Hey guys,
This happened last spring, here’re the results of the repair. As usual, lots of help was found here.
http://www.surfingvancouverisland.com/surf/st503boardrepair.htm
Art
Oh, the fully re-glass snapp fixing method!!!
Well, I’m sure your board is now strong enough for surfing again.
But I’m sure that, if it snaps again, it would snap at any of the 2 “90degrees-to-stringer” cuts you made on the old glass, which are now the weakest sections of your board.
Next time you have to cut old glass, try to do it in 4 lines about to 60degrees to the stringer or 2 parallel lines but not perpendicular to the stringer. The key is not to have the rail cuts at the same height.
Good work antway!
That certainly makes sense… Hopefully there won’t be a next time!
I think I could’ve sanded the hotcoat a lot more, the thing weighs a ton. It’s my lender for beginner friends, I’ve only had it out myself a couple times.
Art, the repair looks good. I’m about to do a similar repair on my favorite 10’-0" swallowtail that snapped yesterday.
I’m puzzled that you didn’t do anything with the stringer. My first little job will be to insert and glue wood strips on each side of the stringer in order to bring back some tensil strength.
Let us know how your reborn board holds up. Any success’s or failures can help us all to make these kinds of repairs better. Doug
Hey Doug,
I did read up on the whole stringer issue before I did the repair… The old school method was to jab a couple sharpened dowels into the foam for strength, but I seem to remember that being refuted on here. I think the real weakness is the glass repair line, like Neira said.
I’ve seen your idea done on a funshape.
I’m about to try my first EPS board, and I may go stringerless. It’ll be a shortboard, so I may go a little heavier on the glass. I made a 5’10" fish with 6oz and I probably left more of the hotcoat on than a pro sander would have. On a short board you can get away with going a little heavier - I love the way that fish rides. But I digress…
dang great job
Howzit Art,Neira has the right idea since the angled lay up will let the board flex without breaking because of the tapered glass. Aloha,Kokua
Art, Actually the dowels-through-the-foam method is different than what I was describing. I was referring to reinforcing the stringer only, by creating a “sandwich” on either side of the existing broken stringer using a flat piece of wood on each side. I agree with most people that dowels in the foam won’t do much to strengthen the board, but it makes sense to re-establish the integrity of the stringer so that the I-beam effect of the stringer / glass bond is good again. Doug
Right on, Doug. I knew you meant using a new section of stringer on each side of the break. I just relied on all those layers of glass around the rails for strength (once top and bottom were wrapped, I had 3 layers of 6oz and 2 of 4oz).
So would you use a circular saw to cut grooves for your stringers after you lammed the repair? I would think: one layer bottom, one layer top, cut grooves through top layer, stringer strips go in the slots w/resin, final layer on top.
Hi Art
Check out Neira’s thread about fixing snapped logs, really good with photo’s too, shows you pretty much all you need to know.