I have made 2 boards from extruded. The later was a lis type fish. The best I have made. Unfortunately the glass sheared away from the foam to creat a big bubble. I had some expanded foam so I made a long board. I didn’t like the fact that it was so soft I hade to keep adding layers of glass to it. great board kinda like a long fish, but its still to soft even with 2 layers of 4 oz s cloth and 2 layers of 5oz reg. cloth. My thoughts went back to the extruded foam but as of yet I’m stumped on making the next. My idea is to create one from extruded 3in of foam a stringer and them 3 more in of foam, so that there is no lamination of layers. Sounds like alot of work though.
I couldn’t part with the fish so I cut the bubbles with x’s and layed them back down. It was ugle so it had to be covered???. After a few beers I decided to cover it in wood.its not glassed yet but what a beatiful look. i would guess it looks like a hollow wood doard on top and still is lite enough.
Would appreciat and thoughts on the foam though, Thanks
Thanks Eric G, My board which I was refering to was stringerless and made from extruded 1" foam with the rocker shaped in as I added the sheets. Even though I understand the idea of the heat and gases theory. When looked at it sure looked like it had sheared from possibly from the foam wanting to go back to straight,kinda like memory.
I will give it this,it survived heat from the racks on vehicle and 4 hurricains and I beleive once I finish the wood lamination on the top it will look good and ride another day???
Extruded has a history of bubbles, so maybe a stepped process of lamination, over a weeks time, and maybe a vacuum pump, can be the answer. Maybe an inserted valve.
You glassed it waay to light anyways. Any styro needs more skin structure.
What kind of wood are you using for the deck laminate?
I used 1/8th Luan ply, but the finished board weighed over 7 lbs…too heavy. Top and bottom, of course, with single 5oz lams.
My extruded board was made from one solid thick block of foam. To get the rocker to fit in I bent the blank using black plastic bags+sun+ weighing the ends down.
I then hotwired the blank using side templates for foil/rocker curves. After that I sawed the blank in half and put a nice piece of good quality Fir plank in as a stringer.
Maybe a bit different to Your method? Putting the stringer in was hard though as the two blank halves wanted to twist away from each other, but after a lot of fiddling with it the whole thing turned out ok.
There’s a few things i don’t understand about extruded foam.
How come if so many people claim that it doesn’t work that big names like Channel island, Lost etc are now offering boards made with extruded foam???
Does that venting technique work or how come they’re offering boards from this material???
Does anyone have a picture of what the vent holes look like?
And how are they actually made when laminating?
Well as I said before I’ll post if my board starts falling apart from delaminations
You are free to spend your money helping another company do it’s Research and Development, while you get a lightweight product for your money. How long it lasts is still up in the air, as history has shown dubious honors for durability over a 14 months span.
If you tend to use up a surfboard within that time span, it might be well worth your money to get a lightweight, well designed board that is strong against dings and dents, but suspect for longterm durability.
Life is full of choices, some good, some bad, and many in the gray area.
Hi LeeDD, The wood that I have used was riped from boards to 1/8 and various widths ranging from 1-1/2 to 1/8. I used western red cedar(brown),eastern cedar(pink/red)and white pine. I plan on sanding down to approx. 1/16. The board will be a bit on the heavy side but I just didn’t want to toss my favorite board. It was an experiment when started, guess it still is. will post a picture when completed. it looks awsome so far.
Thanks LeeDD, since your here,lol. The wood extends to within 2" of rail. I was planning on only glassing the top to around the rails. Do you think I should wrap all?
Seems if you only want to reinforce the deck, and a little extra anti breaking strength, and you use you wood sheet, you only need to bond it to the deck with some all purpose glue, then waterproof the wood with varnish or wood oils, which of course, could use replenishing after every 20 or so uses.
The wood deck might weigh 9oz, and adding a full lam over wood would add close to that extra weight.
Lotsa seaworthy boats in the old days didn’t use resin or epoxy.