What whould happen if i shaped my board a little thick on purpose and used some sort of a roller on the deck to compress the foam to help prevent pressure dings. Just poped into my mind and I wanted to see what you guys thaught. Seams like if you made the foam on the deck even more dense than it naturally is you could make it even more dent resistant.
not sure if it would work but how would you get the deck even and stringer flush?
Different width rollers to even the deck, maybe a slightly flexible yet still stiff rubber roller, still have to use the little plane on the stringer but a roller with an indented section to bridge the stringer could get the foam down around it, then plane on the stringer…?
thats what i was thinking rolling evenly on both sides of the stringer and then just block planing it flush. Figured i would just throw the idea out there and see where it went. My idea is to kindof make one big presure ding that is smooth even and aesthetically pleasing.
I’m definitely interested in how that comes out, I’m heavy and tend to create quite a few pressure dings. This would decrease the thickness of the board as well, possibly giving a slight advantage in rail profile as well…
I’m not sure this would achieve the desired effect. The foam on the surface would be denser, but only because you broke down the cell structure. I don’t think that the collapsed layer would offer as much resistance to pressure as the cellular part. And think of this: the part that you are breaking down is the strongest part. The foam deeper in is softer so you might acutally be making the deck more suseptible to pressure dents. How about a side by side comparison on some scrape foam?
Just a thought…
Gene
I can give that a whirl in a couple of days, Gene, kinda busy through the Easter weekend.
P
I agree with Gene. Another thing is that this foam has a certain amount of memory. On the test, once you’ve compressed it, warm it up with a hair dryer or something and watch it reform a little, but part is damaged. Although a bit unsightly, many people with compressed decks like the way they go. Like someone else said, like a worn in pair of shoes.
Right, the foam itself, while denser than it was, probably would be more susceptible to further crushing.
Now, along the same lines ( and I’ll bet Bert has a few good ideas on the subject) - what about making the tail through midpoint a little thinner and then sticking on a piece of denser ( 1/4", 3/8", 1/2" ) polyurethane sheet foam and fairing that in at the edges. That’d not only give you a denser, less-prone-to crush deck but the whole thing might be better with point loads like heels, etc. Could also be done as an inlay with the appropriate router bits. A good grade of woodworker’s glue as an adhesive?
At least, that’s one idea
doc…
I’m with Gene and the Doc.
If you crush the hardest foam, you end up with little support from the softer foam underneath, similar to a styro board.
For delam repairs, I’ve always routed 3’16th off and added a 1/8th Divinicell or Airex 7 lbs. density closed cell layer. Totally eliminated the dents, but makes the deck feel “harder” to you knees and heels. Wood glue or Elmers seems fine for the job, then normal deck glassing.
Hey, Lee,
Being dumber than most lawn furniture, I hadn’t thought of Airex/Divinycell for delam repairs. Thanks. I see a lot of longer Stewarts and ‘Hobies’ with that particular problem, and that’s likely to be the only real long term cure.
Now, just what sort of setup do you use to rout the decks out to a more or less even depth, given deck curve, delams, dents and what have you? Sounds like a tricky little problem, but the best way to cure a delam.
Best
doc…
Hi
I just set my cheapo router to 3/16th depth, and it follows the domed deck precisely, making a super clean digout. Then sand and fit the Airex/divinicell. I had some Corning Airex that you couldn’t even squeeze between you fingers, at 6.5 lbs. density.
why not just go up in density on the clark foam blank? super green in stead of blue
As for the roller idea, while I agree that crushing the cells will weaken the process not
strengthen, (as long as the pressure was spread over a wide enough area) wouldn’t the
crushing occur in the lower density layers, not the out skin? I guess it all come down to
how much pressure and how large an area it is spread over. note is takes a LOT to apply
any reasonable amount of pressure to a large area. Think PSI,even parking you car on your
surfboard applies pretty low PSI.
–4est
I did a deck inlay several years ago using balsacore that a boatbuilder friend gave me.As i recall it was more like 1/2inch thick.I cut out two inlays on the band saw and traced the patterns on each side of the stringer.I routed it out free hand with a 3/4 inch dado bit starting from the stringer and working out to the rails.It followed the crown fine.We glued the panels in using west epoxy with a bit of microfiller.I used sand bag weights to hold the inlays while the glue set.Cleaning up the panels was kind of tricky because we were working with balsa end grain.At that time I had a grit drum planer which did OK.The big problem was priming the end grain before glassing (polyester) it sucked up a lot of resin.It was finally glassed and seemed to be really strong.The board was stolen several weeks later so I never got to see long term results.All in all it is not that hard of a job and would probably work with the foam you guys are talking about (I have never used it).Its a good idea in my opinion.
I seems like it might weaken the foam, but you never know. I think it’s worth a try, and see what happens.
Ah, ok, I was just thinking in terms of the router base following the dips and divots all too well.
Guess I’ve been playing with laminate trimmers too long, 'cos when I looked at the base of the plunge router I use (rarely ) and I said to myself 'Idiot, what are you worried about. That’s PLENTY big enough to bridge the dips. '
Thanks, Cleanlines and Lee, much appreciated.
doc…
The foam is the real secret, going to Classic lets you drop the glass weight and still retain a lot of strength. How do you compact the deck with out the same amount of pressure on the bottom. Newton’s law, for every action there is an equal reaction, add patches under the hi-impact areas
If you have the bottom of the board supported with more surface area to dispurse the force evenly, the small area at the apex of the roller would be focussed on the deck and dispursed enough to leave the bottom unaffected while compressing the deck. I am gonna do a little experiment on a scrap piece of foam roll one side and then sand the other side down to the same thickness and then lam with 1 layer of 4oz and then see which side is stronger. Happy to see everyone elses opinion that is what makes swaylocks so cool.
If you’re gonna try to compress one side of foam, just place the blank on a piece of foam bedding, like futon foam. It disperses the load totally.
Good luck, and post back with your results.
One of Rich Harbour’s team riders likes his longboards realy light, but did not like the dents. About 8 or so years back Rich was routing out the deck area and putting in denser foam. I think he made about 3 or 4 of these before he just said this is too much trouble. What Rich was doing was just what you guys are talking about. I’m not sure how it worked since I never talked to the team rider about it much. I just saw one in a shop back then, and asked about it. If you are doing it for yourself then it would not be too much trouble, right?