Hey all, I’ve just given a mate a hollow wooden board that I’d been working on for him to do a bit of sanding on while I went away for a week. Had a call from him a few days later to tell me that it’s started to delam on the deck. I think that maybe he left it unvented somewhere a bit too warm. Any advice on sorting this would be appreciated.
It’s poly resin with two layers of 6oz on deck and its delamed as far as the rails and into the centre of the deck and is about a foot long…Ouch! The rest of the board looks intact.
Cheers in advance.
Hi Jase, Ouch that sounds nasty. Is it the ply thats delamed or just the glass from the wood. What was the wood?
Poly doesn’t bond well with some woods spec oily ones, I dont believe in using wieghts or drilling holes to fix delams, best way is to remove all the delamed glass and patch it like a repair. Maybe also switch to epoxy on wood.
Other guys may have some better advise but thats what I’d do.
Edit - just had another thought, could your mate habe been over zelous with the sander and heated the glass up and caused a bubble, eigher way still going to need to be re glassed.
I don’t know much about shaping wooden hollow boards, but I’ve making my own long-sk8-board decks myself… I find that epoxy bonds way better to most woods than poly… I’ll suggest that you peel the board and reglass it with epoxy
Hey Woody, how ya been? Hows the ding repair biz going? If my experience of N.Devon last week is typical of everyone else’s I’m sure you’re about to get busy. Mind, my dings are down to being a crap surfer.
I’ve sanded through at the edges of the delam to enable me to peel it back, I’m going to have a go at putting a fresh coat of resin on under the delam and resticking it, holding it with loads of clamps while it sets up. I’m convinced now that it happened as a result of not venting as I checked the vent hole and it was barely venting at all and Tim says that he’d already opened it up after this happened, so I’ve opened it up a bit more and now it vents well.
I know what you’re saying about epoxy v poly but epoxy is just so damned expensive and hard to find over here, besides it’s already glassed and I don’t really have the time to totally strip and reglass it. I have ued poly on my last board made of the same woods (oak and sapele faced plys) and had no probs. If this don’t work I’ll take the delamed piece out altogether and patch it in as you say.
I wondered whether Tim had been a bit viscous with the sander aswell, but there aren’t any sanding marks on the deck so no, just not vented I think, especially as it had been a hot day and he’d left the board in his car!!! Doh!
Cheers mate, mind how you go.
just a thought guys, (fatbaslardass and woody)
how bout we uk swayers organise a meet sometime, i sure as hell would like to meet you guys and check your boards out too. im just about to start my first hollow wood and i reckon we could prob help each other out on suppliers and stuff.
Hey Soifdoggy, well up for that but the timing would need to be right as work doesn’t permit too often (hence crap surfer). I’m hoping to get down to my fave waves a few times this year (Croyde, Saunton, Putz and Woolie). I believe there’s a VWT4 camping weekend going on at the end of the month I was going to try for, but now looking doubtful. Woody is in Bristol and I’m 1/2 way between you both in Shropshire.
There are a few other UK builders on Sways who would probably be up for it.
Where do you usually surf? This will be your first HWS, have you built anything else yet? Have you thought about the comp/sand route aswell? I saw some of Mark Venn’s balsa skinned EPS boards in Surfed Out in Braunton last year, they were proper impressive, the guy who works there (who, I’m guessing weighs around 15 stone) demonstrted the board’s strength by turning it fins up on the floor and bouncing up and down in the centre of the board several times…not a squeak. The boards looked the biz aswell and were way light being vac bagged.
fatbaslardass, i normally surf hells mouth or scarborough but prefer the clean water of wales! occasionaly get down woolie way but usually on long weekends. i only started building last october and have done two pu and polyester boards so far. was thinking hollow wood first then maybe a compsand over the summer. im a tech at uni in manc so got access to loads of kit like vac bags etc and foam, wood etc. is it possible to get resin research epoxy over here or is there something else as suitable?
Hey mate, the resin research epoxy was available through Seabase in Cornwall not long back but when I rang they’d sold out and weren’t sure when they were getting any more stock. Not sure whether they had the additive F either cos when I enquired about it they didn’t seem to know what it is, being new to epoxy I suppose.
I’m yet to try a foam build, I’ve only done wood so far.
My next project (after sorting Tim’s board) is going to be a 6’4" fish Hollow wood, but need some templates or measurements first.
What kind of foam can you get hold of from uni then? I’m toying with the idea of shaping a quick mini-mal from Kingspan polyurethane insulation block as my neighbou has just had an extension built and might have some left overs…freebies rock!
r u using polyester on your wooden boards then or something like west one epoxy? we mainly get blue styrofoam in but if i can justify it i can order whatever i like! im just finishing a foriegner too and there is shedloads of 8’ x 4’ kingspan leftover, might have to squeeze a few of them in the van for a rainy day! my first board was a 6’4" fish in pu and perhaps has a little too much volume even though i do really like it. i could grab the dimensions from that if you fancy. have a look on my photo site www.surfingdog.fotopic.net under the folder soul of the long pinned dog and you’ll see a pic of my quiver.
freebies do definatly rock!
Man that would be big-time appreciated if you could let me know the dimensions of your fish, don’t worry about the volume issue, I like volume…lots of volume! And if you’ve got shed-loads of Kingspan left over I could releive you of some of that particular burden, my van’s insulated with shitty loft roll and it’s proper rubbish. What van you got?
Yeah I’ve only ever used poly resin, until last night when I laminated some timber together with a layer of epoxy/carbon fiber ready for cutting a skate deck for my son. I bought the epoxy six months back off a mate who’s business was going bust, I only got 4 kilo of it cos Mark told me it wasn’t clear, but thought it would do for the inside of hollows. Tried it yesterday it’s crystal clear and lovely to work with, I only paid £10.00 for it, wish I’d bought all he had now…oh well!
Cheers dude.
Are you planning going to the UK fish frye?
jase, ive got a foriegner on in the evenings this week so soon as i get back in the workshop this weekend ill send you the sizes of the fish. ive just got a t4 transporter that im converting so might end up using up the remaining kingspan on that but if there is any left over ill let u know. how did your epoxy skate deck go? im definately up for the fish fry, im going to try and get this hollow wood board done in time!
Mate, fellow T4 driver, got mine 2 days before xmas, red 2.5 TDi, she’s gorgeous! Have you had a look on www.vwt4forum.co.uk??? some really useful info there and some well helpful members. I’ve insulated mine with loft insu but it’s nasty and there’s still ldust coming out from behind the boards. Just joking about the kingspan, I think I’ve sourced some from a couple of doors up from me for my van and maybe enough for a trial blank.
Looking forward to your hollow wood thread as it progresses, kind of what I was planning too, but I don’t work very quickly so it’s doubtful.
I’ll post a pic of the skate deck tonight, it’s all carbon’d and lookin quite good so far, still need to flip it and do the opposite side.
SD, where are you getting your epoxy from?