I have been the lucky or unlucky recipient of a dozen blanks ranging from 6'4 -9'3 with fish and mini/hybids in between..................Blanks were supposedly environmentally friendly MDI? foam made by some company in Las Vegas..........Echofoam is stenciled on some of them...........pitch was that these blanks could be glassed with polyester but would finish with the weight and strength of epoxy...........some of the local shaper/glassers that glassed the stuff got negative results like sinkholes and collapse of the foam in areas of the blank that rendered the product as crap..........some troubleshooted it and said that sealing the shaped blank in typical manner would make it somewhat ok.........these blanks I have are years old now and show little areas of collapse in the raw blanks..........should I continue shuttling these blanks to the dump?........and does anyone know what came of this company that wanted to play foam after the fall of Clark.........thx
Those blanks suck, for when they’re exposed to heat, and under black logos, they shrink up like a dead fish washed up on the shores of the Viscaino Desert. I would say donate them to someone like eversurfer, so they can practice their planer skills on something other than 2x4’s. If you want to be a good shaper, there is only one way by mowing lots of foam.
Mixed results. Have had acouple shrink but not real bad. Have had a quite a few come out fine. If you are a backyarder glassing your own, it's a coin toss. If you're a pro use a US Blanks or a Surfblanks.
"..........should I continue shuttling these blanks to the dump?........"
No....you should be up front and honest and give away the blanks to Sway's brothers for free. Most guys could use a free blank to fine tune their skills. I bet people would come to your place to carry away your unwanted blanks and save you the trouble of going to the dump.......
Ray
MDI is not environmentally friendly. This is a misused term.
These blanks are heavy.
If you do not care about weight they will be good for you to practice your planer skills.
The ghettorat say’s stay away from dark colors. Spray them white and you can put a hint of blue to help with discolor. Tape off the stringer.
You will not yield any type of High Performance Shortboard. So don’t even waste your time.
You can make something out of them but they will not be epic by any means.
Don’t spend to much money on them because you won’t make any yourself.
For Practice OK as long as you do all the work yourself including glassing.
For a hobby OK but it depends on what your time is worth?
These guy’s spent a lot of money setting up their factories.
If they started with TDI I believe they would have made it.
Every company that played the Green Card lost their shirts.
ICE NINE, PETRO-TECH, ECHOFOAM
BLAIR (they switched to TDI)
Stingray makes a very good point: Don’t throw them away (If you care about being Green?)
Donate some of them to Stingray’s lab so the swaylockians can process them.
[quote="$1"] Those blanks suck, for when they're exposed to heat, and under black logos, they shrink up like a dead fish washed up on the shores of the Viscaino Desert. [/quote]
Sometimes they also do the opposite - expand under heat (no UV, just heat). I have one that I suspect blew apart from expanding under heat. I repaired it, not knowing what caused the problem - but it has puffed up like a boiled polish dog, well, maybe not that bad, but at any rate you can see and feel a low spot all along the stringer now.
I have three blanks anyone can have if they want to pm me, otherwise I can't see throwing good money after bad, they're going in the dumpster!
"I have three blanks anyone can have if they want to pm me, otherwise I can't see throwing good money after bad, they're going in the dumpster!"
I'm not interested in bad blanks. What I'm suggesting is that people who want to fine tune their skills need to shape these blanks....and then throw them out.........no glassing....
or shape and learn how to air brush??????
Or learn how to glass first (on a junk blank) before you wreck the perfect first time masterpiece.........
Maybe you guys could start a FREE BLANKS thread. Every week or two someone wants a mentor or some kind of free ride into the shaping world. Throw them a free junk blank to learn on....just thinking out loud.....
Ray
Huckleberry Have you tried to skin(compsand) one of these blanks?