I am embarking on the fun and horror filled journey that is building a surfboard, however I live on the gulf coast of Florida and have no form of way to cheaply aquire a PU blank..
This leaves me with the joys of blocks of eps from a local distributor. The build thread is coming soon but I was wondering if there are any structural advantages to buying a thicker blank(pennies more) and shaping the rocker into the thick blank. In my mind I feel like this would at least mitigate the issue of using #1.5 eps.
Or would I be wasting my time when I could just bend and glass?
S'Ding is giving you the Gospel on this. When you bend something and put it under tension...that is what you get, constant tension on the skin. Hot wire top and bottom. You will be cutting your own stringers anyways, use them to guide the wire.
Alrighty I wont bend, but is it cost effective to build a hotwire for under 5 boards? I also will be going stringerless as this is kind of a project to transfer my favorite shorty to an eps/epoxy setup while learning the art of shaping.
If I go with just hand tools it's just a more time consuming process correct?
Correct. The right way to make a hot wire is with a variac. But, in a pinch you can make one with a doorbell transformer or even a single porcelain light fixture with the bulb wattage controlling output of the wire. These are expedient methods that work okay but if you choose to do more in the future, you might want to look into a variac.
Have you tried Mongrel Surf there on the Gulf. He has blanks. You're gonna spend more on the stringers, block EPS and a hotwire than a couple of blanks ready to go would cost
So basically look into a variac because I intend to produce more boards in the future. And I have not heard of mongrel surf. Is he located near tampa? Couldnt find a website. (I am in Florida near Clearwater if that helps)
It's quite alright. I actually just found his website. He's got some nice looking outlines. Anyways I think I may have a deal with a local architectural foam place. Around 30 dollars for 6' by 24" by 4". If I glass with 6oz S glass I could produce a solid board despite the #1.5 density foam correct? I know #2 density is the norm.
What he said… and … more than worth it. Especially if it is your first boards. Believe me, you don’t want the headaches trying to preform stuff. It will cost you waaay more in the end, and you will hate the boards.
Nothing worse than ending up with a board your not happy with. Good rocker is key. Order the blanks don’t make them… unless your an expert or have an expert handy. Otherwise all the money you save wont mean jack if the end product isn’t right.
First few? Man, you need some experience with close tolerance blanks first. A LOT of experience. Wait until much later on before you start worrying about hotwiring your own blanks.
Search the forum. There is a ton of specific info about particular questions. You can spend a month just reading and researching every step of the process. Buy shaping and glassing videos. They are very much worth the investment. Youtube? Fun to watch, but you get what you pay for. Of course there are a few nugs in there, but you need experience to know which ones.
Start by searching the forum, then search the forum some more.
Go ahead and make a board with all your resources, it will be a great learning experience. But do yourself a favor and don't stop there. Work towards getting a blank or two and go from there. All of it will benefit you in the end. You need to learn top and bottom rocker and foil any way. Do it yourself vs. a blank will give both sides of the coin.