Hey guys new to the forum and rookie shaper here (around 20+ boards). Anyways, I just got through foiling the deck and adjusting the bottom rockers of 3 differnt EPS #2 blanks and noticed all three blanks have a crack in the stringer that goes through to the bottom in a diagonal direction. The cracks on each board are located around the center of the board and are about a finger nail thickness in width. The foam is not affected. Again, these are unglassed blanks and the first time I’ve had this happen. Any suggestions or advice to repair would be greatly appreciated since the boards are already spoken for…
Thanks, Dano.
Additional info:
The boards are all Fishes 6’0, 5,11 and 5’10
I made each board 20 inches wide.
I foiled the decks and adjusted the rockers on all 3 boards.
I left the thickness of each each board around 2.5 inchs with a slightly domed deck.
Being a newbee I wouldn't rule it out. However, my planer (Hitachi Modifed) is brand new and only has 4 boards under her belt. I don't do perpendicular passes so we can rule that out. My supplier of EPS has normally used bass stringers but these 3 blanks had stringers that look like presesed composite type wood that has a darker layers on the sides. I'm thinking he might have bought sheets from Home Depot and ripped them to put in his blanks. I'm guessing it's some kind of pressed wood do to the way the cracks seperated (perfectly straight lines).
I was thinking of drilling a coulpe of holes (one on each side of crack) in the foam (deck) almost to the bottom and filling it in with resin and milled fibers. Or, I could try to carefully cut out a piece of foam on both side of the cracks and adhere two tongue depressers to them. Hopefully somebody has encountered this and been able to fix it where it doesn't look whacked or has lack of strength.
...over 20 shapes on Swaylock's and you're no longer a Rookie. When Clark Foam closed the EPS world went wild. My magic 8 footer is a backyard hot wired EPS blank with Balsa stringer...3 pieces of balsa butt jointed together...no special treatment. The rails are crushed from my hands but the stringer has caused no problems so far....and when you get a magic board you ride it a lot...over 3 years old...still going.....I think your stringers are spliced at an angle to provide more power!
...and...if your supplier buys his foam and stringers from Home Depot you need to find another source
2x 6oz Deck and 6oz Bottom. I've thought about just glassing but concerned about strength. The buddies I'm shaping them for surf pretty much daily and are big guys (around 200lbs.)
...over 20 shapes on Swaylock's and you're no longer a Rookie. When Clark Foam closed the EPS world went wild. My magic 8 footer is a backyard hot wired EPS blank with Balsa stringer...3 pieces of balsa butt jointed together...no special treatment. The rails are crushed from my hands but the stringer has caused no problems so far....and when you get a magic board you ride it a lot...over 3 years old...still going.....I think your stringers are spliced at an angle to provide more power!
...and...if your supplier buys his foam and stringers from Home Depot you need to find another source
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Hahahahah, still feel like a rookie. I'm thinking their cracked but I could be wrong though. I've tried to contact my suplier but I think he is out of town on vacation. Also, he gets his EPS in big blocks from a manufacturer not Home Depot. He normally uses Basswood but has complained recently about getting it and it's increasing price. This is why I feel he might have improvised and bought some type of laminate sheets from Home Depot.
when you laminate them, roll back your cloth and squeegee some resin directly into the crack and put an extra strip of 6oz over the crack. no worries! and get your blank supplier to give you some $$ back.
Without a couple close up pictures it is impossible to tell what your cracks are. Here are some possibilities from a wood workers view. Ring shake , wind shake, loosened grain runout. internal checking,heart shake, through shake and surface shake and scarf splice. All of these are defects that should not show up in your stringers because they are structural and weaken your stringer. The long splice is not a defect but was used to join boards together to make a longer board. Some were in the milling process the defects will show up and should be culled out. Often they are hard to spot but the thinner you mill your lumber the more likely you will discover them. When you get down to 1/4 inch thick or less you will find them if they are there. None of these defects belong in structural wood (surfboard stringer) and I don't believe the scarf splice belongs there either.Because you have 3 with the same crack I would say they were pulled from the same flitch and there are probably a few more in the dealers inventory. The person who is glueing up the stringers in the blank should have caught these and rejected them . I would be conserned and once you know for sure what the cracks are you need to talk about it to your supplier. He needs to improve on his quality controle . If you complete these boards and sell them and one comes back broken you owe your customer a new board. If your supplier dosen't care, and you don't care then the customer gets screwed. Of coarse you can tell your customer that surf boards aren't built for getting 10 feet of air and shit happens so tough shit !!