Does anbody know if it’s possible to cut the plugs on a pair of FCS GAMX Carbon fins and use them as glass ons? Wondering if the epoxy resin will stick to them… Anybody tried this or have better suggestion please respond. Since i live in a remote corner of the world it’s a bit of a mission to order fins.
Cheers. Bramberg
Probably could. I glassed on some epoxy fins recently…just cut the fin base so they lay flush, then superglue gel them on, then built a glass filled epoxy fillet around the base of the fins, sanded smooth, then a layer of glass over that, sand smooth. Worked good. Epoxy will stick if the surface is roughed up with sandpaper first. Good luck.
Depends on how much torque you intend on putting on them. Bigger waves more torque, if thats the case you better stick with epoxy to epoxy, or poly to poly. More importantly make sure you have strong patch to laminate to.
In addition to abraiding the surfaces, you could also drill small holes on the adhered surfaces to create a better mechanical bond.
Just some background: My board is a 6’4" x 183/4" x 25/16" balsa thumbtail glassed with thin fiberglass and epoxy. It used to be speedfins but some Indoneesian figured that he should pour resin in the plugs before putting in the fins. So now i snapped two fins and figured that i’ll just take out the finplugs, fit some new balsa in the holes before glassing it over making it strong and then put glasson fins. Don’t know what the FCS g-amx carbon fins are made out of other than carbon, my guess would be epoxy. However i would want to be sure that it’s going to work and not do something stupid.
Those carbon fins could be any resin…but if you lightly sand (or cut) the surface of polyester based laminations you should be able to smell it. Epoxy has very little smell in comparison…polyester smells sort of sweet. Dont know what vinyl ester smells like.
Glassing fins on top of a fin system is not a bad idea…the system serves as an anchor of sorts.
I’ve done just what you are asking once before. I had a brand new set of carbon K fins several years ago, and I mean brand new, never touched the water. I was walking out to the beach and slipped on ice that formed on the boardwalk and snapped the tabs off. I just glass the fin on the board because it was an older board anyway and I never had a problem. I just used polyester. I dont have the board anymore but it worked fine when I had it.
Jon
Thank’s for good advice everybody. I’ll try it and see how it goes. Anybody know where i can see some step by step pictures. I’ve seen it done once in indo but pictures always helps. Cheers