Thus far. Very nice foam light, flexiable but hard.
Things on the wish list would be a shaping bay with a good set of lights, and a planner, this is all down prtty much with sanding blocks a hand saw and sureform. Im going to look at getting a planner today as it would make things so much quicker and accurate - i borrowed one once on my other eps hacking odysey's but the cheap eps eps balls got into the planner band and melted onto it - needless say it always is the way when you borrow things, but this higher grade eps was so easy to use.
I am setting my rocker in when i laminate it, yes a hotwire would be a better way but thus far have been happy with the buid. Rocker will be fairly flat and the bottom is a slight signle to vee at about 10 inches from the tail to give me something to turn on as the board is only 2 inches thick, but at 5'10 and 22 there is plenty of volume, it will be a floater.
Feel im learning little bits here and there - cant wait to get some glass on it and surf. rolled my bottom edge a fair bit as to give me a rail to turn of and left the back fairly sharp. under the arm me likey....
Its amazing waht you can do when you take your time, really wish i had a set up to work in though.
Glassed the bottom with a layer of 6oz cloth and with the delicate use of weights and plastic shopping bags (ppffft
ttt) and weighted my rocker down, thought i was killing it until the bag on the nose slipped and all my glass wrinkled up as the nose flexed back. After a heap of swear words and wondering why the heck i just dont go do some overtime and get a few customs (oppurtunity cost) I pushed the bubblles back down and reweighted the board and rocker.
Stinking hot day here in oz so the epoxy set fairly quickly, i doubled checked the rocker and it was way to flat, so i went and layed the board ontop of another board and weighted it back down. The glass was tacky enough not to stick to the board and still take the rocker of the board it was spooning.
Just went and looked at the board and it is all good, held the rocker and i have only one little area of concern, a little bubble i will cut out and the laps from the deck will take care of it.
After a bit of thinking i have come up with a better way to do it next time, but alas it want be with a hotwire - I would fry myself....
Hey Rakeflip
best way if using flat sheets is to glue a couple sheets together with foaming glue and clamp it to a rocker jig while the glue drys. Then shape the blank the glue will give the board a little bit more strength but it is a bit more effort to shape.
or if you want be obsessed like the rest of us… buy the block of foam and a hotwire (seen some on this site for around$200) and cut out the rocker shape as you go and save the left over block for next time…
I had previously glued two sheets up and set my rocker as you have described, I glued with epoxy and layed a layer of 6oz in there for strength, it worked well, set and held its rocker and had great flex and return ability as a blank. My problem was, i took the extra foam off the bottom to thin up my tail and nose and turned the board into a bananna.
where should i take the foam off? Should I have left the bottom curve as is and tapered the nose and the tail from the deck? Remembering Im using 50mm thickness in the overall board so Im running a really flat deck with boxy rails, as im looking to take as little foam off as possible. a 2inch board with lots of volume.
Set up the jig so you dont need to cut too much off the bottom
get your quiver of boards and measure the rockers onto one of 4 thick plywood lengths make sure you have the lowest rocker curve of all your boards, as you can shape in a higher rocker lines, cut the shape out on the 4 lengths and screw together with a top sheet of plywood and packing blocks of wood. make sure to clamp down a topsheet of ply so the glue drys evenly over the foam, so no delams.
.I would use at least 3 sheets of 20 mm so the memory shape stays in the blank
mow the foam on the deck...
