I’m in the uk and trying to find a small piece of suitable grade eps or other foam seems impossible. I have no local shapers else I would ask if they could spare an off cut.
I’m wondering about cutting a block of balsa and fitting that then drilling a hole in that for the plug. All glued and glasses in and over.
Do you think that’s a suitable plan?
I’ve seen about gap filling using expanding foam but as this takes such a pounding I figure solid is better!
A few times I have had a larger leash plug hole than the leash plug itself leaving that undesirable wiggle room. Typically I will stuff it with two sheets of 6 o.z. fiber glass, trimming it so it fits perfectly inside the hole. I will then cut a large piece of 6 o.z. fiber glass, say 3" by 3", and glass over the leash plug. This may be redundant with glass and resin but has worked for me in the past. I primarily shape shortboards so not sure if there would be an issue using this method on a SUP. Cheers.
You could also get Glass Bubbles or Q-Cell and mix it in a batch of resin and fill the hole and then re-drill the hole if you want. This may be the better option depending on how much larger the hole is than the leash plug.
Hahaha! Can definitely be a little messy but with good sanding skills you can sand it flush.
I would recommend filling the hole with a Glass Bubbles resin mixture, or Q-Cell and resin mixture, and then re-drilling the hole in this case. let us know how it goes!
What’s the strength of q-cell like? Is there any benefit over doing the same but chopping a load of glass fibre up instead of a-cell? In my head the lengths of fibre crossing will be stronger than what just looks to be dust.
Always happy to be wrong!
Also, is there any risk of filling the old hole in terms of the heat generated by a larger lump of resin going off?
Im loving the speculation and thought behind this.
I know that Q-Cell is stronger and more dense than foam but am unsure how it stacks up to a pure glass fibre-resin mixture. I believe a glass fibre-resin mixture would be stronger and more dense than Q-Cell but may be a little bit over kill here. (Again my knowledge is primarily limited to shorter boards, I am unsure of the load transfer from your leash to the leash plug for a SUP in bigger surf). I think if you did a Q-Cell mixture to fill the hole, re-drilled it, and then glassed two layers of 6 o.z. over the leash plug you would be fine. Just make sure to tape up the leash plug if it has already been used or leave the cap on if it is a fresh one.
I haven’t experienced any heat related issues when filling a hole that large with resin. We use “resin research - bio resin clear” from Shapers Supply. Unsure how Polyester Resin would function as I have never worked with it.
More resin volume in the mix = more heat. Many have melted foam under fin boxes.
Chopped FG fiber is commonly used to improve resin strength — much stronger than Q-cell.
Epoxy resin only for EPS.
I might also suggest patching the hole and adding a new leash loop toward the very back of the board, or repair the lost leash plug but go ahead and add a leash loop further back on the tail. If the leash attachment point is at the very back, the wave typically has less to grab onto, and the leash will pull the board through the breaking wave with minimal resistance. There is a current thread on leash loops.
I like your reasoning Huck.
Rather than an off-center placement behind the nose rocker/kick location used by most bodyboarders. I placed a surface bonded leash loop at the top center of the nose tip of my prototypes BBs. This allows the loose board to orient nose first into the whitewater and plane up over the top of it, with very low resistance.
