I recently got a bundle of blanks delivered and one of them was damaged. to cut a long story short they’re replacing the damaged one and meanwhile I have purchased the damaged one for a considerable discount.
The blank is a 6’8 fish blank. It has a one inch deep dent/hole in the bottom that’s about the size of my hand. As far as I can see I have two options if I want to make a board out of it. One is to shape the board, fill the hole and glass as normal. The second option might be to carve the bottom down till the dent goes away. This would make a rather thin board. By thin I’m talking about two inches or maybe even less.
I was wondering if anyone has any ideas about a two inch thick board. Is it too thin? Could the thinness be mitigated by width?
This board was started with a 2" thick slab of EPS insulation foam. The rocker was bent in when the bottom skin was attached and then profiled, so it’s pobably at best 2" thick. It’s about 7’ x 21" and I I kept the thickness all the way out to the rails.
I just sanded off the bottom lam and reglassed it. The last time I used it I was sure it was leaking, and I wanted to add sidebites, so I sanded off the bottom and reglassed it, then added sidebites. I had to cut through the wood to add High Density foam because it’s very soft EPS <1lb.
I’m only 5’6", but up to 170 lbs now. It was a lot of fun being thin with hard down rails. I hope it works as well as I remember, because it’s been a while. I made two 2" thick boards like this, one was 8’ and this is 7’. Thin rides good, but doesn’t paddle as well as thicker boards.
If you want to keep the thickness for paddling, just fill in the bad spot. Done that several times myself with spray PU foam insulation that comes in can. You can do a colorful lam or a fabric inlay to cover it. The board with the cloth inlay covers a large gouge in the foam similar to your blank, but only in the center I think it was about 1/2" deep and maybe 3 inches wide by 3 or 4 inches long.
I second Huck’s opinion on routing out the area and filling with new foam. Then after shaping the board, you could then laminate with pigmented resin (opaque) either the whole board or just a design covering that area. That way you wouldnt see it. Mix up a batch of cabosil/resin to glue the new foam down. The cabosil/resin mixture sands out just like foam leaving a minor visible defect but when pigmented over its not visible if done right. Ive done this with fin plug mess ups. Make sure you laminate with solid (opaque) pigmented resin and not tints.
You gotta love fixing a board that isn’t made yet. PU foam gets softer in the middle, don’t thin it down. Huck has the right idea. Use some off cuts glued together and rout a clean hole for them. If you fit it tight its hardly noticable.Make the replacement piece first bigger then the intended target with straight verticle sides, lay it on top and trace the edges on the blank, route everything to a depth less than the thickness of the relpacement piece and slightly smaller you don’t have to worry about the bottom of the hole you could have a small void in the blank when fixed (see chambered blanks). If you wedge it in tight the foam will flex to fit and leave almost no seam use just a brush of polyester to get it to stay in the hole.
Cutting out the damaged area and adding a block of foam is better than using the spray foam. Just more to do. I’ve done it without using glue or resin to make shaping easier. Sometimes the little resin band makes a slight ridge, especially if you have it on the rail. Just make the plug slightly larger and shove it into the hole.
Thanks for all the advice. I think I’m going down the block of foam route. Now I have to figure out what to make. I’m contemplating a single fin or a retro looking twin fin. The board’s gonna cost me next to nothing so I may as well experiment aye!
Some really good ideas here…I’d get some wire , and stuff from the electronics shop , and a silicon chip and make a cyborg out of it . You could attach a soft plastic arm above the damaged part , and tell people it’s an armpit…maybe stick some hair in it.
If you were shaping a hull with bladey rails it would work. I’ve made rolled bottoms where the centre is 3inch and the rails are 0.5cm and super sharp. you have to hold your line as long as you can but they just continue to build and build speed, super quick. Check out the gato heroi rails. But if you’re doing a retro board with down rails a block of foam sounds like a good simple idea
