Reshaping snapped board

General Discussion
1

Well, after 9 years of faithful service my first home made board, this stringerless XPS stubbie has finally met its match. Snapped clean in half in a decent sized Bells bowl just last night.

The last year or so I’d been toying with the idea of stripping back some of it to reshape and reset /remove some of the fin boxes/plugs, or cutting it in half to make a split travel board. Looks like I have the oppurtunity to do something like that now.

My initial plan is to:

  1. Strip all the glass off - seems to pull off with out too much effort given the bonding issues that XPS has

  2. Cut it down the centreline and cut out the fin boxes/plugs and all the damaged foam area at the break

  3. Add a decent thickness Paulownia stringer to help line everything up when glueing it all back together

  4. Glue foam back into all the missing areas

  5. Reshape and reglass

Can anyone offer me any hints about stripping the glass off in the rail areas as I suspect it could be a little “stickier” there.

Also the cutting down the centreline, which is a glue line, maybe hard to do accurately with my limited equipment. So any tips or tricks that anyone has for this would be greatly appreciated.

Any other suggestions as to what I should watch out for or flaws that you can see in what I have planned?

Cheers.

 

 

 

2

I have no real input other than to say pic looks great, and nine years is pretty doggone good!

3

Take a grinder,

grind all the way around the board on the outer edge of the rail to the foam. (Apex)

Glass will come off in two sheets. Especially XPS foam as it is only a surface bond with the fiberglass.

4

Thanks Barry (and thanks for the compliment Huck).

I’ll get the grinder out. Am I cutting in shallowly with the edge of the wheel or sanding through the periphery with the face of the wheel though?

5

I would use the face of the wheel with the board on rail.

One at a time.

Does not take much to cut through a couple layers of glass.

Happy grinding!

6

Thanks Barry. I really appreciate the advice. Process should be a good steady hand test.

Cheers

Rohan