ve found is that the eps will form footwells only to a point and then it will stop with almost no delamination. I’ve also tried not sealing the eps on the deck in the areas that I stand. It seems to help but has caused problems during glassing in rising temps.
Surfed in chest high to overhead surf in central California last week - it was a great week - hot and sunny with beautiful glassy swell rolling in! I even got to surf it in the Swaylocks trial ground at Sand Dollar Beach!
Surfed well - compared to a similar stringerless EPS and a PVC perimeter stringer EPS, less overall flex, but still enough to feel some bend, no bogging effect on slower parts of the wave (which is a problem with the other constructions) - absorbed backwash and was VERY quick off the bottom / off the top on steeper walls. Good pop off the ramp sections. Brought me through a couple cover-ups. Overall - a winner! It still has some room to be tweaked - I think a little more tail rocker wouldnt hurt - and playing with different weights of carbon and tapering the lap in different ways to achieve more / less flex would definitely be fun!
Honolulu - I am very aware of the mechanics going into this build - I was not using the carbon on the basis of increasing breaking strength - I was using the carbon to ‘tune’ a flex pattern into the board! Hans gets it! And it works! (also - there is no stringer)
Offshore/DMP - I have noticed the same thing - you have to use way too much glass to stop all denting with the 2lb eps - but even when it is glassed really light - the foot dents still dont dent in much more. With the stringerless construction - the footwells actually form perfect to your feet - which is a real advantage!
I would recommend this construction to anyone willing to put the extra time/work/$$ into it - I am really stoked on it - cant wait to play around with it some more and try it on some different shapes!
