I just made a hot knife jig to cut a 4"x24"x96" EPS 3lb density block of foam to start my mini simmons 6’ x 23" s deck board w/ 13.5" straight cut off tail round nose flat to single concave. 5 fin system
I can not get the rocker to look right (to my eye) any help would be apperciated. Current rocker is a 3/4" tail blend to 18" up the board and Nose 2-3/4" blends to 2 feet back.
current outline dims tail going forward: 13.5" wide tail, 6" up 18.5" wide, - 12" up 21" wide, - 18" up 22" wide, - 24" up 23" wide
current outline dims nose going back: 3" back 8" wide, 6" back18" wide, - 9" back 21" wide, - 12" back 22", - 15" back 23" wide
Looking for the board to handle east coat calf to waist choppy mushy no power crappy waves.
Me 6 foot to 6’1" 175lbs area.
Let me know, would hate to destroy such a nice piece of foam.
I can’t offer too much help, as I haven’t shaped a mini simmons yet. But I would definitely hold off until you are sure about that rocker. Sounds a little too low in the tail to me. I’ve seen guys talk about 1" to 1 1/4" tail rocker in the past on these kinds of boards.
In the meantime, where’d you get 3 lb. EPS? (You can see my thread about 3 lb. EPS in the Industry forum).
I found a local to me EPS manufacturer www(dot)cellofoam(dot)com and emailed them. They said they could give me any size in any density. Since I have done 2lb and even the Home Depot 1lb crap I thought I would try 3lb and go stringerless. After moving the block around I can not wait to get to work on it and seehow it goes. I was able to pick my block up $47.00, so I thought what the hell and give it a shot. If 3lb does not work for me than I will move back to 2lb.
I could not find the 3lb discussion you mentioned. EDIT - Found it and read it, you know a lot about foam. What is your end conclusion on 3lb in a surfboard that is not a tow-in, gun, wake surf or skim?
I am new to shaping too , but i have made three minies and will say 6 foot is too long. My first was 5*5 and seemed too long, My last is 5-2 and feels better but i think i can still go shorter. read the bars of soap thred lots of good stuff there.
Thanks, but I really don’t know that much, which is why I posted my question to the experts. So far I’ve only made one EPS board, stringerless with 2 lb foam, which has held up fine. Please report back to let us know how your foam shapes.
One last comment: while your foam block is still rectangular, you ought to weigh it so you can calculate the exact density of your foam (it can vary a bit). That way, you can weigh the shaped blank (before sealing or glassing) and calculate the exact volume of your board.
Well I got it worked out, thanks for the messages guys. Here are the hot knife templates and it mounted on my cutting table.
Hoping to be able to cut it out tonight.
I really do not have a way of weighing the block. You can feel that it is a little heavier and has more density. When you look at the end you can see the beads are pushed tigher together. Also it makes for a good bench when working on it, the stuff does not dent, ding or rip like 2lb or 1lb.
