Modified Eps/Epoxy Hull Project

General Discussion
1

O.K. this is the third time that I am going to try to post this. The first two just blew off into cyberspace and never made it to the Discussion page. I’m going to keep it short just in case it happens again. If there’s interest in the thread, I will add info as it progresses. Just a little gunshy from losing the last two posts.

Cliff notes version:

  1. Cut two sheets of eps 1lb. foam into 22.5" wide sheets.

  2. Glued them together with Elmers Ultimate Glue. (Great stuff!)

  3. Taped the sheets to a Yancy Spencer fish and stuck them all in a vacuum bag.

  4. Ran vac at 5" for 5 hours.

  5. Drew planshape on the blank using pre-made spin template for 6’6" Duck Egg

  6. Cut out blank using med. hand saw. (found out on earlier projects that electric turker knife leaves a wavy outline)

  7. Screwed pre-made rocker template onto the rails and hotwired the nose and tail to correct thickness.

  8. Sanded/shaped board with 36 grit stapled to a 2X4. Found that a 6’ folding banquet table helped tremendously with the heavy sanding and alternated with shaping racks for light sanding.

At this point I got overzealous and spackled the deck. DOH!!! Forgot to fine sand the blank first! Oh well, plenty of time to do that later.

Dims: 6’6" x 17" x 21.5" x 14.5" x 2 7/8"thick 4" nose rocker 1 7/8" tail rocker

Proposed Glassing schedule: 6+6+4 deck 6+6 bottom RR epoxy

Here’s the pics so far:

Need to round the nose a bit.

You can just barely see the glue line near the nose.

Suggestions/comments?

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2

How do you find the Elmers Ultimate glue shapes?

3

Stevil,

The Elmer’s shapes and hotwires smoothly. The key is to not put too much on. I spread it very thin and evenly across the blank, leaving about a 2" gap from the rails. Once it dries, the stuff is powerfully strong. I used less than 4 oz. for a 6’6" board.

Marc

4

I like your work :slight_smile:

You probably could have guessed that!

Glass or skin?

5

Thanks Ben,

I plan on using glass until I can get the design dialed in. I’ll start experimenting with different skins after I’m satisfied with the right shape.

Marc

6

question:

are you planning to put a stringer in or will it be stringerless?

I’m thinking of making a 6’8" and would like to go stringerless, possibly adding rail channels for stiffness and strenght, but I’m afraid it will all go to waste.

also: why did you bag the layers? to have the rocker be fixed in? did you basically use the fish as a rocker table?

thanks

7

Hi moai,

The board will be stringerless. It’s an experimental design and I’d like to see how it holds up without one. I will be making one with stringer in the future so that I can judge the flex on my own.

I bagged the layers just for fun. From what I understand, there really is no need to do so but, I recently finished building a vacuum system and was looking for an excuse to use for something other than test sheets of eps. Besides, it does provide even pressure around the entire blank.

Yes, I did use the the fish as a rocker table. Oneula gave me some good advice on that.

Marc