It get confusing really quick. Jump on board with someone in your area and stick with their program. Tridrles and ChrisP are in your area and both are very helpful. They both build quality surfboards but are on different programs. You have to understand that.....It's not a bad thing....
Resin Research....get the fast hardener....First board use the CE...Retail, a 3 gallon kit is about $200....you can get 4 boards out of that no problem...everyone I know has extra add f....post up, you can get some add F for free.....
I have used this glue. It’s pretty good. You spray both sides and wait a minute or so and then stick the foam together. Should be another alternative for you and it’s really easy.
I tried to look for a thread that my brother Oneula posted about how make home depot foam boards, but the images are gone.
You can’t use saran wrap. You can get a bunch of hollow tile blocks or smaller bricks and use that as weights. They are really cheap and they’ll be useable for other things. We have a pile of hollow tile blocks that we use for weights.
The easiest board I’ve made with HD foam is using a single 2" thick piece, and gluing a piece of mahogany door skin to the bottom side when I create the rocker. Then I add wood rails, about 1/2" to 3/4". You can use the same door skin as the first layer, but don’t use it for the rest. Once the rail bands are added shape the top and rails, then either add a wood skin top or glass it. The door skin adds weight, but it’s solid. I would have used the door skin on the top, but we don’t have a rocker table designed for a profiled top.
What you can do is cut out the outline on the door skin, but cut it 3 inches narrower along the rails and taper that to about an inch inside at the nose and tail. Then cut out that shape on your foam, and be sure to cut it as cleanly as you can because you’ll be gluing it back later. Glue the foam and skin together with the wood on the top side while setting your rocker. Add one layer of wood rail band then glue the foam rails back on. Then you just have to foil the rails and glass it. You’ll have a flat deck, but it will be solid. I like boards with flatter decks, just decide where you want the rails to start tapering off and that will be where the wood ends. Be sure to add something to add strength where you want your fin boxes, if you use boxes.
Check out the boards Les has made he’s got some with concave decks.
A couple of thoughts for you that will mess up your brain…
When we glue layers of HD foam we usually only do 2 layers, the bottom is 1" thick and the top is 1 1/2" thick or 2" thick. We have been cutting out the outline of our boards first, then we take pieces of wood usually woven bamboo, you could use thin balsa, about 6 inches wide no more than 1/8" thick, and we route one layer of the foam just enough for the wood to fit. That piece is usually where you stand, and acts as a spring or springer as some cal it. We glue the 2 layers together with the same epoxy resin you use to glass the board. Just use a thin layer and try to stay inside of the edge. Then lay the blank on something to create the rocker you want, and weight it down. What we do is use a board we have that has the rocker we want and put the blank against the bottom of that board, then wrap it all up and put it in a vacuum bag.
You can use weights and pieces of left over foam or wood wedges to create the rocker you want.
When we use the epoxy resin and the springer, the rocker tends to hold longer. But if you add the rails right away, it will hold the rocker. I like to start profiling the deck before I add the rails to make it easier to get the final shape because I use 5 min epoxy to glue the rail bands to the foam. So holding the rocker longer is important to me. If you use a PU glue for the rail bands it should be easier to shape than cutting through epoxy. Once I get the first band, I use a wood glue to add more bands. You can alternate materials to get a nice contrasting color of bands.
You can also cut off about and inch or two along the rail, glue in a perimeter rail and then glue the foam back onto the rail. It easier to shape foam than wood, but wood would probably end up smoother.
Now here’s a twist on the whole thing, and what I’ve been doing for the last 6 or 8 boards. I take the foam and cut out rocker slices, then glue the slices together to get the width I want. You can add stringers between the foam, or use a different color foam like blue dow XPS. This works great when you have a thicker piece of foam. I scored 6" thick blocks that were 4’ x 8’, but I’ve also done this with 4" thick and 2" thick foam. This method will add a little weight because you’re adding more glue.
As you can see the possibilities with alternative foam are endless.
thanks Ray. he's a lot closer to me than he is to Les. i figure that it would be good if he picks up his foam, we cut the blanks, he shapes them, and takes them down to Les to finish