After seeing some of the fins made here, I had a go at it.
NIce job… not only with the fins, but with the graphics in the post too.
Those look like they’ll work great. If they feel a little draggy at first, slide your center fin up in the box to loosen things up.
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NIce job... not only with the fins, but with the graphics in the post too.Those look like they’ll work great. If they feel a little draggy at first, slide your center fin up in the box to loosen things up.
Looks like a lot of effort.
1/8" PVC.
Material stiffness roughly 1/3 of fiberglass.
Made at roughly half the thickness of fiberglass.
I think it is a design issue, my guess is the fins will be quite floppy with less than 10th of the stiffness of comparable glass fins.
It might be stiffer than that. Gluing two substraits together can multiply the stifness by a factor of 4 depending on the glue (i.e if the glue can resist/withstand the load of the bend)
rif.
Well done Dukdiv !! Looks great,
you dodged the mainstream suppliers and
you have the satisfaction of creation.
You are a fin god~father.
SF.
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Looks like a lot of effort.
Not so much, about 6 hours total to make, including the 4 hr glue drying wait.
If they flop, I’ll try again with white 1/4" pvc.
Probably… but if they don’t break, they might be cool… especially with a stiff center fin. It’s just a set of fins. Nice to try all kinds.
It does look like a lot of effort.
Cool
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Quote:Looks like a lot of effort.
Not so much, about 6 hours total to make, including the 4 hr glue drying wait.
If they flop, I’ll try again with white 1/4" pvc.
I tried a lot of alternative fin materials when I started. But 1/4" plastics are not stiff compared to 1/4" fiberglass, and stiffness makes a big difference. I think in the design process you need to use substantially thicker materials to get reasonable stiffness.
Also, a fin layup in fiberglass takes a little less than an hour, and in 30 minutes I can completely foil a tri-fin set. There is a learning curve, however, but fiberglass fins are quick and easy to make. There is a ton of info in the archives on the process.
The plastic fins on the market are almost all glass-filled plastics, the glass is added to make them as stiff as fiberglass. If not enough glass is used, the fins are somewhat floppy, which is used by some manufacturers intentionally (the FCS Occy fins have intentional flex).
Good luck, have fun with it, my advice is intended as constructive AND critical.
Thanks blakestah, appreciate the input.