What is the best glue I can use to attach ply skins to EPS foam without using epoxy? I’d like vacuum bag the skins to an EPS blank, add ply rails then glass with PE resin.
Yes PE because I can’t use epoxy, I’m allergic to it. Plus I have some resin already on hand.
Don’t say “just go get a poly blank, shape it and glass it”. The poly blanks are way expensive. A Greenlight one costs at least $100 w/tax. If someone could lead me to a more inexpensive blank I’m all ears.
I’d like to explore a different build method using the light EPS core with vacuum bagged skins.
All that being said is there any alternative to epoxy to attach wood skins to an EPS core? I know Gorilla Glue should work and it may be my only choice.
If you are doing this to save money thats a funny. I do the composite stuff to over complicate things and spend way more time & money than a PU- PE build.
Yes I did my first compsand with polyurethane glued on skins & eps then PE resin.
It works ok but the GG will stick to your bag so wrap it with saran wrap first.
I have a cheap vac bag setup I’m working on. Free pump, hoses, fittings etc. from crap around the house/garage. Cheap bag and tape. 1/8 poplar ply for the skins and rails for $25, Home Depot EPS insulation foam, and a bottle of GG is pretty cheap.
Like I said I want to explore a different build method. This is not a pro build, not looking for superior strengh/weight or crazy compsand materials/methods. Just looking to do a bare bones sandwich construction board. It might be heavy, or surf like crap, or be ugly, or break easily. I don’t care, I want to try something different and learn something along the way. The only reason I ask this question is cause I can’t use epoxy anymore.
System 3 General Purpose Resin. I build a 17’ boat with it back in 2003. I had a false sense of security using the stuff cause everyone said it was so safe and it didn’t smell. I wasn’t very dilligent with the gloves so about 3/4 throough the build I became sensitized to it. Rashes, blisters, puffy eyes, itchy as hell, just an awful experience. It really sucks cause I want to take advantage of the newer surfboard epoxies but I don’t want to make things worse.
Greg from RR was kind enough to take the time and answer my questions after I emailed him. He mentioned some of the older epoxies, especially the marine ones were very harsh and could cause problems. He also put me in touch with Mr.J who is a member here that had the same exact problem.
Yeah Chris, me and Mr.J exchanged some emails and told me the same thing. Which is almost identical to my situation but I think I had a little bit more of a problem but very similar. He told me about the success he had using RR but was extremly careful. Not sure how many boards he made but he said he’s no longer building them.
I’ve got some health issues going on with other allergies and such so I really don’t want to push things just yet (I carry a freaking epi-pen with me). Go figure, the nasty, toxic PE resin I can deal with but the supposed “safer/green” stuff screws me up.
So if anyone has any ideas out there for the glue thing let me know.
hi, there are a whole range of acrylic glues that are water based ,a lot are used in the carpet fitting industry to stick vinyls and carpets to wood floors and each other ,
you can use this type of glue to join sheets of eps together as well , i made an xps board skinned with balsa and cherry wood ,no glass under the wood becuase the foam is so dense ,the acrylic glue also dries flexable as well ,
you can normally buy it in smaller pots for small jobs and its really cheap as well , good luck, pete
We use a variety of resorcinol glues in boat and skate building. It will adhere to foam when roughed but it’s a rigid mechanical bond so not well. The only other real option is a PVA.**
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they always used to use a latex glue for sticking veneer on to foam model aircraft winds would have thought it would be ok for a board certainly worth a try.
Gorilla Glue is expensive if your going to roll out a top layer on a sheet of wood to lam down. Rescorcinol (sp) is too brittle when dry...and the stuff I've used drys purple.
You are going to need a good bond over the entire top of the board or it's going to delam and cause all sorts of problems. I've used regular white glue when putting wood stringers in EPS blanks with some degree of sucess. It's cheap, strong, but takes a while to dry.
I'm not certain on your build, but the whole process of a wood top is to have some kind of glass underneath, and glass on top to give the deck an incredible flex and strength ratio. without glass underneath you are just going to have another hard shell surfboard? Dont you have a kid or a train'd monkey you can have help in the epoxy process? it sure would make you build go a lot simpler and 100% more durable.
Ahh Resinhead I LOL’d, been lurking here for years, always enjoy reading your posts. No monkeys or kids but I do have brother that’s semi-trainable that may be willing to do a little epoxy work.
built my own PU blanks before. Built a box, open on the top. layed md board down with polly attached. had it sprayed by a spray foam company.
Problems I had.. Since I dint have a very accurate box set up, I had to take to much of the foam off the top and bottom, which took away some of the strength. I thought i could hot wire cut the foam to the rocker. You CAN"T hot wire cut PU foam. I also had some problems with the stringers bending and tweaking a bit.
If you were set up I am sure you could find a spray foamer that would spray blanks out for you. If you take the time to do everything right you could come out with some nice blanks. The cost should be about $25-$40 a blank. which if you find the it for $25 it would be cheaper than home depot foam. I stopped my attempts at this because I found a eps block supplier and im more of an epoxy fan rather than PU resin
sorry this message got all messed up, keep getting spammed. If this is sounds like something you would like to do pm me I cant write a very detailed message or the spam filter rejects it
