Glassed board 2 and it had a lot of issues with air on the second side (deck). I had to do a lot of babysitting to keep the glass from lifting. After I did the fill coat on the deck (side 2), I noticed a lot of pin holes. I sanded the deck side then I made a hole on the bottom where the fin box will go. It’s just a 1/2" bit through the skin, (I didn’t route the box slot). I made small vacuum patch and then I taped it over the hole and did a thin filler coat that had lots of aerosil. Check out the videos by Jimmy Lewis doing his poor man vac series, that’s where I learned this.
Attached my vac pump and hope it pulls the resin in. Going to sand smooth, then do several coats of floor sealer for the finish.
I still have to add the fin box then a fill coat, sand, then final coat.
During this build, I’ve had to deal with a bad vacuum pump. A while ago I bought a tetra aquarium air pump to convert to a vacuum pump. When I took it apart, I noticed that the pump design was different from the version that other guys here were using to make a simple vac pump. I tried to convert the pump to use the vacuum without trying to take it apart, and after gluing these tubes on, I found that it doesn’t have enough vacuum pressure.
I also had an old compressor my neighbor gave me, but was in parts. I tried to get it running a couple years ago and may have blown the compressor. The damned thing weighs about 100 pounds, so it just sat. I took the tank and added a piece of aluminum and my rebuilt vacuum setup on it, and it works great. I haven’t screwed all the pieces down, but I will. I had also bought an adjustable bed side table and set it up for my glassing. It easily lifts from a comfortable working height to being high enough to clean laps without bending over. Working on a rolling stand for my glass roll now.
The table is solid enough for glassing, but not for sanding. The pipes have to be at least 1" for the length I used (4’ from end to end). I tried 1/2" pipe first and it was wobbly even with 2 poles. I had this pipe laying around and it is strong enough. I screwed the pipe in to keep it from rolling. I also found that the 2 pipe design wasn’t good because the vertical poles would get in the way. The only down side is that I had to off set the pipe and I didn’t offset the tee pieces. The next thing I need to do is make a splatter tray. I’m tired of getting resin on my feet or the soles of my slippers. The 1/2" pipe was originally going to be a splatter tray, so I’ll put that back together.
I also made several sanding tools because the wood is hard and I had to do a lot of sanding of wood. I’ll try to get photos of it all.
Both boards are almost done. I installed the fin box on the first board and all I need to do is sand it down then do the final coats. The second board needs a final sanding then maybe some floor sealer. I really want to get that one in the water because I made it as a new small wave board, but it has given me more problems than any other build.
Board 2 is done, and it’s been baptized in long period overhead surf. I couldn’t be happier with the way it handled today’s surf. Question will be how it handles small surf that I intended it for. I’ll try to get photos of the crazy things I did with the shaping. It has a wide chine along the bottom (hydro hull), about 1/8" of concave inside of the chines that ends up about 1/8" vee at the end of the fin box. The rails are thinned out and are almost s-rails to keep thickness in the deck. Lots of rocker, but it’s a constant curve, not staged, with a tiny bit of kick in the nose.
The finish isn’t pretty, but I don’t care. I really wanted to explore a few ideas with the bottom/rail combination, on a board that has an old Weber Performer outline. 8’ x 22" x 2.5" 17" nose and 15" tail. 22" paddles great.
Board 1 has been glossed, and I’m going to give it to my brother for the finishing. I will probably make a wood fin for that. Shots to come.
Board 2 showing the bottom with the chines and concave. The tail block was curved and hard to sand, so I glued a piece of belt sander media to a bucket to help sand it to the proper fit. I also had these pieces of harder XPS foam I use to sand concaves. Sometimes I use these when I shape. I made one about 18" wide from a 2" x 4" and I use that a lot. There’s also a couple of shots of the places were termites or something else got into the wood. I notice a lot of silverfish and I think they like the soft wood. When I was sanding the wood smooth these holes opended up. I just left them as is. The wiliwili was being eaten by gall wasps when we started harvesting it. Most of the trees in Hawaii were destroyed or cut down to stop them.
Learned a lot doing these compsands. If I ever do another board with all the small pieces of wood, I’ll be sure to get the wood thickness sanded. We used a thickness planer and it didn’t like some of the Koa. Ripped it up. I’ll also do a much better job of gluing the pieces together.
I liked using the Poly glue but the foam needs to be roughed up for good adhesion. Stiff woods may look nice, but Balsa is much more user friendly at 1/8" thickness.
I have a half dozen EPS slab blanks laying around, so I probably won’t bother doing a full compsand for a while because I can’t handle the wait to get the board wet. So glad board 2 worked well, I’d be bummed if it didn’t after all the time spent making it.
nice job
that wiliwili really pops with epoxy
is it heavy?
I think he key is to not mix hard woods like koa with soft wood like wiliwili so sanding is not a btch
I think Charlie told me that once
Peg should be happy
Thanks Greg. The first one came out pretty good. When I looked at it today, I saw a few deep scratches on the balsa side that I didn’t smooth out before glassing. I think it was because I getting to far into sanding it.
Another thing I’ve learned is using good parts makes for a better end product. I had a roll of glass that took a couple of years to get through. I think it was made for infusion or to be wet out on a table. I glassed board 2 with the last of it, and board 1 with 4 oz glass Bernie bought. The surfboard glass wets out so easily, and always makes a nicer board. Sealing the wood helps make the lam better too. A couple ounces of epoxy with aerosil worked into the wood ends up saving resin later.
Funny that I’m finally getting to the point where I understand so much of the process, and I’ve gotten the muscles to use the equipment pretty good, but I don’t have plans to make a lot more boards. I’ve been watching videos of luthiers, and it has me excited. I actually was inspired to do better work by them because making a guitar is so much harder.
I used a belt sander on the flat side that has all the mix of wood. That got it down a lot, then I used wood blocks with course sandpaper. I think I stopped at 150 then glassed it, may have been 220. The balsa was 220 before glassing. Just have to be patient. I also picked up some luthier tips. They use scrappers a lot. May try to use their wood bending techniques one day. Make the rails fit the curve before gluing so they fit nice at the tips.
Working on a wiliwili fin now.
