hey guys stoked to follow on those responses.at last ive found someone to talk to that actually understands me …im on the west coast of australia and seriously,im all alone when it comes to r & d and finding people to discuss the complex issues of board construction and performance . i really appreciate gregs comments it was almost like a pat on the back i got real buzz out of it…another bonus with rail stringers is that you dont get problems on the deck with stringers bulging through your glass job and after a lot of use and your deck sinks a little your foot fits in real snug without a stringer poking into it… regards… BERT
The world awaits an alternative to “the conventional stringer”. A substance that shapes easily and is stiff as whatever, or no stringer, or parabolic along the rails, or straight along the rails, or what? Would a pair of power rods alone suffice? Does it need to strengthen the blank or no? Is it just a decorative navigation mark for shaping? Wouldn’t a thiner board have different requirements? Could a couple of well placed carbon tape strips help? Someone go to their lab and dream up a solution. I’m ready to beat a path to someones better mousetrap. AHHHH!!! Stop me. I’m starting to write like Ambrose. (Just kidding, Ambrose. I love your prose) But seriously, are boards more prone to break with the deck in compression or the bottom?
Yes Bert, this is about the coolest spot on the entire web. A lot of these guys are engineers and PhD’s along with longtime and rookie board builders. You get to communicate with people who have the same interest (surfing) who actually can think. In fact Greg Tate is a very knowegable engineer who, try as he might, will never explore the depths of the cosmos as Ambrose has … and does. And as to your question GT, I’ve seen breakage on both sides. The fact that composites have a natural imbalance between the tension side and the compression side complicated by impact, I guess structurally building past most stress is the only way to eliminate breakage. And finding a reasonable weight to do this is certainly the challenge.
I glassed a crystal into a board …it never broke…bugs work kinda like blood sacrifice…extruded foam with the rocker cut in em takes away the intrinsic loaded tension in the adjusted rocker blanks i.e. natural rocker is blank at rest + rockers tension the bottoms at the factory - rockers tension the decks at the factory I never thought of this until now but it would be an interesting study …any body got a research requirement for their PHD in structural engineering? maybe ya could get a grant…maybe from some potentate of a small surfy country on the brink of taking over the world surfing federation and making blanks and revolutionary surfboards…what a plot for a spy novel …and movte and board game…stringrs are an intrinsic component of a staircase as well curved stringers are an interesting component and I suspect they are superior in strength but not flexibility to straight stringers… … ambrose… — … on the rising moon
I’m with Ambrose on the curved stringer thing.One overlooked aspect of stringers is the fact that the industry uses cheap wood…production milled… with no thoughts on the grain pattern.Any woodworker will tell you that woods such as Ash or other long grain species are stronger and more flexible.You gotta take that extra step.Doc??Paul???Jim?Greg???What say you.
yep i get my timber supplier to weight grade all my wood .coz the flex of the wood affects performance, to weak and light and it has a floppy feeling and tends to spring out of sync with your turns .to stiff and heavy it actually feels stiff and doesnt wanna fit in to tight spots as well .some timbers have a fair bit of variation in density so weight grading has given us way better consistency …not infalible but thats where inspection comes in as well regards BERT