Has anybody done a Bamboo skin without using fiberglass cloth? Talk me down…I’m thinking of jumping in to it. I gather that the bamboo is difficult to work with from the archives. Benny gave me a netural report. Any help would be
appreciated.
Thanks,
WM
I dont know if this is what your talking about but greenlightsurfsupply has some type of bamboo cloth that they use, also they have videos on how to do it.
Yeah, that’s the next step. What I want is the woven bamboo mat style. Folks have done it, but under fiberglass cloth I think. I have gotten some good advise from the top dogs, oneula and benny1. I was hoping someone would go, “I do that all the time, works great…”
Any one have thoughts on this?
WM
I did it with the woven bamboo over an existing board just to try out my vacuum bag setup. It was easy to cut to shape but sanding was a royal pain. Lots of coats of epoxy and multiple sanding sessions to get it flat. As you sand it you have to be careful not to brush it off with you hand the edges are like razor blades. Since this was over an already glassed board I just finished it off with a gloss coat. So far is has held up well but have not really abused it much.
I made a test panel-shield for my boys.
Woven Boo is not so bad once you break out the sander with 26grit.
It tends to be a royal pain and needs lots of fill to get smooth.
The stuff feels bomb proof without glass.
Not clear on why glass is bad,uses less resin,better fill-seal, and stronger.
The stuff in your picture looks like a woven grass mat.
Use Foaming PU glue to attach the skins.Better for filling the weave-bumps.
Cut the outline after the skins are on, leave the foam at the full template size.
This way you get a nice clean edge that is not super sharp.
Good luck,
Be sure to use an epoxy resin, it will bond much better with the bamboo. I recently read a journal article which compared bamboo composites that showed that epoxy bonds with bamboo much better than your normal resin. I dont recall exactly why, but basically the bamboo absorbs the epoxy into most of its cavities, basically just makes it a better composite. I have yet to do a bamboo board, hope to in the near future, but from correspondence with people who do do it, they complain to no end about how dificult bamboo weaves are to glass, lots of problems with air bubbles and gaps in the weave. Let us know how it goes, hopefully I can lear from your experience.
Does anybody knows where can I find some wooven bamboo mats? If the company ships their product, good, If near El Paso TX, better. Want to give the stuff a try…
Personally, I’m more interested in obtaining bamboo laminates.
If anyone knows of a source of them in Aus I’d love to hear it.
That would be cool too. Any distributor in continental US?
Hey Lavarat,
Can you post up some pics of that sheild or board there? Did you finish it just as you would a board?
With the Balsa boards, I have left the deck proud, vac bagged, and sanded back to somewhere along the rail. Always suprised me how even it came out. What would that be like using Bamboo?
I can see vac bagging the skins on, then cutting the outline, that has been working great for the Balsas bottom skin. I’m trying to wrap my brain around the how to of keying in the rails. Do you think just gluing the rails on after and wraping with FG tape would be good enough? I’d be way more comfortable gluing up the rails then vac bag the skins, but I can’t think how to get the skins cut nice and even (almost cut-lap?) after the fact.
As far as filling in the weave on the Bamboo, can you mix some epoxy and squeegee a bridge coat to fill the low spots?
Thanks,
WM
Hey J,
Here is what I’m looking at…
http://www.calibamboo.com/naturalmatting.html
$125 for a 25’ roll that includes shipping. The cost ends up about the same as 6 oz. S FG cloth. Not sure about the strength although they say it’s tough stuff.
Veneer would be intresting too, but seems expensive and hard to get.
Thanks,
WM
If you know anyone in Hawaii it is easy to get there. Was at the beginning of the year anyway. It is tough and the splinters are a reality. I worked some out of my palms about a minute ago.
The gaps of depth will require more brain wrapping but don’t let that stop you.
Now a rhyme with bamboo.
This is from Frank’s Cane and Rush supply (714)847-0707
www.franksupply.com Nice guy,4’x50’ for $100, and prompt shipping.
If I do woven Boo again I am thinking premade skins done under vac on a flat surface to solve the bumps issue.
I did a pu glue fill-bagged then sanded, a epoxy bog fill then sanded, and then repeated. It is still bumpy.
The rails do not sand flush or blend.The Boo flexes and smokes when you try to sand it.After a few tries the best method I found is to cut the out line with a jig saw after the skins are on.My dremel with a cut off bit was second best.
If you want to go with just glass on the rails look up the man’s ( Gary Young) web site, it is all there.
The board has 1lb eps foam and blue dow xps rails with 1x4oz top & bottom + 2x4oz rail tape.
Have fun,
