My 1st board = plenty of mistakes. Here is the latest. The ProBox install went very well - the system seems great. I was using the Green Light Surf Supply finish router jig to trim ( instead of sand) the excess box and resin dam. The router must have slipped or changed depths on me and I cut into the glass around the box down to the foam. The box is shot too because I cut so deep into it that one of the tapped screw holes is ground down to the point where it is a slot, no longer a hole. I am thinking that I am going to have to route out the old box and install a new one – but I am not sure how to deal with the section where I cut into the glass – any suggestions? Oh yeah – you will also notice I installed the boxes on the one side of the board backwards – I am not too concerned as I will just plan to use the zero degree inserts. Thanks for any help.
wow… that’s Really Messed Up. Maybe next time just sand the box down? at this point if it were me I’d just route the whole mess out of there, maybe a big rectangle, then plug the hole wish a chunk of foam, and then fiberglass over it (like a big ding repair). Then just start over on the fin box install.
Hi acd150, Install dosen't look bad my friend. Is that a EPS or Poly board. There are 2 different ways to handle this fix for your board. If EPS Keith's way is the way to go. If Poly another way to go. Please let me know and I will walk you thru the repair. Mahalo,Larry
I love those Japanese pull saws. I have one just like that and I use it for all kinds of stuff. My two favorite tools are the Japanese pull saw and the 6" surfform hand planer.
I had a similar incident while developing the finishing jig and learned how important it is to check that the router's baseplate locking collar is super tight. The cutting depth slips deeper very quickly when you put downward pressure on it.
I now lock the collar as tight as possible and wrap tape around the top edge to secure it against the router body just in case it starts to loosen.
Shoot me an email and I'll send another box for you.
Thank you to everyone who gave me some great ideas and words of encouragement -- I was so bummed after this happened but now I have hope that this can be fixed!
In addition to routing into the glass I also indicated that I installed the boxes on one side (it is a quad) backwards. Robin from ProBox suggested I redo both boxes on that side so I think I will do that. I am worried about two things in fixing both boxes. 1 - I am worried that using the above mentioned block of foam and glass patch may not be sufficiently strong since I am replacing two boxes so close to one another. 2 - I am worried how to cosmetically make the install look decent. So this is what I am planning:
-Remove ALL the ProBoxes -Fill the holes in with blocks of EPS foam that is Gorilla Glued in. -Put a patch over each square block -Put a large patch over the entire tail area that wraps over the rails. -Paint the tail patch area (to hide the EPS blocks and patches) -Hot coat -Redo all ProBoxes
Any thoughts or suggestions on my approach?
I think it is wise to address why this happened to help others avoid the same mistakes I made. The reason I routed too deep -- I checked the depth of the router right before I started to route off the resin dam, it was at the recommended one inch. 3 of the 4 boxes I did came out great. After the incident on the 4th box, I checked the depth of the router and it was over 1 inch -- so the depth changed on me while routing, by the way, I am using the Ryobi TR45K Trim Router. When I purchased the router I noticed that when the depth was set the collar could slip fairly easily changing the depth I thought it was normal (any maybe it is). Brian from GreenLight has some great suggestions (above) on how to avoid the router changing depth while routing.
Regarding the backwards install of the boxes -- I read the probox information several times as well as watched the video and I was very much aware of the "R" Rail marking on the install jigs. I was asked by Robin of ProBox to explain what happened to cause the backwards install and I again wanted to make everyone aware so this doesn't happen to someone else in the future. I paid attention to the "R" rail markings when I was laying the jigs in their approximate location as a dry fit. As shown here - note the label 1 and 2 on the jigs:
I then marked the jigs where I needed to cut off the corners so the jigs could sit close enough in my quad setup:
Next I cut the jigs and they should have been placed back on the board like this:
I took both jigs off the board to cut them and then placed them back on the board together (but I mixed them up -- keep reading). After I cut the jigs I was concentrating on aligning the jigs so that the diagonal cut outs were aligned (see arrows in picture) and I was not concentrating on the "R" rail markings. You can see below that I managed to flip the jigs backwards and the diagonal cuts were still aligned. The number 1 jig is now on the bottom and the number 2 jig is on top which is reverse from when I started.
The issue was that I thought I had already taken into account the "R" placement before I cut the jigs and I thought that if I had the diagonal cuts aligned I should be good -- clearly I was wrong. Two ways to avoid this mistake. 1. cut the diagonal one jig at a time never removing both jigs from the board's dry fit position at once. 2. Double/triple check that "R" marker after you cut the jigs cause it can get confusing because now the jigs are polarized. In my opinion this was a newbie mistake and one that I am sure I will never make again. I just had too much going on and forgot to triple check that "R" marker. Anyway -- I hope this helps and don't make the same mistake I did!
slow and steady with the pull saw…I’ve actually managed to get it to gouge out the lam/hotcoat when I failed to keep it appropriately flat trying to hog it out quickly.
You should consider putting in some PU foam blocks instead of the eps. This will have higher density than the eps and be stronger. Also you’ll probably avoid some of the melting problem of hot epoxy and eps. Good Luck!
I don’t know why people try to get so cute with solutions to grinding down the boxes.
Plain ol’ sanding with a medium or (preferably) hard power pad and 60 grit gets them down just fine for me, and I’m still a rookie. Just don’t press too hard with the sander, make sure the pad is nice and flat while it’s sanding, run it at a low-medium speed, and pull it off every 10-20 seconds so you don’t overheat the box. I gradually sand away at the box from tail to nose and vice-versa. Takes a minute or two at most per box. Once I get the box down to about 1/16" or so above the surface of the board. I switch to 100 grit and hot-coat sanding mode (softer pad) to get it perfectly flush.
Mahalo, for the explanation of what went wrong with the jigs, I can see how that could have happened after you had cut down the jigs.
If you do the repair by adding blocks of foam I would definitely consider using a higher density foam for those blocks as that will give you a much stronger install.
I finsihed up my repair and wanted to share the pics of the process. After glassing the tail area - I sanded it nice and painted it. I then hot coated it – twice – so I would be sure I wouldn’t burn though and expose the paint when sanding down the Proboxes. I then installed the Proboxes and sanded them down. Here are the pics:
Taped for painting
[img_assist|nid=1050865|title=Done Fin Repair - 1|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]
Painted
[img_assist|nid=1050866|title=Done Fin Repair - 2|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]
[img_assist|nid=1050867|title=Done Fin Repair - 3|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]
Probox install
[img_assist|nid=1050869|title=Done Fin Repair - 4|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]
Boxes sanded down
[img_assist|nid=1050870|title=Done Fin Repair - 5|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]
[img_assist|nid=1050871|title=Done Fin Repair - 6|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]
[img_assist|nid=1050872|title=Done Fin Repair - 7|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]
Nice repair! What did you use to square up the corners of the new holes? Also if you want to hang fibreglass slightly over the side of the board without it falling off you may want to try a real light misting of 3M Super77 spray adhesive. Easier than using masking tape and it doesn’t get in the way if you know what I mean.
