5’8 x 13.5 x 18.82 x 15 x 2
3" but crack 7.25 tip to tip
whats the blue foam called? XTS???
Nicely done! Is that Dow-type foam?
ps: how do you keep your garage so clean?
Ken, As always very clean job. Mahalo, Larry
Al
I own a broom
but
the wife makes me use it…LOL!
oh and I use a low pixel camara
theres still dust everywhere
I think it it dow XTS or ???
I got a pre CNC’d blank (free) that had a broken nose and some burn marks from the cutter, so I reshaped it
I had some left over epoxy and glass, did er up put in some Probox’s and presto!
Larry
Thanks for the kudos, but it does have a little weave showing in a few spots
but still water tight, no sand through’s
as always the Proboxs were a breeze to install,
and Mahalo for the deal
Ken:
The blue foam is XPS which stands for eXtruded PolyStyrene.
White foam of this type is either extruded or bead and the differences
are obvious, one is a bead, the other is a closed cell foam like
the blue. I didn’t notice any kind of venting, are you aware
of the outgassing situation when using this type of foam?
No I didnt
I was under the impresion (assumtion) that beins closed cell It wouldnt have the gassing as the regular EPS
educate me
Well, as far as I know (and I have limited experience with blue xps)
it has the same problem wit outgassing as the white.
I just saw a Merrick Black Beauty clone shaped out of xps and
epoxy glassed. It had drilled holes every 10" or so thru the glass
and into the foam. There was a little temperature sticker laminated
to the tail of the board so Channel Islands buyers would know what
temp to keep the board to limit outgassing!
XPS buy nature is temperature sensitive. Some general precautions
to be aware of:
-
Never expose the board to direct sun for a long time (leave it on the beach)
-
Keep it in a board bag with a reflective coating while in/on a car. (not just a sock)
-
Watch out for temperature extremes, a la warm car/cold water or vice versa.
Let us know how much life you get out of the board, it looks like a great
shape! If you like the way the foam surfs, you might want to try one of EPS
which doesn’t have the same problems, and Surfding has blanks really cheap
and he is close by. PM me if you want his contact info.
I was told that the cells in xps are about 60 psi- that’s what gives the billet its rigidity- and when the cell walls (inevitably) breakdown through impact or shear, the gas is released and will balloon the skin (glassing) unless there’s some sort of venting. Some xps glassers perforate the deck at intervals to allow the venting. Water ingress, because of the closed cells, isn’t such and issue, unlike with eps, which also gasses and draws water between its beads.
so does all that meen … its fine untill the deck gets dented?
No, what this means is that you made a nice board
out of a material that is different than poly, and you
need to care for it differently, thats all. I don’t think
that drilling holes is the way to go with xps, or that xps
is the best alternative material, but that’s just me.
You need to take care of your board and just surf it.
Just don’t get it hot!
Because of the internal blowing agent
used, it has a different flex pattern (as Alan implied), and
if used in conjunction with the shape can create an interesting
alternative to standard construction. I don’t know if any
of the mass producers has done any research on how long
these boards last, but with care, they should last as long
as any pu/pe shortie does under normal conditions.
PS: XPS does extremely poorly on airplanes so don’t shape
your Indo quiver out of it! LOL
Just save it for a rainy day. 
Best looking leftovers I ever saw. Looks nice. My last xps bubbled along the areas with dark paint, at least you don’t have that to worry about.
Very Nice…no bugs in the hotcoat? Just kidding. Let us know how the blue foam holds up…
JSS
I made 2 blue dow XPS boards. Ons is pigmented dark blue.
I’ve never had outgassing problems but I had some air bubbles on the bottom caused by a poor lamination (used the wrong resin), I just perforated the skin in the bubbles (the foam is waterproof). I took the board to France in the summer in a black van. And no outgassing problems.
So If you care a bit and don’t do any stupid things like baking it in a black van in the sun, you won’t get much troubles.
the board:
It was my second board
out of curiosity, what do you guys use for filler to fix dings on an XPS?
I realy dont know
but I would guess XPS foam and epoxy
maybe spackel with some blue and wight pigment added???
Max
no bugs…Ha LOL!
but it did get the dust zits ,but those dont worry me on a sand coat
I may have a buyer tomarrow so I wont ever try it
besides Im a longboarder (lazy)
Nice board Ken. There’s some interesting information on the Epoxy Pro web site http://www.epoxysurfboards.com/
Their foam is XTR. I fixed a snapped XTR board and it out gassed when I was laminating it. The XTR boards have small holes about 2 inches in from the rail to deal with the gassing.
Ray
Great looking board.
Im intrigued by the use of the closed cell foam - maybe another option for the home tinkerer. I went to the epoxypro site and on a few pics you can faintly see the holes near the rail - looks like they are fully vented all the time.
From my limited reading here (and complete newb ignorance) sounds like it would be great if you dont have to worrry about water and a sealable venting system like you would with EPS.
The Epoxypro site also mention patent pending for a process called thermo venting. Anyone know what that is – maybe some sort of pre-post curing thermal process involving heat to drive off gasses ???
Anybody know the up or down side to just drilling some holes and leave it vented all the time after the build? Would that help aleviate the problems with heat, outgassing, etc?
Thanks
yoyo
As far as I understand it, the Thermo-Venting is the way they put in the vents. They have a press of some kind with a bunch of little needles they heat up and press through the glassing. Its what makes those neat little rows of holes.
Ken, nice looking board. Don’t worry about it, lots of guys are using XPS without any issues at all, just treat it right.