A friend of mine just dropped off a board I was going to fix for him. I originally thought that all I was going to fix was a fin cut through part of the deck. I was looking over the board and I noticed beads of water coming out of the fin boxes. I think the my friend just let the thing get suck up water. But I thought Id get another opinion(s)or see if anyone else had seen the same thing with redx.
soren- as with any fin system, they must be installed properly first!. i have a 7-o semi-gun with redx system & have had no problems at all. i stated in a post long back, about this same board and because i sanded the system early(ya know, just couldnt wait to get it in the water), and noticed the resin shrank somewhat, but have had no problems with water seepage/cracks around the boxes. if the original manufacturers failed to pay attention to this detail, that could possibly be the beginnig of all problems with the case of yer friends board- hope you get it repaired soon- and get surfin boy! -shaper out-
…I’ll bet he didn’t use the buggie bumpers that Red-X supplies with their boxes.Herb
buggie bumpers?
…Buggie bumpers?..It’s a soft plastic cover that you peel and stick to the top of the box/deckside.This device keeps the glass from caving in around the box,deckside.It’s basically a delam if the glass separates from the box. …Some other things,no patch on the deckside to reinforce the box areas,and/ or didn’t scribe the foam under the glass.Herb
Our installation instructions direct the installer to make sure they have a minimum of 12 ounces of cloth layed up immediately around the deck area the neck attaches to. As Herb said this can be achieved with patches if you’re only going with an 8 ounce deck glass. I usually have my boards glassed with a staggered 4+4+4. Also, as Herb said, the installer needs to scribe the perimeters of the holes top and bottom, such that, the foam is seperated from the glass for an 1/8" around the holes. Another requirement is that laminating resin and milled fibers are used to set the boxes. It’s also a good idea to give the boxes an acetone bath to get the body oils off of them from handling, just prior to setting them. Setting the resin too hot or pulling the allignment tools to early can also cause sepration. Finally, we do provide flexible covers to protect the areas around the necks of the boxes. Herb calls them Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers.
Soren: The Red-X boxes are very strong and lend themselves, I believe, to further design development - adjustable fins. BUT, they must be installed correctly. Follow Tom’s instructions to the letter. In addition, if this is a repair, I would suggest you cap the boxes. Fill them with flour, glass over, cut out openings and bevel. In my limited experience, if you cap them when repairing you don’t really need the bumpers. Patrick
Thanks for the help and advice. I think you’re probably right about the boxes not being installed right and he definitely doesn’t have buggie bumpers on the boxes. I haven’t ever installed redx boxes but I’ll have to keep mind your instructions, if I ever do. How would you fix the bottom boxes?Just use resin or do the same as the deck?Thanks again, Soren
Soren, The boxes are one piece. If your seeing a slight seperation between the boxes and the resin on the bottom, just flow a little resin in there. It would be best if the cavity was plugged when you do this. The right way would be with allignment tool inserted in the cavity. But, we make plugs to put in boxes that are not in use. Send me an e-mail with your address and I’ll send you a couple. Wax them and install them before you flow the resin in. They will prevent two things. First they will help keep resin out of the cavity and second they will prevent the cavities from becoming too tight. Structurally, there probably is not any problem as they are now. But, for cosmetics it would be good to seal the seperation.