making popouts on a backyard budget

General Discussion
1

Ok, so i know that this could end up being a bit of a heated topic, because of the nature of the end product, but i am really interested in the process from a constructional point of view. I have worked as a surf instructor since i was 18 and always get asked the question “where can i find a cheap board?” Well i think the answer is “from a mould”, but not nessicerrily from a huge factory. 

So, as i don’t have a collosal buget to start off with, but i do have experiance in basic mould making, i set about making a mould of the mini-mal that i learnt on when i was a lad, and sharing it with you lot.

I repaired a few dings, wet and dried, and buffed the board up to a good shine. Then i made a plastacine ridge around the board and applied my 5 coats of release wax. 

Next i slopped on my gel coat and once it was tacky, i glassed 4 layres of chopped strand mat. 

Then, i re-enforced it with 4 steel bars going along the width of the board (these will be my clamp points), and some baton going between the steel lengthways. 

Then, i flipped the whole monstrosity over, removed the plastacine, applied more release wax and repeated the process, making sure that the steel bars line up.

After that, i glassed on some heavy duty hinges so that the moulds meet perfectly every time and so that i can open and close it by myself. 

 

Now, i am at the stage where i have my mould, i have taken the board out (i now see where the term “popout” comes from, it really pops out with a bang, all in one go) My next stage is to glass on the attachments that the leash and fin plugs sit on.

Then to use the mould, after more release wax i will first put my finplug and leashplugs onto the attachments, then glass each side of the mould using a coloured gelcoat first (i was thinking either shit blue, shit red, or possibly even shit yellow) and then a layre of chopped strand mat. 

After that will be the fun part, mixing the two-part foam, pouring it in, shutting the mould and clamping her shut, hopefully in the nick of time. 

I am expecting there to be a bit of “rail work” where the 2 moulds meet on the end board, but this is a relatively simple process to re-produce a board for about the same price of a blank. 

This is the mould

So, am i going straight to hell??

(edited by moderator to change thumbnail photo to full size)

2

Hey dude, I left my microscope at the lab. Could you pop up the size of the photo before you go? 

3

Sorry, there we go, (well it says the moderator did it). This is the mould BEFORE i glassed on the baton and the fin/leash plug attachments. I’ll put up some more recent pics soon.

4

okie dokie, just took some more pics, 

these are the attachments that the fin plugs sit on before the mould is glassed, no prizes for guessing how i made them (the two in the distance have plugs on, the two closest do not)

[img_assist|nid=1070086|title=fin plug attachment|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=383|height=640]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the mould when it is open, notice the hinges

[img_assist|nid=1070087|title=mould open|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=383|height=640]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and this is what it looks like when it’s shut (just watch out for the splinters)

[img_assist|nid=1070088|title=mould shut|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=383]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The whole thing is friggin heavy, but because of the hinges i can close it by myself. It just needs a final wet&dry and me to go and buy the clamps (i need 8) then i’m pritty sure she’ll be good to go. I might try to video the whole foam blowing process for comedy value.

Do wish me luck with it all, any experts that wish to speak up, i am all ears

5

i would say if you are going to try and start filling that thing up with foam your going to need to beef it up alot.I have had that stuff lift 100kg with out a problem and that was only a small amout compared to a hole board! when you made the mold you realy wanted to make a former that runs the entire perimiter of the board along the joint line and sticks out 3-4 inches then fix some have round dowling to it in a few places around the board. when you then mold over it and pop the spliter off it will give you locaters for the top half. i would have advised a minimum of 6 layers of 200g choped matt aswell as inisaly using a tooling gelcoat. this will get you by if you only want to do 4 or 5 pices but if you are using polyester resin and there is going to be a lot of heat being produced you should think about doubleing up. Some where on here i think there is a tread i did of a 12’6 hollow carbon sup i built with some pictures of the mold building process. ps making the joint line waterproof is alwasy the hardest part!

 

ps just found a picture

448×600 40.2 KB

6

I’m really curious how this method is going to work out, thank’s for sharing. i guess the pouring of the foam will be problematic because you can’t determine the exact amout of pour foam before. so if you use too little, there will be air bubbles, if you have too much, it will pour out of the mold. anyways, go ahead and keep posting!

7

firstly, thanks for your advice. I agree, doubling up would be a good option, but the baton gives it a hell of a lot of tensile strength, and it is 4 layres of 6oz CSM, which feels solid enough. I am going to try it out as it is and then go from there. As for the dowlings, they aren’t really needed because the hinges line the two moulds togethor perfectly every time, which really is the only purpous of dowlings. 

As for the join line, after speaking to someone else about it, before you pour the foam, a strip of glass running around the inside of the join prevents the foam forcing it’s way in-between the moulds, resulting in a better (or easier hidden) seamline.

I saw that thread, and enjoyed reading it very much. The steps that i have taken are very similar. Although, i do wish i did 2 or 3 layres of gelcoat instead of 1.  

8

About foam quantity - I was thrilled to see that in my local fibreglass store’s guide that they give out, there is a formula to work out how much you need. It is average-length X average height X average width (all in meters) devided by 0.0283. This gives the exact amount in KG, so half that number of part A, and the other half of part B. 

9

wow you’re off your head!! You’ve been around and taught surfing for 18 years and this is your plan??  Yes please video the process of when you mix the foam and pour it in, it’s going to be a youtube sensation!!

Most molds are solid concrete or aluminium, very heavy so need a hydrolic press to open them.  The molds are heated, when the blank comes out they go into a hot box which is humidified for about 6 hours, are you sure you have thought this through??  And you’re going to put the fcs plugs in the mold as well??  Clearly you haven’t read the archives??  If your foam is not surfboard foam it will most likely be very heavy??  

 

Did you ever consider just buying a bunch of soft boards whole sale to sell to learners?  Or get into shaping your own boards, sounds like you have the perfect opportunity to develop and hon your skills with customers who are less knowledgeable about quality and more concerned about their frugal financial matters.

 

You wont even save any money this way??  You’ll spend a whole week fluffy around trying to make a moring block weight in order to save $40, just go to your day job and buy a blank on the way home??

10

If it can’t withstand the pressure of the 2 part foam, you could line the moulds with light gauge wire netting and hook it up to a variac and press a lightweight foam panel in no problems. Aluminum foil and a heat gun would hold enough heat to mold 1# xps, 140-5 degrees if I remember correctly. Anyhoosier, good luck.

11

actually sounds possible…

 

12

I hope that you will multiply by 0.0283 instead of deviding by. Otherwise there will be foam coming out of every window of your house.

13

Hans, that is one of the funnier visuals I have had in a while. I could see all the windows bursting and this poor guy standing out front hands on head in utter disbeleif over where it all went wrong!

Priceless!

Please post a video..........please,please,please!!!

14

Dude… you’re gonna die. That thing is gonna blow apart and never work, not to mention the fact that if you’re pouring PU foam you better have a damn-good ventalation system considering one of the byproducts of the formation of PU foam is sucking just about all of the oxygen out of the air around it. I really don’t understand why you would want to do this at an incredible cost to you, when you can just buy blanks for cheap. You obviously haven’t done the research on this. I was once like you and thought that making blanks was a “backyard-able” thing… not so. Why do you think there’s only a few companies worldwide who do it, and some of the best like Clark Foam have gone under due to the overhead and difficulty and inherent danger of this process??

 

Seriously dude, not gonna happen.

 

 

Is it just me, or are there an oddly large number of threads today by new posters regarding this issue? Is this like an early April Fools joke or something?

15

And can I point out the hilarity that you included the “fin attachments” in your mold - do you even know what fin system you’re using? Did you take the measurements and somehow invert them so that the holes have the proper cant and angle? Do you understand that if you’re using FCS the holes need to be tapped all the way to the deck with an “h” pattern?? Do you even know that shaping a board from a pre-bought blank is like 87364872364983842% easier than what you’re trying? You’re defeating your own purpose of a “cheap board” by making the production process so much more expensive to you

16

The man’s having a go…

But I can confirm, having had the dubious pleasure of sneaking a look inside three different surfboard blank factories -

The molds are massive concrete slabs with multiple reinforced hinge points, and in some cases, hydraulic shutdown mechanisms.

Some guy, your mold would be sufficient for a hollow fibreglass layup, such as is found in canoes or car aerodynamic fairings, for example.

JD

17

Yes well you have to have a dig, sometimes you gota answer the questions no matter how bad the odds.  

 

18

No!  It’s not just you. 

19

Line the mold with aluminum foil and heat her up, press in a foam panel and make waffles. At least you won’t blow your head off.

20

Whooe, i am seeing a lot of closed minds in this forum. 

Firstly, i have done my research. My dad used to make two popouts a day using this exact same method. He has made hundreds of popouts in his life, and made the moulds for them aswell. He never had a problem with the mould “blowing up”. The only problem he had once was not being able to shut the mould in time on a really hot, humid day (which was hilarious). So after his advice, he is addimant that the strength of the re-enforced steel being held togethor with about 8 clamps, it’s not gonna blow. 

Secondly, i am not making a blank. I am making a popout board like the ones you see people renting out and floating around on. This is the process for making one of these boards. The foam quality if no way near as critical as it is in a blank because it’s not gonna be shaped. This is why a concrete mould is not nessecerry. The mould is held togethor with the strength of the steell, the hinges, and the clamps, which in my dad’s experiance, is enough. 

Foam quantity is L X W X H / 0.0283

Fin attachments are a simple concept. You put your fcs plugs and finplug on, gel and glass around them so that they are “poking through”. Then the foam hides the rest of it. When you pop the board out, the plugs are embedded in the board, and they slide off the attachments. 

Thirdly, it’s not even an expensive project! I’v spent about £80 on the mould Tops, and it’t gonna cost about £50 to fill it up, including the gelcoat, glass, foam, and the fin/leash plug attachments. I was just comparing the cost of making a whole board to the cost of buying a blank.

I knew this would end up a heated topic hahahaha but i’l film it next. Come on, stop having a go just because i’m being a bit adventurous here. I thought i would share this project so that people could have some positive inputs into an interesting project, but it feels like some people are just calling it before it’s done.

Well, we will see. Expect a video on here soon