I’m glad you’re inspired to join the sacred guild of inflatable conjurers.
Draw it our first, measure and cut carefully and if you’ve got any problems please drop a post here and Im happy to respond as I’m sure others will too.
In the background over the past 4 years Bill Wurts/ Stoneburner and I have developed a slew of different inflatable surfcraft, one of which is an absolute game changer but it’s not a priority at the moment as I’m working on an Aerospace invention.
Im moving into the backyard SurfLab next month where I’ll make a few of the new mat designs and show a few new materials and techniques.
One of the hardest things about making a mat is making the parts fit together and stay. Heat guns are good but the temp and time have to be perfect. Glue is easier to use but it’s hard to find the right glue and it’s expensive. And heating up bars with soldering irons to weld mats together is a lot of work and you only get a fixed shape to weld so every mat has to be the same shape, probably why some insist the basic shape is the only shape because they can’t make any other.
But here’s a glue that’s axtually better with PVC sheet. I like to go for romantic walks through the hardware store and I spied rolls of clear PVC that I think people use them for dining table covers or making outdoor vertical blinds and I also noticed some basic plumbers PVC glue for joining down pipes and making them waterproof.
Because this glue is a staple item for plumbers it’s cheap but would it work for surfmats ?
Here a pic of 3 sandwiches using the plumbers glue that I made and have hung outside for the past 4 years.
All 3 sections are solidly stuck together after that time.
No.1 is a clear glue I flattened with a metal ribbed roller ( usually used for chopped strand mat work)
No.2 is a green glue, same treatment
No.3 is green glue without rolling. I thought without rolling the glue wouldn’t hold as well but it’s just as strong.
The results are that the plumbers glue is resilient to UV over 4 years outside so it’s not going to degrade sitting under your bed. And apart from the bubbles you can see in No.3 they’re all dependable for use in surfcraft.
And rolling made the joins more visually appealing.
Here’s pics of the prep cleaner and the 2 different glues. $6 a pop.
Surffoil, yet again you’ve come in with the answer just before I’ve asked the question! I was going to ask what material the clear mats are as I just find them weirdly cool! I already have a roll of clear table mat PVC as I attempted to repair my mazda MX5 rear window! Next time i’m over at the hardware store, I’ll have a look for the glues. Stoked to try and join this cool crew!
Ok, so let’s do some surfmat design work. We’ll draw it out, cut the pieces, glue them up and then throw ourselves into the surf.
Get 2 or 3 pieces of foolscap paper and tape them end to end so you’ve got a long flat strip at least 25 in long.
Draw a line along the centre of the sheet as in the pic and at the centre of the left and right length. You’re making a cross in the middle of the paper dimensions.
As the mats going to be symmetrical L to R then let’s work on just one side understanding that the other side is the same.
Let’s make life easy and do a 4 pontoon mat, roundabout the same dims as a commercial mat.
I’ll need a few ‘Likes’ to continue or if it’s only you that’s interested Swanage77, I can PM the construction details to you.
Dunno about ‘educate’, but everything you learn adds to what you know, good and not so great.
We’re going to draw the mat when it’s fully inflated. It’s what you’re thinking about when you think of a mat, fully inflated, it also gives us an inside view of the internal structures, how they work, what variables you can add to customise your own and you can see why they look the way they do.
On a basic level it’s simple but there is room to go hog wild and make all sorts of inflatabe prone craft.
I made a thin mat for Bob Green here on Sways (bgreen)
and I’ve made a few for myself that were thin but had the same riding volume as a standard mat. I think they’re better to ride than thick mats with low inflation so give it a go if you want to. I pumped it up to high pressure and it was like bodyboarding in that you have control of the beast but still duckdive. I think they were about 2 1/2 inches thick at full inflation.
Sorry for starting to explain surfmat design and then stopping but we’ve had 2 really big floods with houses washed away, cattle washed away, lots of homeless. It wasn’t pretty. I should’ve stayed in the city.
Here’s some pics of my mats but the thinnest one is the orange one in the top right of the first pic, it’s tapered to a point at both ends and has no side flaps. Now I think about that one the internal pillars ( not beams) were tapered as well and a Max of 1 " so it was likely less than 2 inches thick fully inflated.
And rather than telling you how to build a mat I’ll cut these 2 mats up and you can see how the retail guys do it.
Considering that they don’t change in width or thickness, one straight cut across near the top should expose the beam dimensions as well as the dims of the association between beam end and leading edge of mat.
I have read all the pages before writing. thank you.
please do not cut the mats. for me it is very easy to design in 3d, calculate the volumes swollen at 100% and get 60% from that number. It is also very easy for me to get the measurements of the fabrics to be cut and their patterns. With a basic knowledge of 3d drawing anyone can do it. if you want something special. I volunteer to design your mats.
I was thinking about people who might follow this thread now or later who don’t have those computer skills, a lot of people need to see it all as well as read the description of what they’re seeing. Make it as easy for people as possible.
I remember Roy explaining about one of his Tunnel Fins and I just couldn’t understand what he was saying. Backwards and forwards he tried to explain it but after several days we worked out that he was looking at the flow from the outside and I was looking at it from being inside the flow. We were both right but depending on your perspective it can put you at odds.
It’s very gracious of you to offer design my mats but I’m currently thinking of a mat that that captures a bubble of air underneath so there’s no fabric to water drag.
there is an effect called Venturi. with it you can create aspirations, vacuum pumps… I think you could turn it around and make a reverse design. if the Venturi is in the form of a diabolo. you would have to do just the opposite.
Now I don’t have a computer to make a representation. I’m sorry.
but think of a spoon. on the side we eat the soup. now turn it over. that form has to have your paipo mat or bodyboard…
Yes that’s what I was thinking. I made a few Solid Rail mats that were layers of ply to create the outline with a skin stretched over the top and bottom, no Internal beams. Like stretching a skin onto a drum frame for the musically inclined. And they flew and cut into the wave and I put fins on the rails for speed out of turns.
They’re in the pics above, ones solid blue in the water, and the other is Yellow with white fins. Both great performers but the design needs exploring. It could morph into an inflated rail outline ( like a bicycle tyre) with a completely seperate body element.
