Did any one had tryed this material??
webpage http://www.spheretex.com/
Sure does sound interesting i’m getting a sample to see what we can do with it…
Board development doesn’t have to mean working with the same products as we’ve all gotten used to…
I can’t wait to see what anyone else thinks of this stuff…
I just ordered a sample
if you order a sample make sure that you dont have to pay the shiping cost for that…If any one receive the sample tell us about the material and how it can be used in surfboards building…
I’ve got a 1 pound EPS Quad Fish in for glassing right now. I just got off the line with Hank John’s from Graphite Masters and he’s getting me Spheretex, Impact 3 and Warp 6 for this board. I’ll give reviews once it’s glassed.
I used 14 years ago, in Hawaii , I was promoting the product
for an European manufacturer.
I plan to bring some more on the US
The boards are strong ,better flex,
hard to glass need to prepreg the glass on the table need two people the first time,
if you use a vacuum system the composite cam be more fragile
and stiffer. I working on a new resin better and stronger than epoxy
I will experiment the spheretex in the vacuum to get an idea
I will have some results pretty soon
Got my sample today, about a 1m square piece. Off white sort of French vanilla color. Fabric feels somewhat thick but soft…texture like sort of foam rubber. Also lots of dust or debris comming off this fabric…not sure what it is.
I got a big ol’ box of samples today, quite alot actually…
looks like wall insulation or blanket material almost asbestos-like
I’m gonna give it to CMP I’m sure he can make good use of it
Looks like the real thick material might make a good core for fin blanks
Well, I just got my board back from the glassers. It’s a 6’2" Quad Fish 20-1/2" X 2-5/8". First thing to note with Spheretex is that it can be used two ways. One is dry with a vaccum bag process where the uper and lower sandwich skins are wetted out and vaccumed down on to the blank to squeeze some resin into the speretex. The second is a hand layup and you wet out the spheretex as well. In the interest of trying to make this experiment traditional shop friendly, we tried a hand wet layup approach. Boy, did it suckup the resin. Chris told me they used as much resin wetting out the spheretex as they would on a traditional long board. Also, with a hand layup it was difficult to get the lap to lay down. But, Chris got it to lay down and the board didn’t come out that heavy after it was complete. With fins the board came out at 8-1/2 pounds. And, the deck side very impact resistant for a 1 pound EPS blank.
My wife made me bring my digital camera home so I’m going to need to post pictures tomorrow. But, the vanilla woven deck looks pretty cool.
Quote:
Well, I just got my board back from the glassers. It’s a 6’2" Quad Fish 20-1/2" X 2-5/8". First thing to note with Spheretex is that it can be used two ways. One is dry with a vaccum bag process where the uper and lower sandwich skins are wetted out and vaccumed down on to the blank to squeeze some resin into the speretex. The second is a hand layup and you wet out the spheretex as well. In the interest of trying to make this experiment traditional shop friendly, we tried a hand wet layup approach. Boy, did it suckup the resin. Chris told me they used as much resin wetting out the spheretex as they would on a traditional long board. Also, with a hand layup it was difficult to get the lap to lay down. But, Chris got it to lay down and the board didn’t come out that heavy after it was complete. With fins the board came out at 8-1/2 pounds. And, the deck side very impact resistant for a 1 pound EPS blank.
My wife made me bring my digital camera home so I’m going to need to post pictures tomorrow. But, the vanilla woven deck looks pretty cool.
Looking forward to seeing the pics. Give us more feedback after you ride it and tell us if its dent resistant.
Thanks
I got a whole box of samples all 1 meter length.
I gave it to CMP but we’re puzzled as to how to use it.
But now I can envision having wet glass or resin on both sides and vacuuming it for saturation…
Is this core material or skin material like glass…
We can’t figure it out…
looks almost like asbestos
some of the stuff was like 1/4-1/2 inch thick almost fin material…
Is it expensive?
In another thread is sounded like Greg’s glasser was using something similar to beef up his light EPS foam boards…
The Boardworks HI site has some shots from the factory…I was wondering what the fuzz was…looks like fiberglass mat, but I figured that would suck resin & get too heavy…think this is spherecore?
Nah that looks like mat of some sort.
The spherecore is smooth on the outside and fuzzy on the inside. Not really fuzzy more like a combination of beige/offwhite fibers and qcell or something chalky which made me think of asbestos… you know where you have some time of powdery substance inbetween with a shag rug like texture…
The Fish on the right is 1 pound EPS with an Impact 3/ Spheretex/ Warp 6 Deck wet layup and an Impact6/ Warp6 bottom layed up with Resin Research it weighs in at 8.5 pounds with fins and plug and weighs in at 7.15 pounds. The thruster is a Clark P/U 4+4+4 S-glass with Resin Research Epoxy.
Tom, were you doing dent tests with the billiard balls, or is that just a coincidence?
What you don’t like my office?
Yeah, for a month old P/U and how little surf we have had, it does have some pressure dings. But, my brother tells me everyone at Kaysen’s were taking pot shots at the deck of the fish and it’s held up well to their tests. I’ll do my tests in the water thank you.
Tom since the spheretex isnt clear how did you guys hide the lap lines? Also I see a stringer on the fish did the spheretex become translucent enough to show the stringer?
The stringer is a shadow beneath the Spheretex. This board was an experiment and I’m not super picky about cometics. So, the lap on average is att he turn of the rail. But, it was difficult in a wet layup to get the sphertex to lay down on the rail. So, in some areas it’s higher on the rail and others it’s lower. It could be easily hidden by a rail band of color. But, I like it the way it is. It kind of has that grass matt look to it.
I took my 6’2" EPS Quad Fish out for its first session this morning. Waist to chest high conditions light offshore and very inconsistent. But, when the waves did come through, the board flew down the line with just a few quick pumps. The buoyancy and weight of the board seem just like a traditional P/U P/E fish. It floated me slightly higher than my 6’5" thruster. Paddleing it was not much different than my thruster. But, catching little waves it was a gem. The full low rocker nose is something to be aware of when you get into the steeper sections. But, the thing was so quick you could get out of trouble with a quick readjust. I checked the board over afterwards and there are no signs of pressure dings on the deck. Which I can’t say the same for any of my P/U P/E boards. The bottom and lower rails are probably susceptable to crushing on impact. But, the deck is pretty dam tough with the wet layup sphertex. The vent we put in worked well also. No, water got in and it just took a turn with a dime to allow it to vent after the session. Frick’n cold out there! But, very clean:)