I pulled a new project out of the bag this morning and would like some suggestions on how to proceed from here. I will get some pics together for the boys pronto.
Basically, I’ve built a bamboo skinned compsand in the ‘traditional’ bert method (with certain deviations to avoid venting).
The core is 1.9 PCF Marko foam. The rails are 3/8 balsa layed up old school style. The top and bottom skins are 1/40 bamboo veneer. I’ve put 2 oz under the bottom skin and 4 oz under the deck skin.
At this point, I’ve vacuumed on the deck skin and have reached the stage where it is overhanging the deck just a bit. With the balsa skinned boards I’ve done, I usually just use a hand plane to blend the deck skin into the rail. THis being my first foray into bamboo, I was wondering about the best technique to clean up the skin-to-rail joint.
very careful trimming with a titanium bladed box cutter
or
doing the same with a dremel and a diamond cutting wheel just like you would do with a glass lap.
with something stiff and fibrous like bamboo its helps to first lightly sand an inset ledge (or lip) from the foam edge onto the rail line along a drawn lap line so that the bamboo skin can vacuum down flush to the rail. Tape the edge on the rail so when you trim you can trim to flush it…
Kind of doing the same now before vacuuming on some 1/8" thick stiff and hard skins (maple/koa/wiliwili/mango) over blue foam rails with wood nose and tail blocks