I know I was looking at building a egg railed longboard, but my recent trade of my Hobie 6’4" for a Mayo Design 9’6" has pretty much satisfied my need for a Fla longboard.
So, next!!! I’m very tired of paying $400+ for carbon/epoxy skimboards. I have the outline shapes, I’ve made a modified “Fred” that allows me to get the same 92 degree angled rail all the way around.
I have searched, I might not be useing the right phrase words as I can’t find info on the glassing and sanding of hard edge rails. When I say hard, I mean sharpe pointed, cut you open rails.
So if you guys can give me some insite on glassing and sanding these rails it would be a great help. SEE Jpeg below…
When you shape your skimboard, don’t shape it with the hard edge. You want to give it about a 1/4" radius, otherwise it will be too hard to glass. After you have glassed it, and put on your hot coat is when you put in the hard edge. You do this by putting a tape dam around the board where you want the hard edge, and then fill it with resin. After it’s cured, you can sand it sharp enough to slice your shins.
Divinnicell H-60 or H-80 foam @3/4", hard/sharp as you can get rails, Flat flat flat rocker maybe 2-2 1/2" nose and 0-1/8" tail. 3x 4oz top & 2x 4oz bottom.
When you shape your skimboard, don’t shape it with the hard edge. You want to give it about a 1/4" radius, otherwise it will be too hard to glass. After you have glassed it, and put on your hot coat is when you put in the hard edge. You do this by putting a tape dam around the board where you want the hard edge, and then fill it with resin. After it’s cured, you can sand it sharp enough to slice your shins.
After thinking more about this, it makes sense. If you look really close to skimmers you can see that the bottom layers don’t wrap the rail. Only two of the 3 top layers do. Guessing the bottom layers are cut bigger than the board shape which would create the lip like the tape would. Then when vac.bagged the resin fills in the gaps. Then the excess is routed or sand off.
Does that make sense?
If I was lam’ing by hand would it be better to add a filler to the hot coat. Something like Garamite? Just plain resin seams slightly weak to me.
I don’t know how the big manufacturers do it. But I always glass the bottom first with a rail lap, and then the deck, and I don’t do any rail lap onto the bottom. That way I have a perfectly flat bottom without having to sand anything down. I glass with 3 layers of 6 oz. on each side. It seems like a lot, but unlike surfboards, skimboards can be too light.
I’m not familiar with the properties of Garamite, but if it’s your typical thickener additive, it won’t add any strength. And you don’t want to add anything that might increase friction. You don’t need it. I used to think that I needed something extra for abrasion resistance, but after ten years skimming at the Wedge (very coarse sand) on the same board, I didn’t see any wear. So I don’t think you need to add any filler.
When you shoot your hotcoat on the bottom, tape up like normal for your hotcoat, and add in a dam with tape where you want those rails hard. Feather up a tapeline and mix a small batch of sanding resin. Shoot that in there and also wet up where your overlap is too down the rails while you are at it. Then wait for the resin to gel up, but not dry. Peel the dam tape off and hotcoat the rest of it like normal. Your results are hard rails and a smooth hotcoat.
You can loose the sharp edge by sanding if you are not careful. Sand the rails shortways at a slight angle from top to bottom. Then hit it with your sander on the bottom. You should be able to cut paper with your new sharp edge. Be careful not to heat it up when you are grinding on it.
