Last Years Melted Infusion Project...Back to Sways!

joshrastafari · August 1, 2009, 7:55pm

Man it has been awhile for me, over a year of no Swaylocks for me. I missed it. Actually, I quit surfing, no not really, but I have missed most swells due to life.

On with the post! I never updated the results of my stringerless, EPS, infusion attempt. It was spectacular!!! but not in a good way. After all of the talk about infusion and surfboard building here on Sways I decided to perform some small scale tests to determine if I thought it was worth it or even viable. I infused about twenty little chunks of eps using different techniques and lam schedules, I even used the bamboo cloth from greenlight. Some of my panels came out soft, some hard as a rock, some flexed, some didn’t. I will admit my budget only allows the crudest of measurements (thumb pressure, twist, knee jab, etc…) but it was obvious which lam schedule and techniques worked.

So the basic technique was; shape, spray glue on all layers of glass, wrap with peel ply and absorbant material, cover with distribution mesh, place hoses and spiral wrap, into bag with vac source on each end, pull vac and check everything… sweat… mix resin–slightly thinned for infusion RR, crack open feed line and wait for meltdown…

The infusion part went very well. The resin hit the spiral wrap and dist mesh, the resin front traveled in all directions as I was hoping it would. As the resin front reached the ends where the vac sources were I clamped the inlet lines and let the resin travel through the laminate. I was feeling good about this! All of that testing payed off, did it?

I noticed a little puff of smoke coming fron the vac pump, only it wasn’t coming from the vac at all. I noticed some more smoke and now some feelings of panic are setting in. I lifted the back of the board and agghh!!! the whole underside of the board was caved in and covered in smoke, similar to the inside of a building that is burning to the ground. Kill power, fans full speed, open that damn garage door, and slice the bag open so that thing can breathe, no saving this one! The heat started in the pot and then when it hit the bottom of the board there was no where for it to go, no ventilation sitting on the box, exotherm city!

This is some serious concave, it is actually deeper that the board was thick. The lam was still wet when I cut the bag. Pay no attention to the foot prints and creases, I have walked on it and used it as a shelf and conversation piece.

And just so I feel better, this is the board I rushed so I would have a new board for my trip to Costa Rica, Vac’d but not infused.

My biggest complaint, I went through a ton of materials and consumables. Other than that I learned a lot and enjoyed the project.

Josh

joshrastafari · August 1, 2009, 8:09pm

Sorry for the extra spacing, new format.

jesus · August 2, 2009, 12:46am

Thanks for the “how not to” thread,in my opinion they can prove more valuable than a “how to” thread…sorry for your loss also.

KKsurf · August 2, 2009, 2:17am

Good on ya for making an attempt!

I’m interested to know a few more things about the project-

What density EPS did you use, any crushing experienced under the vac pressure? (other than exotherm damage).

How much vacuum did you use?

What resin did you use?

Any thoughts of trying again?

joshrastafari · August 2, 2009, 3:24am

I would do it again! different resin, better ventilation, figure a way to cut down on consumables, different laminates, all of my problems have solutions. Will the benefits outweigh the obstacles? Maybe, I place a value on the lessons of the project, even if the results don’t translate directly to a magic surfboard. I may use that skill somewhere down the line. I could end up making composite belly casts for pregnant women, or a super efficient barbque smoker that only burns five coals per hour. Its all relevant…

I used 1.5 eps, 20" Vac, the same as the board I built after this one on the bottom of the post. No issue with crushing on any of the others that I have vac’d with this foam at that level. The resin…I love Resin Research products, I would say the biggest problem with this project was the misuse of resin, I tried to make epoxy that was made for a specific purpose function as an infusion resin. In my small tests it worked great, I diluted the resin with a little denatured alcohol and if flowed nicely. The issue came with the larger quantities, which was one of my concerns that was not tested in the small scale tests. Everyone that builds with epoxy knows how quick that damn exotherm can sneak in. During a normal lam you can take some measures to combat it, get the resin out of the pot, lam faster, etc., with infusion you are at the mercy of your technique, and if its no good…

I will say I have no regrets, on the contrary, I will remember and talk about this build probably more than any other. I went into this with a willingness to destroy some materials and time. I went over budget some and I clearly went through some materials but I was prepared for this mentally. I completely believed it would work and it was a natural progression for me. I don’t think I would be content with shape close tolerance blank, glass, sand, fin, ride…over and over and over again. Once again, I thank Swaylocks, the learning curve would be much steeper for most of us without it.

This is just a shot of one of the many small scale tests I did trying to determine things like – resin migration, saturation, distribution mesh, etc.

Josh

Durbs · August 2, 2009, 6:02am

How long does it take for the epoxy to infuse through the whole laminate? Im thinking a sealed EPS blank, using thinned RR slow might have good results. Less exotherm with slow hardener…