I’m a long time lurker and have spent literally days reading through the archives and filling my brain. First let me bow to the gurus of the site and give respect to their collective knowledge and skill. I appreciate everything they have contributed to the site and hope to add to their benevolence in the near future. The more I read the more I realize just how much there is to know about the dynamics of board/fin design and construction. It’s humbling. I should have read more before I started my first board, but enthusiasm got the better part of me and I couldn’t wait to start into it. “Project Frog” was a key inspiration for me although I know there were other posts prior with the homemade blank topic. Thank you again to all those who provided the inspiration. I learned a lot on my first board and am already starting on my second, yes it’s a disease and I’m hopelessly hooked (by the way, my wife curses all of you). As if I already didn’t spend enough time in the water obsessed with surfing, now this…
This will be pretty picture intensive as I tried to take pictures at every stage of the build. Some of the pictures I wasn’t going to post, but then I thought others could learn from my mistakes, so I am posting everything, the good, the bad and the ugly as well as adding my own thoughts throughout the process. I will most likely be naive but try not to flame too hard, this is my first board. Overall I’m pretty happy with the way it came out and have surfed it once…those comments to follow too, along with my perceptions of the design as it correlates to the fin setup changes. To start I thought it might be useful to list out the total cost of materials so others might know what they’re getting themselves into.
Home Depot 1# EPS R-Tech insulation foam, 1 1/2" thickness, $14.95 for a 4x8 sheet
Elmers Wood Glue, $2.95
5 Minute Epoxy $3.95
Lighweight Spackle $4.00
Probox fin system, quad installation kit with railboxes, templates, routerbit and (2) 8 degree and (2) 4 degree inserts, center fin box and a leash plug $79.84
2 quarts MAS Epoxy Resin, 1 quart Slow Hardener, $65.00
Suncure Sanding Resin $24.95
4 yards, 12 oz. Carbon Fiber, $0.00 (was given to me by a friend a long time ago, but current cost is running about $47/yd, would have been about $190.00)
2 yards, 6 oz Fiberglass E-cloth, $8.00
First up was to build the stand. After reading all the posts and using it, this is a must build for every first time shaper. Took me about a half day to go to HD, get the supplies, cut everything up with the miter saw and build it out. It was pretty straightforward. I copied the design from some of the other stands shown here in Swaylocks.
(4) 8ft 2x4's, $1.97 each at Home Depot.
(4) 6" long bolt head wood screws, $2.40
Neoprene fabric $0.00 (had some from an old project)
For the template I took a picture of the 5’4" Channel Islands Biscuit I pulled off the internet, then brought it into Adobe Illustrator to trace the outline shape. I setup a document full scale in inches and made guidelines at 5’4" and 21" wide, then scaled up the jpeg image of the Biscuit to meet those guidelines. From there it was a simple task to trace the outline and then segment it into 8.5x11 sheets to print out of my printer. I taped them all together and cut it out with scissors, easy quick way to make an accurate template.
I had the guys at Home Depot cut the 4x8 sheet down to 12" wide strips for me. Then I used the Elmer’s Glue to glue 2 strips together, top to bottom. I goofed and glued too close to the edges, you’ll see the result later. Then I glued the edges of those stacked pieces together using 5 minute epoxy as the stringer. Also made the mistake of getting too close to the outside edges with the epoxy.
Once the epoxy stringer was dry I tried to see if I could bend the nose to get more rocker but the stringer prevented it. In retrospect I should have put in a bit more nose rocker during the gluing stage. I laid out my template and used a sharpie marker to trace it out. Cutting out the outline was easy. The 1# foam cuts like butter. Keeping the blade vertical was tricky, keep your eye on it from the bottom while you’re cutting. I cut within about 1/2 inch of my line. I found that the foam was so easy to shape it was better to be safe and sneak up on it vs. cutting into my template line on accident.
I made my own little sanding tool out of MDF, a wood block and some 5 minute epoxy, the same dimensions as a full piece of sandpaper. This came in really handy throughout the process. I used this to sand up to my template outline and make sure the edges were nice and vertical.
My intent was to build a board for 2-3ft mushy surf conditions here in SoCal, something super bouyant but that I could turn on a dime and build up some good speed with. After reading all the posts, I knew I need to go with something with a relatively flat rocker, so I only went with 1 1/2" rocker in the nose and 1" in the tail. I first used a sureform file to get down to my depth and then matched the sides with my homemade sanding tool and 36 grit sandpaper.
Since I was using a CI Biscuit as my reference (I have a 6’0" Biscuit, so that helped having it in front of me) I knew there was a single concave to a pretty aggressive V, double concave in the rear. For the tail rocker, first I drew out a line along the edge to about 3/4", this would be the height of my V. In retrospect I should have gone way smaller with this height as the final product is almost like a fin itself.
Fine tuning the bottom shape. The shadows are magnifying the forms but I probably went with too much concave and too aggressive of a V. I’ll explain the feeling I get when I ride later.
I’m realizing these aren’t in exact order, as I previously showed the deck partially shaped, but I hope you get the picture. Here is how I laid out the top surface deck lines, at 1,2 and 3" in from the edge.
Then using these bevel lines I progressively sanded them out to a smooth surface. For the rails I went with a super sharp edge at the tail up until about 15 inches from the tail, then transitioned it out to a 60/40 downturned rail at the widest point, holding until about 12" from the nose where it transitioned to more of a 80/20 to the tip of the nose. In retrospect, because I went with such a minimal rocker in the nose, I should have reversed this shape and gone with something that was sharper along the top/deck edge instead of the bottome edge to prevent the front end from gouging on takeoff (yes, I pearled it a few times at first). The other thing was that near the front and the back along the sides I started to hit my Elmer’s glue line and it was messing with getting the surface smooth because of the difference in sanding densities. The 1# foam is so soft that when you get a hard glue line, it’s tough to get an even surface in that area.
I didn’t think it would be that easy to get 1# foam to sand out so smooth but with 120 grit you can get a pretty clean surface. You have to be careful handling the foam though, it dents really easily. I put in a couple of thumb indentations from grabbing the board to flip it over.
Next up was the spackling. I used Lightweight spackle and spread it on with the plastic spreader. Be careful with the ends as I gouged the foam a couple of times sweeping it across the surface. I laid it on pretty thin, just enough to fill the small gaps in the surface. I let it dry overnight and sanded it out lightly with 120 grit. After you sand it out, it makes a really nice smooth surface finish. It’s a shame to have to rough it up again to help assist the mechanical bond with the epoxy and laminate but don’t forget this part otherwise you may have delamination issues later.
Oh, forgot to show this but this is what happens when you start sanding into your glue line. In this case, this is the Elmer’s glue between my 2 sheets of 1 1/2" foam. Not pretty. Also, it’s tough to see in the pictures but I also ran into the glue line along the rails. This is a pain in the ass place to run into surfacing issues. It was a bitch trying to get the surface to sand smooth with the hard density of the glue vs. the softness of the 1# foam. Next time I’ll be sure to stay far away from the edges when I’m gluing to prevent this condition.
Here you can see the rocker nose and tail, very minimal. If I had to do over again I probably would have added another inch of rocker in the nose. The full side view looks strange like there is a weird lump near the front, but it’s the angle of the shot and the way the board is tilting on the stand.
After taking 60 grit sandpaper and lightly crosshatching the surface of the board, it was time to laminate. For the bottom, I used one layer of 6 oz. E-cloth, then topped it with the 11 oz. Carbon Fiber. After reading all the posts on glassing I thought I was ready, but it’s not as easy as it looks. When you get to the edges of the laps, the glass material starts to come apart and leaves long strands that don’t like to lay down. I’m glad I used the Slow hardener because it would have been even more stressful trying to do this under a short kick time. I’d recommend for the beginner to get the slowest possible epoxy hardener and be sure to mix it thoroughly. I used MAS brand epoxy, only because there was this marine supply store in my neighborhood that was going out of business and I got it cheap. It is not clear, so I would’t recommend it for a board unless you’re using CF since it’s black it doesn’t show the yellow-ness of the epoxy. The other thing is this epoxy was kind of gummy. When I was sanding the hotcoat getting ready for the finboxes it really gummed up the sandpaper. One other thing to mention, be sure you don’t fold up your fiberglass cloth otherwise you’ll get creases in your laminate layer that aren’t easy to get out.
You can see that the laps are rough. Also, I should have planned out better the cut v’s for the rear tail section as the overlaps of the material were a bitch to get to lay down. One other thing about the CF, especially the super thick weave variation I was using was that it took a while for the resin to soak in. I read here on Sway’s that you couldn’t force it into the weave and it’s true. Pressing harder with your spreader is ineffective.
I should have come back in while the epoxy was curing to cutoff the straggling ends of the cloth. When it came time to sand out the edges, those loose strands made it harder to not miss them and accidentally gouge the exposed foam on the top deck surface. I used 60 grit to smooth down the edges and bumps all around the perimeter of the lap.
Next up was the Deck lamination. I waited overnight for the bottom lamination to dry. It was super hard and “clicked” when I tapped it with my fingernail. Then I flipped the board over and started in on the Deck lam. For the Deck I used one full top layer of 8 oz. fiberglass cloth, one deck patch in the rear of 8 oz. and then the 11 oz. CF over all of that and wrapping the rails. I forgot to mention before that I used about 18 oz of mixed resin for the bottom surface lamination. For the Deck I used about 22 oz. being that it was my first time I wanted to make sure I had extra especially with the two layers and the super thick weave CF. It turns out I didn’t need that much as not too much ended up on the ground. Even with the SLOW cure hardener, the heat buildup of the epoxy in the cup burned a hole in the bottom of it. Something to think about when installing fin boxes and using too much pooled up epoxy underneath, this is with SLOW hardener, imagine the heat buildup with a FAST hardener.
ive been following this as you post… carbon fiber doesnt sand well at all (but you already figured that out. One wat to work around this is to use a very light layer of fiberglass cloth (2oz or 4oz) as a “sacrificial” layer. If the sacrificial layer overlaps past the CF onto the foam, it should prevent the CF fibers from pulling out like that. The glass may pull out though, simply pull the stragglers so they hang off of the board, then when cured you can easily snap of the hangers. The sacrifical layer is also useful for sanding your lam flat.
After letting the Deck lam dry overnight, I flipped it back over to do a rough sand of the bottom lap. Again, not pretty, but I had already planned on painting the majority of the top and bottom surfaces to reduce the heat buildup that would occur in the sun. From what I understand the heat absorbed by the black CF would cause the foam inside to heatup and start causing delamination. So I figured to hide the ugly lapline I’d just paint over it after the sanding coat and leave some nice carbon fiber rails, similar to another Sway’s guy, CF boards I saw. Again, I cleaned up the lapline of bumps and smoothed it out a bit for the hotcoats. The epoxy is really gummy and doesn’t sand very well at this stage.
