Hey, I was wanting to know what is the best way to repair a snapped board. The board is snapped in to two pieces around the middle. I am an ametuer at fixing, but do have the resources. If someone could give some advice on how to do it, that would be cool.
Would it be an idea to stick two like ‘spikes’ (of what I don’t know) connecting the two pieces back together and then just fibre glass it? Yes no?
jaC
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There were some really good posts recently on tying the pieces to a post (no pun intented) to get them aligned properly.
Anyways, forget the sticks. My friends are experts at fixing boards at Puerto Escondido and they use no wood.
Once the halves are perfectly glued together just treat the snap as a ding that wraps all the way around the board.
I hear 12 ounces on both sides are what you need to wrap the board with once everything if filled level.
Rather than wear down a perfectly good keyboard…
Though I’ll update that by saying I’d try water catalysed polyurethane ( Gorilla Glue ) adhesive rather than cabosil mix for sticking the two halves together.
A couple of dowels, spikes of wood, bamboo skewers or whatever would be a bad idea, I’m afraid. Adds zero strength ( see above link ) and atthe same time means that getting the two pieces lined up right is gonna be effectively impossible. Like the ad sez, ‘just goo it’ , glass it good and strong and you’ll be fine .
hope that’s of use
doc…
i agree about dowels but i would never use them anyway…i used a thick partial depth balsa stringer on a recent buckled board…the new deck glass is fused to the new stringer when lammed…i used 2 oz lam cloth and so it didnt add much weight…worked good.
to see some awesome epoxy repairs see this link:
and now …
" Skeletor’s" thread on the same subject from only a month ago …
http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=202400;search_string=snapped%20board%20jig;#202400
ben
It’s simple!
Step A: Turn busted board into chair.
Step B: Sit in chair and contemplate your next board cause the one your sitting in is now a chair.
Don’t waste your time, the board will ride like shit, and will break in the same place sooner rather than later.
Drew
Hola,
This is how I fix longboards.
A) First of all let two halves (partN(ose) and partT(ail)) dry for some hot days.
B) Clean edges of both halves from loose bits of foam and fibreglass. Test and clean till 2 parts fit.
C) With a handsaw, make two cuts on the foam,one each side of the stringer, from top to bottom. These cuts should be, at least, 200mm long and approx. 5mm wide. The same for both partN and partT.
D) Look for two wood panels (350mmX100mmX5mm). I usually find them in the dustbin of a near greengrocery’s (being part of the wood boxes for fruits).
E) Mix some lam resin+catalyser (hot) and paint both sides of each wood panel. Add some filler to the rest of the resin and pour it over the broken surface of one of the surfboard halves (partT).
D) Fit the wood panels into the slots made in partT, not flush to the deck, not flush to the bottom.
E) Hold partT vertical (between 2 chairs, for example) and fit slots of partN around the wood panels, which are waiting rising up from partT. Align rocker and apply pressure till resin sets (a hot mixing here is great help)
F) Sand wood panels flush to deck and bottom. Sand gloss and hotcoat between 100mm away from wood panels tips (100+350+100=550mm).
G) Glass with 2 pieces (500mm long) of 4oz. for bottom and 2 pieces (500mm long) of 4oz. on top.
H) Hotcoat till the end of sanded area. Sand and polish.
Once finished, wood panels should look like this (around the stringer instead of a finbox):
An example of a fixed longboard (by me) with this method:
that’s fine…
IF you have the equivalent $600aus to waste every two weeks on wafer thin disposable objects the surf shop teenagers will GLADLY sell you.
…otherwise , FIX the board !
it’s a new skill you’ll learn ,
will cost considerably less than a new “board”,
and will still ride fine .
Dang, Chip, and I thought we were mates…
Just kidding.
I think a chair makes a fine memorial to a busted board. In fact it will far outlast any snapped board repair.
Way I see it, a busted board, got busted for a reason. Most likely that there was bad, bad karma int eh board. Once the board snaps the bad karma is released from the board and the board is now pure. Still busted, but pure. Trying to fix it will only provide a nesting place for some more bad karma.
I’m not rich by any means. But If a friend riding one of my boards snaps it in half, I’d make him another one for less than cost of materials. Probably price of blank and a sixer to drink with me whilst shaping it. Of course I have never had one snap, at least one that someone else was riding. I snapped one a while back and it is now my tesing ground for lam tints and fin box experiments.
Drew
The trick to joining the two pieces back together is getting the rocker back where it’s supposed to be while at the same time keeping the pieces horizontally aligned. For getting the rocker right, I use a long pipe clamp with wood adapters to fit the nose and tail. To keep it horizontally aligned, I use four 36" long pieces of 2x4. The break area is sandwiched between these using C-clamps. I use Gorilla glue, which can hold together a 10’ board broken in the middle until glassed. Cut off any loose glass in the break area first. After the glue dries, I route a slot next to the stringer and set in a piece of plywood in the same way as Neira had shown. This isn’t for strength but restores some of the “spring” when the board is flexed. I use two layers of 6 oz over the break, the length is equal to the width of the board at the break. The inner layer is about 6" smaller than the outer one. Urethane glues like Gorilla make this repair very easy now. In the old days, resin was used initially to glue the break together. Clamping jigs were pretty exotic since they needed to hold the board together while the break was laminated since the resin bond couldn’t support the weight of the two pieces.
I think a chair makes a fine memorial to a busted board. In fact it will far outlast any snapped board repair.
… I snapped one a while back and it is now my tesing ground for lam tints and fin box experiments.
Drew
…and imagine how many foam and fibreglass [now tinted ??] toilet seats you can make out of that !!
vive la difference !! [if you sell them , you might make enough $ to buy another blank !]
ben
drew spelt backwards is werd
Hey all
Shot for all the info, definitely will help…a lot!
Gonna try fixing it and if it breaks again then I’m gonna make a chair out of it…
…just out of curiosity how would you do that? Seriously?!
Shot once more people…
jaC –[thE South African novice surfboard-chair manufacturer]
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Cool.
Man
take the nose piece as the back of the chair, and the use the tail piece for your ass.
Easiest way it to simply buy a cheap metal framed chair and rip off the plastic parts and screw the board pieces into the existing holes.
Other ways are pretty much the same as any furniture construction. U can use a 2x4 to make the frame and then u can use 5 minute epxoy glue to cement the board pieces for the ass and back.
Drew
I am no expert - I have only done this once on a 9-0 Robert August - but my $.02:
As far as dowel’s/pegs go - I don’t think they add any significant strength as they are imbedded in fairly soft foam. Nevertheless, they did allow me to get the two pieces together without any fancy jig set up, and there was enough flex in the system that I could allign the rocker “just right” (with blocks of wood, weights, etc) as my resin and cabosil hardened. When done, rockerwise, you would not know this board was broken.
In fact, while not a trivial operation, I was suprised at how easily the whole glueing and glassing and sanding went, So I would encourage you to give it a shot. Even if the ride is different, you’ve got a backup or loaner board. I gave mine to my younger brother (newbie). Plus, the process got me interested in building my own board…
Hope that is helpful.
Paul
Doc;
I have a repaired snapped board that was fixed well. The only problem is it is old and doesn’t look great. What can I do to make it look better? I was thinking of sanding it down to the glass, and adding one 6oz and then a tinted hot coat?
Ahmmm- yeah, or maybe do your color in your lamination, with some nice cut laps. Especially on a stewart or hobie, I wouldn’t sand much more than you absolutely need to make the new lamination adhere well. Any more stiffness/strength is a win, ya know?
The nice thing about doing a tinted lamination ( see ‘tinted lam’ in the archives) is it’s all the same depth/thickness, so that if your pigmented resin isn’t opaque it doesn’t look blotchy and patchy as it will on a hot coat. If you want to do contrasting deck and bottom, then that’s fine, otherwise it’d be a good idea to mix all your resin and pigment, then take some of that batch for the bottom, catalyse that, and the same when you come to do your deck, or vice versa. That way it’s all the same color.
hope that’s of use
doc…
Howzit latelifer, You could paint a competition strie over the repaired area especially since the break is at an angle. I use either paint or fabric to cover the ugliness. Aloha,Kokua
Great idea! I didn’t even think of that. Any cotton fabric work?
Never did fabric so any pointers would help. I am going to put another 4oz glas on both sides, put it under the glass or on top?
The board is really light, no wonder it broke twice. How about 2 4oz on top and 1 4oz on the bottom?
Kokua;
Never mind, I found you answered the question already by doing a search. Thanks again.