So I finished my first board. I had a lot of help from many people here so thank you very much for all the help.
Here is what went in to making the board. I started with the Marko Foam HBW blank. This blank is 9’6â€, 25†wide, 3.75†thick, 3.5†of nose rocker and 4.66†of tail rocker. I did not do much shaping. I did sharpen up the nose a little and sanded the foam smooth. I sealed the EPS with epoxy mixed with cabosil and microspheres. I used S-glass, 1x6oz on the bottom and 2x6oz on the top. I used RR2000 resin with slow hardener. I pigmented the resin for the blue color. I used free laps and used “under-glass†Ofishl single-fin fin-box and leash plug. I put the logo on top of the regular lamination. The blue background was too dark for the logo so I made a light blue background with pigmented resin. I printed the logo on rice paper and put it under a small patch of glass.
Lessons learned:
1. I am very glad I chose the slow hardener. As this was big board, it took a while to spread the resin around. I mixed 28oz of material for the bottom and it took a fair amount of time to spread this around and wet the laps. It was barely enough and there was almost zero wasted epoxy. I used 40oz of material for the top and this went smoother but there was more waste. I think I may have run out time with the fast hardener. I will probably use the slow hardener again and increase my resin amounts 9at the expense of some waste to make the spreading go faster.
2. I think I would not pigment the resin next time. I would probably paint the foam. Going in, I was concerned about adhesion to a painted surface but I have since read enough other posts here to convince me that adhesion to painted EPS is not a problem.
3. My biggest problem in the doing the lamination was with the finbox and leash plug. I posted separately about this. The wet glass did not want to stay down over the box and plug even after razor -cutting the glass. Maybe this is an S-glass issue but I think I would route through the glass next time and use regular a finbox and leash plug.
4. I think next time I would seal with spackle especially if I paint the foam.
5. I had some issues with sanding. I had two sanders. I bought an inexpensive (Chicago Tools) variable speed Milwaukee style circular sander with soft and medium 7†Power Pads. I also had a 5†Dewalt random orbital sander. I could not get good results with the circular sander using Power Pads. It tended to leave circular gouges and the soft Power Pad was not soft enough to sand the rails. The sander came with a very soft foam pad meant for car polishing. I put some sand paper on this and it worked a little better especially on the rails. However, I got a much better finish with the Dewalt. I only had a fairy hard base for this sander so it was not ideal for the rails bit it did not leave gouges. I would be curious to hear why surfboard builders tend to use the circular sander as their standard. The random orbital seems to be easier to use and give better results. I am not sure what I do for sanding next time. I will try to find a softer base for the random orbital.
Ride report:
I am not sure this is my dream magic board. I think it might be too flat with too little nose rocker. I chose this blank because I wanted a fairly flat board for ease of paddling (I ain’t getting any younger), ease of wave catching, and down the line speed. However, it tended to nose-in even going down the line. Doing over-the-nose endos at speed is not my favorite way to wipe out. So probably more nose rocker next time. Perhaps I just need to get used to riding further back on the board. On the plus side, it was very stable and turned ok for me as I don’t do that much turning.
Thanks again to everyone who offered advice and answered questions.
