on stripping and reshaping boards ....

General Discussion
1

howdy

As I have had a few enquiries , I thought maybe it might be helpful to post this on the forum here ? [bear in mind what my avatar photo is saying] .

… I just hope this helps someone out […this particular reply was to a query about stripping a board with a fin box in it ]

Well, the main thing I guess is to peel the fibreglass off carefully .

As long as there are no dings around the finbox , generally the glass will peel off like a banana !

The boards I have stripped ["Hicksy’ was actually the one who kindly took the glass off on the kneeboard to quad fish conversion we already photographed and posted here]…

I have generally done three cuts into the existing board [once a friend did it for me , with a router]

one cut where the rail meets the deck ,

one cut where the rail meets the bottom of the board ,

and one cut down the MIDDLE apex of the rail .

This way , the rail pieces lift off in two lengthwise halves ,

and you are left with a deck and a bottom layer to peel off separately .

The less dings , the easier the pieces will peel off , of course .

The next [?“last”?] board I “may” be doing this to will be my [now nearly 7 year old single fin …

hopefully , when / if I do that strip and reshape , I’d try and get this photographed ?

cheers ,

ben

of course , it would be good to hear how others have done this, too …there may well be an easier way …

2

Hi Chipper,

I noticed you left the center finbox intact. Great idea I never considered.

Did you cut the glass at the box when you laminated, or sand through after ?

Thanks! -matt

3

g’day Vern !

thanks for asking !

well , the preparation for the glassing of the box , first …

once all the foam was relatively levelled , I have in the past either used just clear resin , or added q-cell, to build it up to just under the level of the box . [Glass and resin will provide the final thickness needed to make it flush , remember].

When laminating , I have taped off just the opening to the box . Once I used plasticene-type stuff [called ‘blu tack’ here ] under the tape too , to “absorb” any rogue drips that somehow got under the tape.

I tend to use a thinnish brush to paint on the lam resin [you’re using polyurethane foam , yes?] when I get close to the finboxes slot.

I think on one of them , I may even have put an extra patch of 4oz , oval-shaped , under the layer of six ounce , from memory .

Once the fin box lip is saturated [but not overflowing!] all that remains is to trim off the centre groove piece , and sand . [I sometimes use a file for fine tuning the finboxes slot.]

I hope this helps mate !

ben

4

Another trick to separate the foam from the glass is to heat it with a disk sander (fine grit) to cause a delam. I’ve used this with success on rails. A thin diamond-grit wheel in a dremel makes cutting the strips easy.