Hi, PierreK and Danb. I think this leads me to try out the prebagged skins.
Thanks,
Jimmy yoshio shibata
Well Done,
When you pre-bagged the balsa sheets, did you just throw the glued up balsa in the bag and lay it on the floor with maybe some weights to hold it down? Or did you put a flat surface in the bag with the balsa as well, so that you sucked the balsa down onto the flat surface?
Just wondering, because it would seem like there is potential for warping the balsa sheets and I am curious if you tried to prevent that from happening.
Obviously, the balsa sheets are flexible enough to be wrapped around the blank so you may have not even worried about it. But even minor warping could effect the flex of the finished board.
Cheers.
Bart
So you bagged the fiberglass too? How did you do it?
Nice work
If there is no drama you are not making compsands.
“Just out of the bag nice and shiny”
Is that a pic of the bottom skin bagged on to the eps or a prefabbed skin.
Christian
For making skins, you don’t have to use a bag. You must use a table, lay your fiberglass/wood/fiberglass, breather, whatever, and cover with a plastic sheet with a joint all around so the plastic will apply pressure against the table. There is a special tacky joint for that but you can also use the kind of joint that is used for sealing windows, that you can find in rolls. Just stick it to the table around your working area and stick the plastic to it, then pull your vacuum, you can go as high as you can.
Hi Nathan,
Bagging the glass wasn’t as difficult as I thought. I just lapped the glass onto the board and slid it into the bag. I made sure to insert as much shade cloth as I could get into the bag to make sure I was getting vacuum to all places. I wan’t using any peel ply you see. Once in the bag I just put my board on the off cuts to vacuum.
Cheers,
Rio
Hi Bart,
Here’s how I made my skins:
It’s pretty much How DanB makes his. Instead of using formica, I used 5 mil mylar I got from TAP Plastics. I bought a roll of 2.5 ft. x 7 ft. which costs about $11.50. I’m sure you can get it cheaper because TAP Plastics is a rip off. The 5 mil mylar works pretty good in giving a mirror shine on the skins. If you can get thicker than 5 mil, its going to look that much better.
I then taped the mylar on a same sized particle board to keep the balsa flat. See pic:
I taped some shade cloth on the bottom for breather:
So when making the skins I just layed the wetted fiberglass then the balsa then another layer of fiberglass on the “vacuum table”, slide into bag, pull max vac. You can also use peel ply and some paper towels if you like.
That’s basically it.
Cheers,
Rio
Hi Christian,
Hey, I’m liking the way you glued up your balsa in your compsand thread. Was there a specific reason for it? Anyways, That pic is of the prefab skin as I took it out of the bag. When I bag on a skin to the EPS, I cut it into its template shape.
Cheers,
Rio
dont tell me your making boards in your spare bedroom as well
my landlordwould have a fit
Hey Paul,
Shhh…it’s not a spare bedroom, its a shaping bay. Haha!
Cheers,
Rio
So she’s all done and I took her out today in some 1-3 ft giants! It was basically dead at Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, but some sets were comming in. Anyways, first impression paddling out was that it didn’t float any different than my other thrusters. But on the first wave I felt the light weight and I really like it. I can see how this can help your surfing. I could just swing the nose of the board anyway I wanted unlike before it seemed like I had to put effort. I also noticed that with paddling for a wave, I could accelerate much faster. each paddle felt like I was surging forward. I didn’t really feel the flex though. It was 1-3 ft. so any bottom turns I was doing wasn’t really hard enough for the board to flex. Overall, I liked the board but the design wasn’t optimal for todays conditions. More testing required! The local groms also kept asking if my vent plug was a button for my ejection seat. Those little buggers!
Cheers,
Rio
i wouldnt recomend doing that to much Rio!
i used to do it all the time to a board to show people how strong it was
but eventualy it started to develop little hard to see splits along the rail
which i didnt notice
which let in water
tell the grommets that it is a little tube that releases a hormone into the water that repels sharks
or that you use it to inflate the board with helium to make it lighter
or that there is a compartment that has a thermos for hot cups of tea
or that its a button that if you press it makes smartass grommets f$ck off
Hi Paul,
I just couldn’t resist it. My board was looking at me saying “you know you want to test the trampoline effect”. I caved in.
I think I’m going to tell them that its a shark detector and its telling me that there are 50 great whites 300 feet from us and approaching fast. Hehe.
Cheers,
Rio
Daklaw, I’m just about to fire up the vac pump and realize that my shaped concave will be flat unless I use a concave mat under it to keep it (like Bert). How did you get concave in your bottom. thx
Hey Greg,
'Soo glad you’re going to get to go vaccing soon!
As far as concaves go, I didn’t use a contour mat. I just shaped my vee and concaves on the board then used the “reverse” cut-off of my eps (hull facing up). I then vacc’ed on the bottom skin. I don’t think you need to go prefab skin as well. if you tape your balsa, you can still use the reverse off-cut. I was searching for some pics of the process but sadly, I must have not gotten any. It’s basically just how you’d bag on the deck skin. BTW, I used the “reverse” cut-off to shape the concaves and vee as well. It keeps the EPS from flopping around.
Let me know if you have any other questions…Oh yeah, don’t forget to post pics of your board when its done.
Cheers,
Rio
are you saying you hotwired the concave and therefore had an off cut? if so how? I’d love to hotwire that on mine, and save the shapiing mess. Mine is just a subtle 1/4 inch down the middle. thx
Sorry Greg,
Didn’t mean to confuse. I hotwired my blank the normal way and had two off-cuts. One for top and one for the bottom. Use the off-cut for the top and put your outlined cut blank on it (hull side up). Now that the Hull is facing up you can cut your vee and concaves on it with a planer or whatever tool you want. Once the concaves are done, lay the skin on top with some GG. Vacuum.
Actually, I have a board that I’m doing right now…lemme go and take a pic…be right back…
OK so here’s an example of the “reverse” off-cut.
Having the hull side up, you can cut your concaves then just vac the skin on.
'Hope that helps.
Cheers,
Rio
OK, got it. Big ole slap to the forehead.
Hmmm, I saved a big piece that could be used as the top cut with a little reinforcing. I’m going to give that a whirl while I wait for my silicone mold stuff to come.
Number for you already?
Aren’t you just amazed over how much prep and materials are required to do even the first pull? I’ve been heading this way (part time, in between other board projects) for about 6 months. But I built a sweet little frig based vac pump. It held 15 inches for 3 days on a test. Can’t wait to do the real thing.
thx again
hi, how did u get the balsa wood 2 stick together? did u vacuum it or just glue it? cheers oli