Noodle, I have an EPS question

Do seal inside of the fin box holes with spackle? Thanks Noodle, P.V.

No, just mix you epoxy resin with milled fiber glass, micro ballons, or whatever your strenghtening agent is to thicken the mix up and baby sit the fin box/fin plug installation. As you know the epoxy resin takes longer to kick and the eps blank is more pourous (compared to poly) and will draw in more resin. Depending on the temperature you are working in and the thickness of you epoxy mix, you may or may not have to add more resin to the fin box/fin plug hole as it kicks.

No, just mix you epoxy resin with milled fiber glass, micro ballons, or > whatever your strenghtening agent is to thicken the mix up and baby sit > the fin box/fin plug installation. As you know the epoxy resin takes > longer to kick and the eps blank is more pourous (compared to poly) and > will draw in more resin. Depending on the temperature you are working in > and the thickness of you epoxy mix, you may or may not have to add more > resin to the fin box/fin plug hole as it kicks. All good advice. I would only add… Use slower kick epoxy in the box hole. Otherwise setup heat will melt your styrofoam blank. I mix my box-filling epoxy with diatomaceous earth (DE) from a pool supply or garden store. I add DE to the right consistency. Too thick and you cant sink the box. Too thin and the mixture runs. Good luck.

I am very pleased with it, but I still have a ways to go up on the learning curve. If anything I made my rails too thick. The blank was 2.5" thick @6’6" long and I was worried it was not going to float me very well (I’m 200 lbs.) so I cut shallow rail bands and made the rails boxy. I have a 6’10’" poly egg like this and it works great for me. With the thick boxy rails on the eps board it makes it difficult to get the rail to set in the face of the wave (because it floats so well). It wants to set on top (so the bottom of the board is flush with the wave face). In mushy waves it works really well, but when the waves start to stand up, it gets a little funky. Currently I’m doing an old school fish (kneeboard/lis type) out of eps. Magic Man and Herb have given me some great information and I can’t wait to see how those concepts are going to work with eps (I just picked up a 6’8" by 2 3/4" thick eps blank from greg loehr’s place). I am going to cut all of the rocker out of it (it is pretty flat to begin with) and with that thickness, and the floatation of eps, I know I can get the rocker/foil/floatation I’m looking for. Good luck with your fin box.