Hi there Ben,
this is Dean here. Are you doing EPS & RR via less than container load? RR is $275 NZD to buy a 3 gallon pack in the US and over here it’s $430 ($150 NZD for USPS in the way of freight from FoamEZ for this order by the way).
Hi Dean,
We were trading on a horrible NZD last year. Unfortunately this had a slight knock on effect to you guys. RR is only $275 when you’re trading at .74 and have none of the following freight costs.
You were hugely underestimating your freight costs. It costs more than $30 to send a blank to Christchurch.
I’m not sure how much importing you’ve done so i’ll break it down for you:
To send a 20 ft Container into Auckland costs more than $4,000. That price EXCLUDES Duty (anywhere between $2,000 and $5,000), wharf charges (normally $350), freight to shipping company in US (roughly $500), freight to our door ($200) etc. When ordering ‘X’ amount of blanks and resin these are HUGE additional costs.
We expect things like freight and wharf charges to be considerably cheaper now we’re in Tauranga - so rest assured we’ll pass these saving on.
Know also that we’re offering a stock service to you. We’re stocking almost every blank available so that you can order 1 at a time as your orders come in. Don’t get me wrong - we appreciate your business. We’re here to offer a service to people like you Dean. But please appreciate the costs involved in us remaining fully stocked. If you’d like to order 10 or 20 blanks at a time we’ll happily sit down and try and work something out for you.
As mentioned in my earlier posts we expect prices to come down slightly with our new shipment. I’ll be sure to let you know the savings ASAP.
Ben
Thanks for the break down costs. Have you spoken to RR about Nuplex composites in NZ? Greg Loehr said that he was very good with licensing, and Nuplex is a large Australasian resin manufacturer. Just need Nuplex to agree to a minimum order of a drum for public sales, everything else through a distributor (Seabase). Sounds nice in theory I think…
Honestly Dean there are few manufacturers who can afford to buy a drum of RR. Infact you’d need three drums, 2 of resin - 1 hardener. We will hopefully have your 1 + 1/2 gallon packs in shortly.
Cool, thank you for doing that.
hey ben
i may just try a marko in the near future
to compare to a homemade one
im saving for an indo trip though
so unless i get a specific order i dunno yet
if your interested
im finding that red devil is a really good sealing spackle
its readily available from mitre ten
bright white and waters down easily.
your welcome to share that one with the industry guys if you like
i guess most are using micro balloons
i think the spackle looks better
i saw a trial epoxy board from new wave in there shop in Napier
it looked good but seemed pretty heavy (maybe im spoiled with composites)
im assuming they didnt seal the blank
i think they have a ways to go to catch up to us backyarders 
have you though about manufacturing blanks here in NZ
i have some good info if your interested
We have a few customers experimenting with spackle at the moment - i’ll pass on those suggestions - thanks.
New Wave are learning quickly! They’ve done a lot of Research and had some great feedback from their Team. Maz is riding a Marko board at the moment i understand - he’s benefiting from having a board that he can keep in his quiver for 12 months as opposed to 2!
Some companies are pushing the weight benefits of Marko - others are pushing the strength benefits - maybe New Wave are working more toward strength?
We’ve trialed and sampled all kinds of foam with Seabase in the UK - we believe that Marko is currently the best on the market bar none - Seabase endevour to sell only the BEST products available and for now we’re more than happy with the results from Marko.
I sincerely believe that if you sample a board you’ll agree entirely!
Thanks for the suggestions Paul.
sweet
saves some money for sponsers eh!
in some ways a better quality board means less sales in a small market
good to see some of the bigger manufacturers committing to reduce VOCS in manufacturing
better for the environment and better for the consumer
make sure they know about risks of sensitization when using solvents like acetone with epoxies
old habbits are hard to break.
i would be interested in a marko stringerless blanks when you get them
as you know, i do sandwich construction and vac bagging
the stringer just gets in the way!
ive just gotta find a team guy that wants one even lighter, that can last indefinitely
re. spackle
its the super lightweight one
you can tell cuz the container is really light
its called “one time filler”
Quote:
as you know, i do sandwich construction and vac bagging
I would be interested to know how much it costs you to make a board so i can compare it to what a pu/pe costs me silly.Just interested to see if there is much(if any) difference.
cheers
James
Marko are a great company to deal with - they’ll happily change rockers / offer stringerless / change density etc. I’ll be sure to let you know next time we order from them.
Agree entirely with the enviromental side of epoxy - it’s a huge selling point for us.
Thanks Paul,
Ben
hi hunty
fin systems cost a bit but everything else can run out pretty cheap if you source your materials well
here is a rundown but cost are variable depending on amount you purchase
where you purchase and how you use the materials
this is on the last board i built and it was a benchmark shortboard wrt. cost
some have cost in excess of 300$
here is a rundown
balsa $35 (can be up to 130 dollars for skins if you use corecell or pay retail for sanded balsa)
foam $15
tape $ 7
glue $ 3 to 5
cloth $32
resin $30
sandP $ 7
finsand plugs $65
seal coat $10 to 15
204$ ish
now ill ad 30 on to that to be safe
lets call it 235$NZ cost
173$US
importing and milling your own balsa
and manufacturing your own fcs compatible fin system
would be a big saving
labour of course is another story
i make the blanks myself
and the boards are taking me around 10 hours to complete at the moment
and ive got bugger all space and power tools.
hell, i still dont have shaping stands or proper light
also i pumped about 8 grand into figuring it out
ive worked out ways to reduce this to 5 or 6 or less in a production environment
however this would require a fair financial commitment of around 25,000 to 30,000$ and a dedicated workshop
1 guy should be able to produce 3 to 4 boards a weeks in theory
but them you gotta market and sell them
and that would take the fun out of it!
best to keep it to a couple of boards a month for pocket money i think
Quote:
hell, i still dont have shaping stands or proper lightalso i pumped about 8 grand into figuring it out
holy crap ,8 grand is a lot of money.Was that with using sways
as a reference or was that basicially in the pioneering stages when no one knew what they were doing?
yeah it seems a lot
but i didnt have any shaping experience
and also the very first board turned out pretty good in construct
but pretty average in shape
i mean you dont need to spend that to get a good board in composites
but it took that to experiment with different techniques and materials to find a method that suited me
and also to get the right flex patterns
also took at least twenty boards till i was happy with my shapes
the basic set up for vac bagging shouldnt cost more than a grand for a really top setup
and maybe a few hundred dollars for something mickymouse
the micky mouse method will produce just as good a board but will take a lot longer
pm me if you want some advice
there a few cheap pumps on trade me lately
Wait to you try spending over $50,000 on experimenting. Then the fun really begins.
Hi hunty
I spent about $600 setting up a vac press and related gear - ended up importing much of it from overseas, then about $300 materials in first board, so wasn’t too bad a layout to get started
Silly that looks like good value on the balsa - i reckon it cost me about $100 thru airsail - what’s your secret?
Karl
really dean
is that on board building you done that??
if i had 50 k id go on a long surfing holiday
hey karl
im surpized you had to import stuff
i found everything i needed at adhesive technologies for bag film,mastic etc resin,cloth 5 min epoxy
foam from anywhere
pump from trademe
vac controller and guage was from an irrigation shop
i dont use connectors or disposables like peel ply or breathers
hotwire was homemade
re. the balsa
sabs put me onto this
airsale sell blocks of 4 by 2 balsa quite cheap that can be cut on a bandsaw and sand yourself
but yeah even with the sanded sheets its not to bad
Gidday fullas
Got onto this one late, I havn’t had internet for the last month, so havn’t been on sways for ages.
Yeah, I havn’t spent 8 grand, but it’s probably around 5!
The only way I could justify it was that I use a lot of the tools for carpentry jobs I do on the side, so they paid for themselves that way.
If you have a thickness planer i’d reccomend cutting your own wood, but otherwise go for the more expensive pre-sanded stuff from the hobby stores.
The main problems I had with my first few boards where due to inconsistencies in wood I cut myself - Ridges where the boards joins, resulting in sand-throughs when trying to sand them fair at the hotcoat stage, requiring double hot-coats that add heaps of weight, etc etc.
I’ve since made a jig for my little electric planer now, and I can get great results, just slow and fiddly. Still dreaming of a proper DeWalt thicknesser though… or better…
Start off low budget, and build up, then you won’t feel the cost as much. I’ve done it all on a students budget, dunno how I ended up spending that much! bloody obsessions… 
Kit
“Start off low budget, and build up, then you won’t feel the cost as much. I’ve done it all on a students budget, dunno how I ended up spending that much!”
Very sound advice I think. I also believe Dewalt may have a factory outlet in Penrose for items that have been repaired under warranty and are sold again for a cheaper price (if that interests you).
Have you tried running thin light wood through a thicknesser? Can be pretty tricky. My neighbor ran some Paulownia through his speed sander for me at his cabinet shop. Came out perfect. If you want to thickness Balsa or Paulownia a speed sander might be a better option. Check out Tool Shed they have a pretty reasonably priced import.
Yeah it is tricky!
You have to use a sheet of MDF underneath, and tape the start of the piece down with double sided tape.
I’ve been thinking of making one with a belt sander, but getting a resonably priced one would be good!
I couldn’t find the sander you were meaning on thetoolshed.co.nz, can you tell me what it’s called?
I agree, sanding would be great.
Cheers for the info!
Kit