i just got around to building a couple of experimental blanks, one for a stub sort of shape and the off cut for a micro-simms paipo shape. the blanks have a lowes 2" sheet EPS (~1 lb/ft^3) core which is thicknessed by means of profile templates and a hot wire cutter. over this is bagged 1/2" blue XPS sheet foam using PU glue as the adhesive. the wet sandwich is placed into the bag and weighted into a rocker form until cured. the rocker is not relaxing at all, as i place the thicknessed EPS face down into the rocker bed, and there is very little spring-set.
[img_assist|nid=1068151|title=paipo with homemade boxes laid out awaiting install and hotcoat|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]slowly getting there. after some shortfalls with the homemade fcs approach, i went with faux-futures, made up from salvaged chemistry lab countertop material. once the boxes go in, a butter yellow hotcoat will hide all the uglies of lap and cork.
the bigger stub is roughed out as well, and it’s mostly about doing the bottom concaves and getting ready to bag.
nah, not done one like this before. i cut the slabs for the stub, and i ended up with that much offcut. my dad rides an old captain turbo hardbottom twin bodyboard, and when he was last visiting we had a run of good surf but no board to suit him. i was thinking i should make something weird but appropriate for him to ride when he was here, and that chunk of foam was close enough. plus, i have some smaller offcuts of corecork which are just big enough to do the paipo, so i’m attributing value to diminishing waste. i’m going to do the full graham-cracker sandwich and leave the deck raw. i haven’t quite figured out my deck lam underneath yet; i may try out some ideas from kiterider that he’s been generous enough to share with me. we’ll have to wait and see.
mostly it’s a good excuse to work out some shaping details on the small platform. i was happy with how the pre-shaped concave in the tail worked out, and i’m hoping to play with my transition from a bellied nose to a down rail with concave on such a short rail line. hopefully, it will prove challenging, but not unmanagebly so, and i can move quickly. i often have a lot of irons in the fire at once, and my projects can stretch on before seeing fruition. the scope of the paipo will hopefully keep the timeline short in this case.
i roughed out the small one this morning. it took about an hour, which is as long as a shortboard should take me. it’s got all the cuts in there, but nothing long that you can walk out. i had to do more hand work than i would have liked. i also had to scoot my shaping racks right up against each other. it’s definitely the shortest thing i’ve ever built.
the XPS likes to tear in a blink. i thought about bellying out the nose and scooping the deck more, but once i pecker-tracked it a couple times trying to take some deep cuts, i backed off. plus, despite how much i love a deep belly, i kept telling myself more bodyboard, less hull. i’m pretty happy with how it came out given that i’m pretty much of a hack.
she’ll take a set of twins nicely, don’t you think?
did some bagging today and had what i would consider reasonably good development effort results, despite some significant oopses. i was trying to be quick/lazy and do the whole graham cracker sandwich thing, motivated by drew’s trash can slam thread. well, everything seemed to go ok, but it was uber-fast working outdoors in 90+F temps.
in addition, i wanted to cure in the rocker fixture, and that resulted (along with a bit of breather shifting when i slipped the sandwich into the bag) in some bridging and getting breather under the deck cork on the left rail. it’s all easy-fix though, as all the fabric laid down nicely. i could have been a touch wetter at the rail, but i was trying (it seems too hard) to stay dry and neat. the resin moved through the bleeder faster than laterally, especially with the heat and associated viscosity drop. i cut out the bridged cork this afternoon. i’ll grind the seam and patch the cork before i sand the deck, tape the rails, and throw a fairly opaque hotcoat to hide the bottom and uglys on the rail. i’d be more bummed if cork wasn’t just the easiest thing to feather in without showing.
this deck is bare with (secret special mysterioso) kitex and double-4 oz glass under, bottom is kitex and 4 under, 4 over. you can see everything but the glass in the rolled up pic, as well as my cutout oops on the left rail in the last one. bottom is pretty decent. i did this one as a testbed before i f’d up a full sizer, so i’m calling it good enough. lessons learned, progress made.