Home Depot BODYBOARD building

Hola a todos!,

Since some of you showed interest about bodyboard bulding it’s better to start work.

Bodyboards are built at 3 stages: core+slick bottom+deck. All 3 parts/stages are made from different plastic materials. Production bodyboards use heat guns and an inner layer of bonding material (commonly a thin layer of packing polyethilene) for gluing the 3 parts. I had no heat gun, so I decided to use the contact cement method (chemist-bonding), quite good but not as durable as heat guns (thermic-bonding).

If you want to check how to go thermic-bonding method you can walk through http://www.buzzardbodyboards.co.uk/ and check TECH STUFF site, where some pics explain the process. Very interesting.

I’m going to explain the chemist-bonding method, since it’s cheaper and less difficult.

Let’s check the materials we need:

First of all: 1"=2,54cm

CORE: We’ll use XPS (blue, grey, orange,…). We need 5cm(2") thick core. It’s difficult to find a supplier with 5cm thick XPS in stock, so let’s go for 2 panels of 2cm+3cm, which will be glued. Overall dimensions of the panels should be 125x60x2cm and 125x60x3cm for a common bodyboard (app. 3$+4$). If you can’t find 125cm long panels, don’t worry: buy 250cm long panels and you’ll have core for 2 boards. We can use white EPS too, but remember, the leash tab will walk trough the deck-core-slick and water will remain in EPS forever. XPS is almost non absorvent.

SLICK BOTTOM: We’ll use 1mm PSHI (high impact polystirene) or 1mm PVC or 1mm whatyoucanfind sheet. The overall dimmensions of this sheet should be 1250x600x1mm. It’s quite important it has, at least, one of its sides in a NON-SHINE finish, since we’ll use contact cement for gluing. (app. 12$ for a 1000x2000x1mm sheet (2 boards))

DECK:This is the hardest material to find. I made my first bodyboard from a 10mm camping mat (very cheap, but too thick). The best material I could find is EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate), the material used in sandals. Some thick around 5mm (4-5-6mm) should be OK. Overall dimmensions 1250x1000x5mm(app.12$). This layer is wider than the other 2 since we use EVA to cover deck+2 rails+tail. If you want a more colourful desing you can buy a panel for the deck (1250x600x5mm) and a panel from other colour for the rails and tail (1250x400x5mm). (app.10$+8$)

ELBOW PADS: We’ll use 5mm thick packing polyethilene foam. Overall dimmensions 1250x300x5mm. (app.1$ or free if you search in the dustbin of a TV shop).

GLUE: It should be NON-SOLVENT CONTACT CEMENT, since we’re using polyestirene (XPS) for core. App. 4$ for a can of 1kg, enough for a bodyboard.

TOOLS: Razor blade, cheap tape, saw-edge squegee (I don’t know how you call this thing) for the contact cement, sand disk and a drill.

The hardest thing about materials is to find someone who sells us the quantity needed for just 1 board. Make numbers and watch the possibility of building 2 or 3 boards (good anniversary present for your girl/boyfriend).

Well, try to find these materials and we’ll start to talk.



I am still working on getting the materials together Neira. I am having a hard time finding EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) for the deck. does anyone know where i can find this on Oahu. I want to put stringers in the board, what should i use? layed up fiberglass? wood?

Lets keep this post alive

some bodyboards have pvc pipes inside of them that act as stringers.

Hola Skeletor and others!

If we are planning to use 2cm+3cm styrofoam core, believe me, we WON’T need stringers anymore.

Bodyboarders who I sold boards to, reported too much stiffness when building them “dual-core”.

Standard core construction (5cm XPS)

Dual-core construction (3cm+2cm XPS)

BTW: I assume we are talking about building a bodyboard or something less than 125cm(50") long. Aren’t we???

But, most important thing: the NON-SOLVENT contact cement!!! Is it available at your town???


Skeletor - look through the yoga mats at Sportmart, Copelands, or Big 5…most of those (that aren’t neoprene) are EVA.

EVA and some other materials useful for surfers (neoprene for example) is available from http://foamorder.com/ scroll down for industrial foam section.

They have a walk in store in San Francisco but it is mostly a showroom for the bedding stuff. For the other stuff it’s hard to get walk in service but the online shop should work. Bummer to pay shipping to hawaii though.


good call on the Yoga mats guys I didn’t think about that. Neira I am making a bodyboard, but i want to use it for stand up surfing in shorebreak so thought I might need the extra stiffness but maybe not. I was also asking because i was thinking of trying to make a small blackball beater in the future after i get a handle on your construction meathods.

Pretty busy this week but i will try to get the rest of the materials together this weekend so i can start. I hope there are more people interested and active in this post, i would like to see what variations people come up with (everyone here is extremely resourceful)

Hola,

Let’s start with the shaping stage.

I guess you could get 2 XPS panels, one 2cm thick and other 3cm thick.

Glue them together using NON-SOLVENT contact cement applied in both sides, then wait 5 minutes so it dries, then bond the 2 panels. Don’t jump over them for pressure without a wood panel between XPS and your feet (OK, yellow pages also work).

Draw the outline on the foam, trying to do it simmetrically. Handsaw the core, trying to be as vertical as you can. Plan the rails till you feel a smooth and continuous curve with your eyes and hand.

Draw a line, running 2cm parallel to both rails, on top and bottom of the foam.

Draw a line, on the vertical face of the rails, runing 2cm parallel from the top surface of the 3cm thick XPS panel. This line will mark the edge of both top/bottom rail and we don’t want it to match the glue layer.

Now, use a new razorblade and security gloves to cut along a virtual line between each pair of lines, but just along the rails, leave nose and tail at verical cut stage. These four rails (2 top+2 bottom) should be sanded flat with a sand block.


This is a great thread. I want to make an 8’0 for friends of mine that want to try surfing but are scared of the hard fiberglass boards. The rails will need to be rounded. I think I know how to do it but I was wondering if you’ve ever done round rails like that. Also, out of curiousity, what 3d program did you use for the graphics?

3D graphs made on Autocad2000, isometric view, gouraud rendering.

No problems on round rails but a 8’ long board should have some rocker, I guess.

The easy thing on bodyboards is they are completely flat, just a little bottom rocker at nose (just sanded away).

Other problem: I couldn’t find no 1mm plastic sheet (PSHI, PVC, whatever…) longer tham 2m here in Spain. Slick bottom should be made from a single plastic layer. Same problem for EVA panels.

If only my spanish was as good as your english… I’m curious to know how the xps holds up in the water? Manufacturers describe it as “water resistant” not waterproof… any added weight or breakdown after time?

xps/eps sucks as a bb core - polyethylene (dow) or polypropolyne closes cell cores are more durable and waterproof (but unfortunately not available at home depot)

PE core, ja, ja,… Maybe at USA you can find a retailer who sells to you a single panel of PE core. Here is Spain I found the plant that solds PE core for most BB manufacturesrs in Europe, but they asked me to buy a whole container, even if I’d go to Zaragoza to pick them up.

XPS core is easy to find and easy to buy. I found XPS almost non-absorvent. XPS is extremely rigid so: It’s very fast over the water but it has no memory (bad for elbow marks and bad for snapping (XPS bodyboards don’t bend in a huge dig-in: they snap in two, but, who wants a bent bodyboard for surfing??). Elbow marks could be partially avoided fitting an intermediate layer of packing PE foam between XPS core and EVA deck skin.

Checked HD last night and the XPS ran about $8 for a 8x24x1" and $13 for a 8x24x2"…had a hard time locating NON SOLVENT contact cement…is there another name for this? Can I use something else. I also couldn’t find sheets of pvc or anything equivilent except lexan which was like $50 for a sheet that’d do 1 board and felt like overkill and WAY to expensive.

Found some PE that can be purchased by sheet

http://www.foamshop.net/product_30.htm

Think I’ll stick XPS seeing as how I don’t even BB much!

HomeDepot sells DAP products, and DAP sells this:

I think this is the contact-cement we’re looking for. Take a piece of EPS and ask them to test it before buying it. Be kind!

You’ll also need one of these cheap V-notch adhesive spreader, and cheap tape for covering it (avoiding the cleaning the spreader after each stage)


i think this is cool as shit.you know how long ive been trying to shape at home?? im with you guys 100% on this project.so your saying i can get all these materials at home depot? im from southern california ive never seen that stuff in our depots??

Hola,

I’m from Spain. Here HOME DEPOT stores don’t even exist. When I say Home Depot Bodyboard I mean a BB built using only materials you can find at your local hardware stores.

XPS sheets are VERY easy to find at building materials stores.

EVA mats are easy to find at sports shops or even at those Chinese-hold low cost shops.

Hidh Impact Polystirene(HIPS) or PVC sheets are easy to find at a plastics shop (where they sell also metacrylate, polycarbonate,…)

Try first to find the XPS sheets and whe can start shaping.

cool board neira.ok basically your my teacher ill follow your directions 100% get xps?? will that be my core?? also isnt polypropylene better??lots of board companies in the states use polypro right now whats the difference between that and xps?? how big a sheet of xps do i need man? and how thick??