Here is the latest. My best work yet. I shipped it to a friend in San Diego for a test drive. If you see the board in the water, ask Serge to let you have a ride. It is 7-0 by 20.5 and 2 inches thick. Quad fins. I think I am about to get the hang of these boards. (Of course, pride goeth before the fall)
Sweet stuff, I love the look of that bamboo. I’ve done a couple with a friend, bamboo over stringerless 2lb, but it gets difficult near the rails. Definitely a better way, if more labor intensive, to make solid rails the way you have.
What weight core did you use?
Tell more about the bamboo…Source…??..
It is 1 pound EPS. Built up balsa rails. The problem is that the bamboo is so tough that it is hard to glass it light. I think you need a 4 oz glass layer for protection and to keep from sanding through, but it results in over glassing.
Anyway, thanks.
Paul, I get mine from www.certainlywood.com
I googled up several similar sources, though.
One think I like about bamboo compared to balsa skins is you don’t have to patch together a bunch of pieces. It is all one 84 by 21 skin. They roll it up and send it in a small box.
You might be interested in making fins from this stuff. Here is a pic:
as I sit before my table with 24 pieces of 3’x3" balsa about to splice up a skin I ask myself…“how fast could I get that bamboo here”.
and bamboo is stronger
Beautiful board.
Very nice.
I wondered when you were gonna post that up.
It looks like you are definitely getting the hang of these boards.
Is the 2’’ thickness an offset to the ‘‘stiffness’’ induced by the bamboo?
I got mine from www.nwbamboo.com They have full 4x8 sheets for like $45, I had them cut mine in half lengthwise for shipping.
I have thought about doing them over 1lb for skins, but my concern was that they were too thin to give the I-beam stiffness of a thicker sandwich skin material. The veneer-thickness (1/40", 1/32") materials I’ve laid up over 1lb eps I’ve been able to deflect with thumb pressure, while the thicker balsa and other materials (1/16", 1/8" balsa) simply doesn’t dent at all. I’m sure the bamboo would be better material than balsa for puncture-resistance, but I’d be worried that it would be too prone to pressure dings. The boards that I have done with a veneer (1/32" or less) over 1lb foam, I’ve used a deckpatch of balsa under the traffic areas to prevent any pressure dinging.
Did you do anything extra to compensate for the stiffness lost with the thinner laminate?
That is a great looking board Greg. Interested in hearing ride feedback on it too. Did you put fiberglass between the bamboo and the eps too?
Shwuz,
Have you ever worked with the 1/32" balsa sheet? I’ve not so I don’t know how fragile it is. How about sandwiching the thin bamboo veneer with the super thin balsa sheet material? If you had the 1/40" bamboo and the 1/32" balsa what adhesive would be best?
I got mine from www.nwbamboo.com They have full 4x8 sheets for like $45, I had them cut mine in half lengthwise for shipping.I have thought about doing them over 1lb for skins, but my concern was that they were too thin to give the I-beam stiffness of a thicker sandwich skin material. The veneer-thickness (1/40", 1/32") materials I’ve laid up over 1lb eps I’ve been able to deflect with thumb pressure, while the thicker balsa and other materials (1/16", 1/8" balsa) simply doesn’t dent at all. I’m sure the bamboo would be better material than balsa for puncture-resistance, but I’d be worried that it would be too prone to pressure dings. The boards that I have done with a veneer (1/32" or less) over 1lb foam, I’ve used a deckpatch of balsa under the traffic areas to prevent any pressure dinging.
Did you do anything extra to compensate for the stiffness lost with the thinner laminate?
nice one greg
i got a bunch of that veneer from Frank’s Cane but it’s not a single sheet like that. I think I’ll give Certainly Wood a call. Kind of like working with the 4’x8’ sheets of the woven stuff we get at lowes with our .75lb foam sheets…
Problem with these things will always be the rail build outs…
I’m conceeding to just using the veneer as a full deck patch layer over a PU shaped blank in place of the standard glass layer. I think Gary Young said the stuff is equivalent to one layer of 6oz.
The problem with compsands as Jarrod has found is maintaining flexibility once you lock the skins in place to the rails with fiberglass and epoxy. The way everyone has been compensating is going thin and wide which doesn’t really work all the time for heavy weights like me and certain waves.
I may have found a possible answer using brian’s cloth and matt’s resin.
I’ll be doing a couple test “oneula style” boards for comparison. I have a 6’2" and a 6’6" cut and ready for gluing up and bending.
Just got to figure out what to do for the rails. Can’t decide to go blue dow or corecell with a single 1/8" wood perimeter or all wood rail before putting on the deck. Either way its still alot more work than making a regular board.
Probably do a single sheet of woven bamboo for the deck skin to make it easy. If I had a single sheet of flat cut veneer I’d use that. The bottom on one is wiliwili stick and the other is a combination of wiliwili, paulownia and balsa.
Great work…
BTW
I just saw your review of your Griffin.
Welcome to the cult
Maybe I can retire from being his cheerleader here and elsewhere
as it seems there’s enough of you out here now
who’ve been infected.
Griffin is the epitomy of what surfboard building should be about. A total custom experience from start to finish including 5 handfoiled G-10 fins included in the price. You just can’t get that level of service and product from 90% of the market out there nowadays especially since the stuff is unique and not a clone of someone else’s clone. And he has so much more unique 20+ year old designs to offer including a twin design in shortie that’ll blow away the MR/Akila Aipa clones as well as a twin longboard/rocket version that’ll open allot of eyes when they start getting out like his 5fin. So carry-on fellow Griffin owners you need to move his torch along too.
Nice work!
I had a bunch of extra bamboo veneer from my first board so I made some bamboo plywood from it to make fins. Great use of the extra material and the fins are super strong. Still in the process of finishing them, I will surely post pics when they are done.
So certainlywood has it wide enough that you dont have to splice anything together??? My first board would have turned out much better if the bamboo had been wide enough.
Hi Oneula
What are the dims of your bamboo?
I will be building a big wave hp longboard with 5 mm stuff, any insights? Reducing thickness with a router is what i do usually.
Does bamboo become more flexy once soaked with resin?
How about heat?
Why ooh my, I do want to know…
Regards
Wouter
Mike, yes, I’ve ratched down the thickness from 2 3/8 to 2 to see what the flex will do. Bamboo is tough stuff.
Shwuz, I still use some 4 oz patches here and there to avoid denting. But honestly the boards don’t dent to thumb pressure. I donlt think an extra 1/32 from balsa will make that much difference. I sanswich the bamboo with 1 oz under to ensure an even bond under.
Glenn, not sure what sandwiching balsa between bamboo would do, but I’d love to know. Bullet proof I’d guess.
Oneula, thanks. Gary IS the man. Can you send me the sku numer of the woven bamboo? And keep us posted on your experiment.
The built up balsa rails are still the thing that holds us back. We need some light brown 10 pound PU foam strips to make rails.
all the best to you all
Hi Greg,
I’ve been considering Bamboo as a ready alternative for Balsa, and you take me one step closer to biting the bullet:- Thats a beautifull looking boards.
Allan Gibbons does some gorgeous ones too. Maybe the bamboo veneer would be too thin at 0.6mm for a solid sandwich deck in ilb foam, but I’ll figure it out.
Josh
hey josh the last time we talked about bamboo it seemed to dear
the yanks seem to be geting it at a fair price
letsknow how you go meanwhile ill keep looking
huie
Glenn, not sure what sandwiching balsa between bamboo would do, but I'd love to know. Bullet proof I'd guess.
No I was just assuming from Shwuz’s post that just the bamboo veneer is not enough stiffness. Since I don’t have any experience with bamboo veneer surfboards. I do know that sandwich composite stiffness is in relation to it core thickness and I felt that was what Shwuz was getting at in his post about his experience with the bamboo veneered boards being prone to pressure dents.
But it sounds like your feeling that the bamboo veneer with 1oz under and 4oz over is enough when using 1# eps blanks.
I was thinking that if the bamboo veneer was not enough thickness for a skin that 1/32" balsa could be laminated to it. But think you’d probably want to use the least amount of most flexible epoxy you could find to do the job. With fast cure rate and a thickener in it so it did not penetrate the woods much.
Hey Greg,
Beautiful work once again.
I’m glad to see more builders like yourself dialing in the bamboo veneers.
I’ll post some of my bamboo boards on another thread as not to interfere with your masterpiece here 
Take it easy,
~Brian