this is my first vac bagged board,i have been quitely reading as much as i could on the process on this site and radio controlled sites,my first vac pump blew up after 6 hrs while the deck skin was beeing vacced on , i made another from a fridge compressor and that has been ok so far ,its taken a long time to do because the whole process has been new and i have had to think differently every step of the way,
the board is for my son , its a copy dimension wise of his favouritr board ,he is a good surfer so should be able to give it a good test ,i started off using 6 oz on the inside but it would have come out too heavy so the outside is finished with 4 oz and a deck patch , if i do another i will reverse the lamination so the 6 oz is on the outside ,in fact i think i can use 2 ,6 oz layers on the deck with no weight penalty,
the board weighs 6 lb with the fins on 6ft 18 3/8 2 1/4 ,
i set the fin plugs in circles of ply to tie the deck to the botom and also so there is no water penetration issues,also i made the leash plug similar for the same reason, the mahogany on the forward rails is the skin of an interia door just thinned down back to the veneer, it hides were i did/nt do a good job blending the deck to the rails!
the vent plug is a 8mm , anodised gold ,allen headed bolt ,its an after market bolt for motor bikes , it threads in to a stainless nut set it resin
overall i am pleased with the way it has turned out ,i just hope it surfs ok , pete
i would also like to thank Burt for the inspiration he has given to a lot of people to create a better board, he has given enough info and clues and his time to set us on the track , pete
just lucky you got one there to have a closer look at …
actually , im left almost speechless , there really are some amazing craftsmen lurking around this place …
ive spent years and years trying to train some hopeless cases to do fine craftsmenship , and yet with just a few hints and photos , im seeing first class stuff from people who havent even seen it done before them and had some one showing each step and holding there hand …
if only i could have crew working for me who did work like youve just done pete …
very impressive …
regards
BERT
i was thinking with the quality of what ive been seeing , maybe it wouldnt be that hard to set up a global network …
one problem i always forsaw was where to find craftsmen ?
after sabs, benny and now pete , very nice stuff from everyone …
Pete, inspirational, great looking board. And I thought my first board came out good!
I’ve made quite a few boards over the years, but haven’t done one for a few years now. After seeing what you guys are doing I can see that I’m going to have to do another one soon, and I’ll have to do it exceptionally well just to keep up.
Well done and thanks a lot, you’re all giving me the bug to try something again, bastards! (in the nicest possible way!!)
A small phrase on our local tv station says “A goal is a dream with a deadline”.
thanks for all the kind replies, in answer to chipfish, how long it took, it was months from begining to end ,making the rocker bed , playing around with the vac pump to understand how it works,deciding how to approach the next step, i am still not sure of plenty of things and will try things different if i make another,i think if you had all the correct methods wired it probabally does/nt take much more time than a normal board,
i think its 1lb eps ,it is 50mm wall insulation, hot wired from an 8 x 4 sheet , hot wire made from battery charger and guitar string (g string, seriously), pete
Beautiful board. Love the clean, minimalist look you created while incorporating contrasting inlays. Very inspiring. Many questions but will wait until I get a handle on all the great info Bert, Greg and others have posted in the archives.
Look forward to seeing what you come up with for a second board!
Beautiful board pete, even more impressive for a first attempt, what resin did you end up using in the end? I am nearly finished on my first balsa board too, and used Sicomin this time around, really would like to get hold of some RR epoxy over here! I passed on some info to Seabase in the hope that they might import some, as they already bring resin in from the US (they had never heard of it!!).
I’ve been doing the same as you for the past few months, peteuk, just watching and quietly working. I’m probably a couple of weeks from rolling mine out, but now I’m thinking I should hold off a while longer… Tough act to follow!
One is a balsa 4mm skin the other is 3mm dcell with cherry veneer and balsa rails both boiards are exatly the same so it will be interesting to fell the ride difference
