Has anyone ever used the pink colored Dow XPS foam for a board? I just came upon a few big hunks of it and thought I might give it a try. I’ve heard of people using the blue xps and the white eps before - what about the pink - anything I should know before attempting to shape this? … and yes, it’ll either be painted, or have an opaque lam. I’m not personally interested in a pink board… Eric J
The pink XPS I’ve seen is made by a company called Formula R. I was not aware that Dow made a pink foam. Are you sure this product is Dow?
hello Eric, I’m looking for some extruded styro, could you tell me where you located those XPS blocks?
I thought the pink stuff was owenscorning. www.aeromfg.com.au/ describes a white surfboard grade made by that company. you can maybe check the density of the pink stuff against the surfboard grade.
Greg - I may be mistaken about it being Dow. I’m pretty sure that was what was on them - but I’m at work now and unable to check. Suffice it to say that it’s common xps insulation foam just like you find @ Home Depot. Any pointers on that? And some epoxy questions (if you can spare a few more minutes) - If I laminate w/epoxy, can I use pigments to create an Opaque lam… or is is better to do a foam stain? And how much epoxy would a 7’6" shortboard need (remember - I’ve only done a few poly boards and this will be the first epoxy lam - so how much do you think ‘I’ should get/use?) Thanks, Eric ------------------------------------------ - Mr. J - these are just what you’d find at Home Depot as rigid wall insulation. I came accross two full size pieces 8’ x 24". one 2" thick, the other 1" thick. I figured to glue them up together with the ends bent to form rocker (hopefully gluing the rocker in to the blank in the process) and shape. Thanks, Eric
I have used pink Dow foam but it was a 2 lb. density polyurethane foam. Built a 14’-6" paddle board out of it in '95. I used to get it from a distributor on Long Island - Strux Industries - that cut it up for the automotive industry for insulation/soundproofing. It definately was polyurethane foam. Pete
Though I’m not sure if this is a Dow foam - on one side of each piece it has ‘extruded polystyrene’ stamped on it. For what it’s worth - I’ll double-check the brand tonight and post it tomorrow.
thanks Eric, i’m in silicon valley california and the home depots near me only have the white beaded eps. For what its worth these are the problems I had with beaded eps - it was the early 80’s and I didn’t know the right amount of glass to put on - there have been some good info on that here. board one: 5’ 10" twin fin, hot wired eps - surprisingly it shaped with a cheap black and decker planer quite well. single 6oz cloth with tail patch and a french epoxy. delaminated in area where hands are placed for popping to feet. board two: 5’ 10" twin fin with single 4 oz cloth this time. obscenely thick, ridiculously light and didn’t snap. I was never a good glasser and the thin layup was full of pin holes and dinged easily. Would suck in a couple of pounds of seawater easily. dings in the tail allowed it to drain overnight!
I know that someone here built some boogie boards from pink XPS, but I don’t know anything else about it. Here it’s produced locally by Jackon. regards, Håvard
Thanks Havard - and I saw Norway in the Surf Europe - I’ll consider buying a 6ml if I ever decide to visit the land of my ancestors. --------------------------- Greg, The Pink xps is the Owens-corning stuff. How might this compare with the EDRO foam? I’m just building a board for myself. Stringerless, 7’6" rounded-pin, Probably single fin. will lam with epoxy. I want to color the board to cover the bright pink. Opaque colors OK with epoxy - or better to paint the foam (epoxy foam Stain?). How much epoxy will I need for a 7’6" x 21" x 2-3/4". probably 4x3 on top and 4x2 on the bottom. Any tips or help would be appreciated. Thanks, Eric J
That is an extruded foam. Fine for building one for yourself. I think that stuff is fairly light, about 1.5 lb density. I’d glass it with at least one 6 oz bottom and 2 - 6 oz deck. Opaques are fine with a good UV stable epoxy.
Thanks Greg. RR may be getting a call from me soon…
greg- can you put the rocker in when you laminate the 2" and 1" sheets together, or is it better to cut it out of a block? thanks
I’m not Greg but I’m going to try putting the rocker in when gluing up the sheets. If I had a hot wire set-up it might be alot easier. This will also be a stringerless board so I won’t have the opportunity to glue in the rocker to the stringer. I’ll post back on how the glue-up works. I fugure when all is said and done I might have a light board, for my own use, cheap… and/or will have learned a few more valuable lessons in the process. Eric J
Hello Eric, to find a cheap way of testing new shapes with local materials sounds an excellent idea even if you are using non optimal materials. I believe there will be “springback” with this method. ie when released from the rocker table the laminated blank will straighten out a bit. if your sheets are 24" wide then maybe cut and laminate a 2" strip as test first, or are you going to vacuum bag to the rocker table? clark say they used trial and error to compensate for springback with their rocker adjustments. just a thought - i’ve never done this.
Aeromfg.com.au supply Dow XPS Styrofoam (Blue IB and LB grade, as well as White Surf grade).It is manufactured in the USA and imported to Australia.I’ve dealt directly with these guys and have used those spec foams with good results.It is a very fine cell foam but it requires a lot of work to get a smooth finish compared to urethane foam.
Hi Eric, a hotwire cutter is very simple to make, there is a simple drawing in the resources. Tom Sterne tells me that the nicrome wire is used as the last piece of wire before the bait by fishermen(dammit, I forgot what it’s called)so you can get it cheap in realtivly large quantities. For a powersource use a car battery, charger, model train powersupply, etc. Good luck, whatever you choose. regards, Håvard
Nichrome wire 25 gauge preferably. Nicrome comes in 60 and 80. I use 80. Seems to last longer. Make sure you have a fan blowing down the length of your foam so the exposed wire doesn’t overheat. An excellent variak is available for about $100 from Wicks aircraft. www.wicks.com. They have an online catalogue.
Thanks again Greg, Havard, Mr.J. etc… If I ever decide to hot-wire I’ll look into that set up. With this board I’m going to try to glue some rocker into the board/sheets of foam - even an inch or two each end will probably work out since there is still 3" of foam at each end to work with. lots of passes with the planer to be sure… I’m going to glue it with a bit more rocker than I’m hoping for for the final board - to attempt to compensate for the spring back of the thick 2" sheet. Though I’d like a 7’+ racy single fin out of this… if the rocker cannot be worked for that (5+“n and 2.5” t) I’ll go with a fishy thing with 3"n and 1"+t rocker. The experiment starts this weekend - first step is glue. Eric J