After gathering information/inspiration from the 35$ surfboard site I found myself wondering around Home Depot. Took a chunk of pink polystyrene foam off a broken panel and brought it home. For the hell of it I glassed a piece of foam directly with polyester resin ready to enjoy the chemical breakdown but it did NOT melt. What’s the deal? I thought they were incompatable? Tonight I will be at Baltimore’s annual Artscape. As my friends comment on the validity of crushed velour paintings I will distractedly spout off the effects of polyester resin on extruded polystrene foam. They will shake their heads knowing that a body of water some 150 miles away is a constant preoccupation. I’ll explain that I have my best binary advisors giving valuable input as we speak and that tomorrow a shape may be in production. They will look at me blankly, pat me on the back and have pity.
My guess is that you glassed the surface which has a release coating on it. Try shaping it and then glass it with poly. My bet is it melts. It did for me.
You are supposed to paint it with three layers before you glass it to protect the foam. But, I’ll eat my hat if someone can actually show me a picture of one of those boards along with a receipt of all the materials required, including the sand paper, etc. Are they considering carbon filters for the respirator? Ok, forget that. What about gloves? Sticks to stir the resin? My whold point is that you can’t make a board for thirty-five bucks. I don’t believe it for a minute and it insults my intelligence that someone expects me to believe it without seeing a picure and a materials list, including itemized costs.
I am an idiot. Greg L. was right, the only reason the foam didn’t melt was the protective covering and even that, overnight, began to bubble. Last night a friend lent me epoxy paint, which seems to protect the foam eliminating the need to use UV catalyst. That step may cut some costs on the blank but like you said every other step is the same and you end up on the same road when it comes to glassing. I guess I am kind of interested because the shaping of the blank is from a block and not a blank that is close to the shape so it is a cheap way to hone my eye. I am going to give it a shot and I will keep the receipts and see how it totals up in the end.
Where can I get white blocks of extruded styrofoam?
Dudes, Use epoxy resin. It’s no big deal. And the resin is stronger, lighter, clearer, less vapor, etc., etc. etc. Extruded foam has disadvantages. For white blocks of foam, use EPS (expanded polystyrene) which is widely available.
Greg L. you have to understand something- I am incredibly cheap. But the whole thing is I want to try and do this as cheap as I can, just for kicks. I assume this will end in disaster. We’ll see. By the way I found epoxy at 67$ per gallon (system 3- 105) plus another 12$ for the catalyst. Does that seem reasonable? Off to the mowing… Damon
is that west systems epoxy? the price is right, but the resin ain’t. it’ll yellow before it even sees sunlight. possible solution, airbrush your board yellow. if you’re looking to keep it cheap, you can buy yellow acrylic at walmart or costco for about 99cents spray and glass!!!
If you’d spray the foam with the yellow acrylic, could it work as a protective barrier and then glass it with polyester?
Come on guys. Cheap is cheap, not good. Somehow the patrons of this website have got to change the attitude from “Cheap is good” to “Quality is good”. Why spend your valuable time making a piece of s*#t? I sell resins under the name of Resin Research Epoxies. We sell EXACTLY what you need. It has been developed over 20 years to make surfboards with. But I’ll warn you ahead of time, it’s not cheap. Instead it’s the best surfboard laminating system you can buy. You use less than half as much as the same laminate with polyester and there aren’t the toxic fumes that are involved with poly. It also has better clarity, color and most of all strength. It can be used on ANY foam (including Clark). Clean up is with soap and water. You can e-mail me at if your interested.
Where is the URL of this 35$ surfboard site? I can’t find it…
http://www.b2g3.com/boards/board.cgi?action=read&id=1057360490&user=oregonsurf This should take you there
thx damon