Stock Paddleboard Build

spudsrfr123 · May 20, 2010, 2:43am

Okay All,

This is for anyone interested in making a paddleboard…just to be clear this is NOT AN SUP build thread. After searching swaylock for any paddleboard building information and finding nothing I figured I owed it to the archive to contribute some pictures of my current project. I should also note that this is my first attempt at making a paddleboard, and only my third handmade board. So if any of my methods seem strange or unorthodox its because I don’t know any better and they seemed to work for me.

Okay, to begin this board is 12’3" x 19.25" x 8.8"

However those dimensions don’t really mean much since the board has so many different tapering curves. I think the most important dimension is only the rocker… 6" from the nose to about 5’ back from the nose (about where my head would be).

The materials I’ll be using are:

12’6" x 24" x 12" block of 1lb EPS foam

1.5 gallons of RR2000 (Fast Hardener)

25 yards of 4 oz S glass, 27" wide

Dap Fast’n Final Spackle

Denatured Alcohol (to thin out the spackle)

and a whole lot of tlc.

Tools used (so far):

18" Handsaw (i think that’s the size)

small sur form

square

level

chainsaw

100 grit screen

150 grit paper

plastic spackle spreader thing

So here are some pictures as I’ve been going…

That’s the block with a template I drew out by hand. For the template I laid out the paper and marked off every foot with the widths I thought would work okay and connected the lines with sweeping curves until I got a shape I liked.

After realizing that hand sawing through a foot of foam was extremely time consuming and muscle aggravating i broke out the trusty chainsaw.

Outline cut and my template dimensions marked on the foam. each line represents a one foot interval. Next I took my square and a level and went inch by inch down the rails to make sure they were perfectly square with the deck and bottom. I did this to try and make as perfect a blank as I could before cutting the rocker out.

One of the most time consuming parts of the build was cutting this rocker out. basically I turned the blank on its side and marked out ever foot from nose to tail. next i marked out the dimensions of the rocker starting at the tail. from the tail up 7 feet the rocker is flat at 8.5 inches. Then from the 7 foot mark to the nose I measured out a gently sweeping rocker that totaled somewhere around 6" at the nose. Next I marked the same dimensions on the other rail and flipped the board deck side down. next i started at the tail and would saw down straight to my drawn rocker line on the rail. having made the cut down, next i took the saw and sawed parallel to the length of the board along the rocker line. I did this in 4" increments all the way down the length of the board, removing block after block after block of foam. At the widest points of my board my saw wasn’t long enough to cut on block out so i had to cut two blocks in the same increment as i moved down the length of the board. What I learned…ORDER A BLANK CLOSER TO THE SIZE OF MY BOARD!! This took one full day to do right, and left me with a numb arm and a lot of wasted foam.

Some kind of ad?

Next I used a level and my tape measure and spent a few hours getting the bottom of the board as level as I could, ensuring that before I started shaping the board, I had as symmetrical a blank as possible. Then I marked out a water line on both rails that I figure will be the point where my deck curves meet with the bottom curves. (that is the horizontal line on the rail in the above picture) Once I was happy with a waterline, I started measuring and drawing out the outlines for the deck contours that are so strange to paddleboards (the part that makes them look like kayaks)…after nearly a week of prepping the giant block of foam i was ready to shape it!!!

beginning the deck contours

for the area where my body would fit, i began by shaving away and digging out the deck leaving equal sized rails on either side. starting at the feet i gradually took more foam away until the chest ramp at about the middle of the board where it tapers back up to the deck. once i was happy with the curvature of the chest ramp i began digging out the knee wells

knee wells dug out and a little bump thing in the chest ramp for my chest to rest more comfortably.

before shaving away the bottom of the board i put it on the ground to get a feel for the thing…starting to look like a board now. here I am digging my knees into the wells in order to form them to the shape of my knees in the hopes that it will make knee paddling all the more pleasant.

hours and hours and hours later i’m more or less done!

okay that last comment was a lie. not done at all. though these pictures were taken once the whole board was considered “done” I spent another three days or so getting it as symmetrical as i could and adjusting various curves here and there. one major adjustment was where the rails on the deck become skinny and the knee wells sink down. at that point I had left the rails level with the tail and the front of the board. however, this created a very awkward looking curve where the deck curvature suddenly narrowed out into the skinny rails. I solved the problem by tapering the rails down about an inch in total from the beginning of the knee wells back towards the tail a few feet. this smoothed out the curves and made the board have a much more natural feel and curvature. after bringing the rails down I realized the knee wells and chest ramp weren’t as deep anymore so I dug both out a whole lot more until I was satisfied. I would say that the from the bottom of the knee wells to the bottom of the board is about 3.5 inches!!! keep in mind the total theoretical thickness at that point of the board is 8.5"!!

Once the shaping was over, i roughed it up a touch with 150 grit paper and began sealing it. To seal I used Dap Fast’N Final light weight spackle mixed with a little bit of denatured alcohol. mainly I didn’t use water because i heard the minerals in it cause the spackle to yellow over time. and being lazy i didn’t want get purified water so i used denatured alcohol. this seemed to work real well as it caused the spackle to dry a little quicker and make it smoother feeling when applying it to the board. After i coated the whole board i used my 100 screen to knock down the bumps. then I roughed it up a touch with some 150 grit paper and thats where I’m at…

This picture distorts how it looks a little bit, and the left saw horse is resting in part of the rocker so the board isn’t sitting flat. however, you can see where the rails in the middle of the board curve down ever so slightly, then back a touch. you can also see where the rocker begins, about five feet back from the nose.

Done!!!

These are the tools i used, but mostly just the small sur form

those are most of the scrap blocks. all of the brick looking blocks in the shelves came from cutting out the rocker one piece at a time…those stacks are two deep at times!

my attempt at roughing out the fin using 5/8" ply until John Mellor came to the rescue by sending me a fin! Thanks John for all the advice and for making my life easier with the fin.

Tomorrow I’ll begin laminating and I’ll try to update this with pictures. For now, wish me luck because I chose a 12 foot board as my first lamination and am a little out of my element!!!

Thanks to everyone on my previous thread who gave me tips, especially John for talking me through glassing the other day, and thanks to Craig Richmond and Pat Reardon for the tutelage as well. Til the next post, catch a wave for me as i’m in new orleans with only oil slicks to surf…

tenover · May 20, 2010, 5:16am

Thanks. Following this thread closely.

johnmellor · May 20, 2010, 7:17am

Hey spudsrfr123 -

The fin is in the mail (really) - you should have it by the weekend if not sooner.

I'd just like to comment on the nice shaping job you've done on that board. The deck contours undoubtedly made for a very difficult shape job. It looks like you handled it well.

Here's to an equally successful glass job.

Huck · May 20, 2010, 7:59am

Wow, quite a project. I almost missed this one, I was thinking SUP! Gonna be a beauty! So tell us, what are your plans for the completed board? Is this like a surf-rescue board, or a touring vehicle, or just what is it? (I'm paddleboard ignorant!) (Hi John!)

wroboman · May 20, 2010, 2:25pm

you know its going to be a good thread when the second picture involves a chainsaw

LanceM · May 20, 2010, 9:53pm

Looks fricken awesome! All without a planer? How did you decide where to put the knee wells? Post up more pics after she’s glassed.

Skaliwag · May 21, 2010, 11:27am

Agree…Looks Awesome…

ambrose · May 21, 2010, 2:49pm

kudos .

you are definately a prime candidate for the oily kroipes

genius of spring award,.

…ambrose…

in the spring ,a young mans fancy…

spudsrfr123 · May 21, 2010, 11:55pm

Okay all,

Thanks for all the encouraging posts everyone. And so yall know, I’m building this board to train on for the Catalina Classic. And if this thing works relatively well, I plan on paddling home from Catalina on it!

The past two days were productive on one hand, and a learning experience on the other. Wednesday I prepped the blank by lightly sanding the spackle, then cleaning the whole thing with denatured alcohol. I laid out a layer of 4oz S cloth and trimmed it to size. Next I rolled up the piece I had just cut and used the scraps to cut out six patches for the knee wells (3 per well). Next I ran a piece of cloth over the part of the board that my body would lay on as one final deck patch before unrolling the first layer back over the blank, the knee patches, and the body patch. Then I glassed…

It took three separate batches of resin (first and second batches were 12 ounces, and the last batch was 9 ounces.), quite a bit of stress, and I was more or less done with day one of the lamination.

I ordered 1.5 gallons of RR2000 Fast Hardener. I also used Additive F with my lamination.

After laying down my first layer of glass with the deck patches, using a freelap, I noticed that I got a lot of frayed edges on the rails that I did not enjoy sanding. So this picture shows an attempt at making a cut lap for my final layer of glass and hot coat. The reason why i didn’t put down this final layer of glass with my primary lamination was my fear that I had too much fiberglass in the middle of the board to deal with saturating. This method ended up working pretty well and I was able to lay down my final layer of glass relatively hassle free. I waited about an hour, then brushed on a fill coat and was very pleased with the way it turned out…

Shiny shiny!! The board looked pretty good at this point and I was very very pleased with how well the Resin Research epoxy went onto the board. I left it for an hour and returned to trim the tape line off and was left with a nice, crisp edge. I only noticed a few little pinholes of air in random parts of the board and think I will leave them alone.

Tomorrow’s schedule will involve flipping the board, sanding the laps, and laminating two layers of glass on the bottom, waiting, then applying a fill coat.

. . . . . . . Now for the problem of the day…

I just realized that I had been using 1cc of Additive F per ounce of resin I mixed up…The directions call for 1cc of Additive F per oz of HARDENER!!! I made the same mistake for the fill coat and put 3 times the amount of additive F that was called for!!

If anyone knows how this might affect the board please let me know…god i hope I didn’t just ruin the project…

I guess we’ll see how the board looks tomorrow…

spudsrfr123 · May 22, 2010, 12:03am

Okay, just talked to Greg Loehr and he confirmed that my worrying was all for not…

My heart rate just leveled back out…

kensurf · May 22, 2010, 3:08am

you rock

awsome build!!!

johnmellor · May 22, 2010, 5:56am

Looking good... It doesn't look like it will need much sanding. The bottom should be a piece of cake compared to the deck.

NOTE: This is the spudsrfr123's first glass job ever!!

surfding · May 22, 2010, 11:48am

Spudsrfr123 your have done a fanastic job!

Nice Tread,

Surfding

The_strobe · May 23, 2010, 12:48am

Spudsrfr123,

You rock dude! The board looks great and fast! Now if you can get those arms back in shape you may beat your old man in this years Classic!

Awesome job!

spudsrfr123 · May 23, 2010, 3:23pm

Well, a free music festival this weekend got in the way of progress and all I got done was a bit of sanding. However, the laps are prepped, the board has been respackled in spots, and I’ll be ready to put down glass on the bottom tomorrow morning. After that, sand a bit more, route out the fin box, rout out the vent plug, and that should do it…it seems so simple in writing…

and as of right now, this thing is BIG, VERY WHITE, and seems to be begging a custom paint job of me…

Thanks for the comments, and sit tight this thing should be wrapped up soon!

ambrose · May 23, 2010, 10:02pm

oh to resist

the void in white

aawaaiting the ‘color-up’

perhaps the horse-dog profile

the kid yesterday with glee telling me of the

seaplane photo he plans to deck his board in.

the deck fixation point for the paddlers eye

the eagle ,the albatross,the Iwa,the uss new orleans

what is chosen will set the pace and timber of the 'board spirit.

to chose improperly,the next X,the lost dog,

the salmonella liver worst sandwich,the indicted

revolutionary…

double gloss’ hotcoat under the illustration area

to prepare for sand off change of race logos

or perhaps the mylar self stick signage alternalive

to pigment resin solution…

the galaxies of choices is boggling

to the imaginative mind enjoy the ruminating

and the boggling … the answer may

come to you in a dream, or in a flight of fancy

or dictated by a senior officer in command

the best is to have somebody pay for the

rights,negotiate a time limit into that sale plan

so it can be sold again and again and again

changing the hershey’s for the nestles for the cadburys

for the godiva…perhaps sonoco

will pay your gas money to catalina

for a rail …

after all this is the greatest board

in the history of the known universe …

bitchin’ deal…

…ambrose…

who’s the proper business agent

is a college course .

Then there is always ’ Mom ’

wouldn’t she just melt

faster than chocolate?

who whould picasso paint ondeck?

or gauguin or braque?

spudsrfr123 · May 25, 2010, 3:47am

The deck may be shiny

The rails may be glossy,

As epoxy runs low

It’s been a good show.

But pinholes persist!

Sanding I just can’t resist!

With the smallest of bubbles

Epoxy may give me troubles,

It’s strength may be weakened,

My constitution is stricken!

Oh this project of mine

Costs me woe in the mind!

But it’s nearing completion

For this paddle season.

Now wish me some luck

That I won’t f**k up!

spudsrfr123 · May 25, 2010, 3:57am

Here’s the blow by blow:

Got the bottom glassed with two layers of 4oz S cloth.

Got the fill coat on top of it.

Before I glassed the bottom, I routed out a 9/16" hole on the deck where the vent plug will go so that the board can breath while i finish it.

Tomorrow I’ll be routing out the fin box and hopefully installing the vent plug and and water bottle holder gizmo that I devised.

…then dare I say she’s done???

I may sand the bottom, I may not. If anyone has any ideas, do yall think I can leave the bottom fill coat alone after I route out the box (assuming the pinholes don’t show up)??

However, I may just sand the whole board to get it nice and smoothed out, then fine sand it up to about 400 grit and paint a few parts of the board. What does everyone think??

bottom taped off and ready to go

This is my little piece of plastic for a water bottle holder. basically I left the sides real rough so that the resin has something to grab into when I install it into the board. I can’t remember what size that brass screw insert is, but my plan is to drill out the hole in the board for this. Then pour some resin into it with some fiberglass fibers, then glass over it. Then I’ll drill out the center hole (through the fiberglass layer over it) and install the screw insert. Then when the board is all done I’ll deal with building some kind of water bottle mount that will have a screw that can thread right into this device like I’ve shown…

The tail got a bit messy so I need to sand that out tomorrow and maybe put a patch of glass over the whole tail for strength.

Okay, more pictures and words tomorrow, hopefully I don’t wobble when i route out the fin box…

johnmellor · May 25, 2010, 5:23am

If your fill coat on the bottom turned out super clean, you might just leave it.

I'd likely sand the whole thing and do a soap bubble test with the board in the sun to see if any pinholes leak. Plug the vent during the test. Patch any holes (along with the end of the tail), sand and paint the whole thing white with Krylon or marine paint. To save on epoxy, use 5-minute stuff from the hardware store for your inserts. Make sure your finbox and plug inserts don't leak also.

Lightweight EPS will suck water if it gets a chance.

In actual day-to-day use, you can buy aluminum 'peel&stick' duct tape or 2-part quick set marine epoxy (works underwater) to immediately deal with any dings.

spudsrfr123 · May 26, 2010, 9:19pm

dsc03486.preview.jpg

This tiny little piece of creative engineering turned out to be the bane of my morning.....

Well, I suppose there comes a time in everyone's life when everything seems to go wrong in about two hours.....that was this morning.

I woke up, felt good, ate some breakfast, grabbed a jewelry box i made and had to sand (humidity caused the drawer to stick a bit), grabbed my phone, locked the door......shit. no keys, no bicycle, no credit card to pick the lock with.....

Unfazed, I called a ride to take me over to the woodshop so my day could roll on. However, after twenty minutes of waiting outside with the jewelry box, the wood EXPANDED and the veneers separated at the joints! Shit!! Oh well, nothing I can do about it, so I sanded down the drawer sides, put the box aside and went to check in on my paddleboard.

The vent plug looked real good. The water bottle holder looked.....well, it looked okay. I left a screw in the screw insert so that it would stop resin from filling up the insert from below and grabbed a screwdriver to take it out. Well, after three seconds attempting to pull the screw out, the whole device i created (photo below) fell into the board!!!!!! Shit!!!

I couldn't believe what had just happened... I looked into the hole that the plastic had fallen into and was shocked to see that the resin ate out a CAVERN below the surface of the board!!! The hole on the surface was just over an inch in diameter, but the cave below must be about 5 inches wide and three or four deep!!!!!!

My only conclusion is that the resin heated up too much and melted the foam. Has anyone ever had this happen to them before????

What should I do???? Should I buy some spray foam (Great Stuff Cans) and spray into the cavern to fill the void up, and just glass over the hole??

Anyway, i moved along with my day and spent a few hours grinding and sanding down the drips of resin that i sloppily allowed to run along the rails of the board from two days ago. I also managed to get the fin box routed out and glassed into place. So everyone please keep your fingers crossed that I don't find the board with another cave where I tried to install something into the foam!!

And as I was locked out of the house today, I didn't have a camera on hand to photgraph anything, so tomorrow I'll try to update the situation with pictures.

If anyone has any suggestions about fixing my blunder, please send them my way.....