Hi. I have been lurking around this forum for a while now. I am really interested in making my own board and am right now gaining confidence to try it out.
I now have access to big blocks of EPS and want to try and build a “bar of soap”-kind of board. Maybe around 6 feet long. The idea is to build a “backyard board” (as cheap and easy as possible). The EPS will be free since i will borrow it from a construction site, but the problem is the epoxy. It’s really expensive where I live. How much epoxy do i need for one board?
any other tips before I start shaping my first board?
If you plan on going as big as 6 foot and wide all the way through like a soap bar design, I would plan out buying a good amount of resin and hardner probably about 90 bucks worth depending on what system you go with. When i did my 5’4 x 18.88 egg/biscuit type board I needed to mix a total of 32 ounces just for the lamination and another 10 or so for the hotcoat. So for a wide six foot board I would say buy atleast 90 total ounces.(for a 2:1 system 60 oz of resin and 30 oz of hardner) Its better to have enough becuase you dont wanna run out!
I used a little over a half of a gallon kit of West System on my funboard 7’6" (I want to try RR, next time, I had West System laying around) - I would suggest a half gallon kit and then if you have left over great for other projects that come up in life but you know you will not run out halfway through the project.
this is my first board when it was almost done. I spent 1 litre of epoxy getting to this stage and then i was out of resin. Didnt do a topcoat so it soaked alot of water when i surfed it (looks like a mess but surfs nicely). Its a bit less than 6 foot at around 20 inches wide or maybe 22 inches. its 7cm thick.
