Rename: What other things do you shape or glass ?

We are familiar with foam and fibreglass to make surfcraft but where else and what else do you use your specific shaping or glassing skills to use ?

 

I know of a shaper who also makes prosthetic limbs from foam + epoxy, interior car parts, golf club heads, outdoor sculptures, Patient slide boards for ambulances… 

Where else do you employ your shaping or glassing skills ?

 

 

This may not be what you’re looking for, but it IS true.     The time:   1963.     The place:  North Shore, Hawaii.     The tools used were Masking Tape, Poly Resin, and North Shore beach sand.   

Our crew had purchased a 1949 De Soto beach car.     It was painted black, with a brush, by the prior owner.    About two    days after purchase, the radiator started leaking.     Really bad!     We had to carry a 5 gal can of water, and add water about every 5 or 6 miles.     We  took the radiator out, and repaired it by pinching off the leaking tubes, and making a tape dam on the bottom side.    We then mixed up a slurry of resin and coral beach sand, and poured it into the area.       The sand was important to prevent cracking of the resin as it set up.     Shrinkage was eliminated by the presense of the light weight coral sand.     That repair lasted until we came back to the Mainland, three months later.    That car was on the road every day, as well as jungle cruising, up in the Koolau’s above the North Shore.      

Good stuff Bill!

Shaping outside of surfboards.

Sculpture is another art.

Most R&D guys shape molds 

Not exactly hand shaping, except doing a foam positive.

Hand shaping others things

What really comes to mind is the old school shop teacher’s paddles.

In my day…

You got outline it was

“bend over and grab your ankles!”

I say shop teachers because unlike the math, English and others.

Shop teachers didn’t send you to the boys VP.

Hell he had a cricket bat.

Hated the wood shop teacher and he hated me!

Hand shaped justice.

Looked like a pizza paddle with holes.

Hand shaped 50/50 rails and very slight rocker!

Whistled like a buzz bomb.

Epoxy resin and 450 gsm biaxial glass in between the layers, all shaping and cutting with hand power tools.

 Sweet as ! How many layers and do you think you could layer veneer / ply into them ?

Sk8ment, are you vac-bagging those decks ?

 

Hey, Skatement, that’s super cool! Could you post a build thread/tutorial one of these day? I’m sure it would be well appreciated over here. 

Matt,

I’m a retired shop teacher.  We never did such things.

Would love to see Greg Loehr chime in here. I believe he used to do foam mock ups for the U of FL engineering department.  He shaped a catamaran hull for me out of foam. And glassed it. 

Bulb keel shaped in eps around a stainless steel pipe, with the opening out the front to house a hydrophone. 

Built for Newcastle University to conduct research into propeller cavitation. 

go pro mount

door

Go pro mount and door hanging

I was used to design industrial parts but know i repair and make them too,hi tech composit parts for bike, car and ulm planes . Really interesting to work on other standard some good stuff to adapt to Surfboard building.

For the normal 9-5 I do repair on wood, stone ( granite, marble), stainless steel, tile and all sorts of other stuff but I do quite often use poly and epoxy resins for repairs. These were all done with epoxy and poly resins (and a few other un-named products haha) 

 






I recently fabbed the frame, battery tray, landing gear, and canopy for my first tricopter build.  I’ve also been building carbon fiber double bladed SUP paddles for my girlfriend and her crew…



 John , what sort of copter is that and what do / can you do with it ?

I’d like to see if I can use one for surf video, maybe even put pontoons on one ?

I’ve made some body armour for a pig hunter and at the moment I’m bagging lightweight golf club faces with veneer and carbon,the more flex in the face the more control.

 



Hi Brett

It’s a pretty basic tricopter. If you spend enough $$$ on a GPS flight control board they (any multicopter) can be quite stable and do things like autohover or fly home without pilot input.

Those tile repairs are impressive. We just had our kitchen redone so that sort of stuff is on my mind.

I do DH and or other sorts of longboards from time to time. All vac bagged around foam molds, which I guess are shaped somewhat like a surfboard is.

Cruiser for my first year of college.

Turned out to have way too long of a wheelbase for my liking.

Too little of a foot platform. Would tuck and my foot would be on the rear baseplate. Still good for low to mid speed. Liked this concave.

Formica and birch. Super solid and smooth ride at speed. Current dh setup, not that I skate much anymore.

One on the right is my magic board. Odd setup, but I’m so confident on it so it works. It’s wedged about 8* in the front and a bit less in the back, runs 50* randals. Super responsive and twitchy, just how I like it. Amazing at low to mid speeds. Can’t hold a turn at high speeds. Killed it on quick runs to class. 

 

I’m not sure if fairing in the hulls of Boats and Yachts from 8 foot up to 120 foot is shaping. It does involve gallons of epoxy resin, 55 Lb bags of micro baloons, thousands of sheets of sand paper and a ton of man hours.  

yep i vac bag when i make 'em now. you can use ply but the glue between the layers can let you down.

i used to do it with a male and a female mould and lots of kick ass clamps.




i got no idea whats going on with those pics.

maybe, when i pause making surfboards