More please…
Is the SUP done? ridden? What?
EJ
Hey everybody. I haven’t quit on this thing. I have been making progress and taking photos along the way. I just figured I’d post em all when I finished. It is VERY time consuming doing two at the same time. How the pros manage production, I’ll never know.
A couple of my friends have remarked that they want one and inquired about my building some more. My reponse: Sure, let’s do it at your house! That way we can fill the lint screen in your dryer with EPS beads and get creeping evil all over the grass in the backyard—not to mention water clear epoxy ‘flooring’ in the garage. Property values are sky rocketing. Remember everyone that a home is one of the most important investments you’ll make.
I sanded for 2 hours last night and got a quarter of the way done. Wahoo. Given the smell emanating from John’s Ryobi grinder, I think that poor little guy is over it. My hitachi is next on the chopping block.
John’s board is lammed and vented. That took about 5 hours on Friday–we closed are office to do it (we are total idiots). Still needs a fin box and fill coat on the bottom. He has been pretending to prone paddle it a bit.
I’m really stoked about action sequences with these mother grabbers. My wife fancies herself a photog and so I shall enlist her assistance in capturing images of the impending fiasco.
Does anyone out there have a grasp on the treatment options available for addiction to Additive F fumes. At this rate I’ll be shootin’ X-55 before summer gets here.
welcome back !
glad to see aliens have not eaten you or the boards…yet.
I blew up my grinder at grant’s on the weekend …must be the season for it , eh ?
“My wife fancies herself a photog and so I shall enlist her assistance in capturing images of the impending fiasco.”
photos , eh ? wink wink nudge nudge …I BET she does eh eh ? know wha’ I mean , know wha’ I MEAN ??
Keep up the entertainment , los turdos ! er I mean lost boys ...er " ....the boys" !
cheers !
ben
photos of john prone paddling the thing on your back lawn , would create interest […in "stub’'s ward down at the hospital , at least !]
More please…
Is the SUP done? ridden? What?
EJ
Hey everybody. I haven’t quit on this thing. I have been making progress and taking photos along the way. I just figured I’d post em all when I finished. It is VERY time consuming doing two at the same time. How the pros manage production, I’ll never know.
A couple of my friends have remarked that they want one and inquired about my building some more. My reponse: Sure, let’s do it at your house! That way we can fill the lint screen in your dryer with EPS beads and get creeping evil all over the grass in the backyard—not to mention water clear epoxy ‘flooring’ in the garage. Property values are sky rocketing. Remember everyone that a home is one of the most important investments you’ll make.
I sanded for 2 hours last night and got a quarter of the way done. Wahoo. Given the smell emanating from John’s Ryobi grinder, I think that poor little guy is over it. My hitachi is next on the chopping block.
John’s board is lammed and vented. That took about 5 hours on Friday–we closed are office to do it (we are total idiots). Still needs a fin box and fill coat on the bottom. He has been pretending to prone paddle it a bit.
I’m really stoked about action sequences with these mother grabbers. My wife fancies herself a photog and so I shall enlist her assistance in capturing images of the impending fiasco.
Does anyone out there have a grasp on the treatment options available for addiction to Additive F fumes. At this rate I’ll be shootin’ X-55 before summer gets here.
welcome back !
glad to see aliens have not eaten you or the boards…yet.
I blew up my grinder at grant’s on the weekend …must be the season for it , eh ?
“My wife fancies herself a photog and so I shall enlist her assistance in capturing images of the impending fiasco.”
photos , eh ? wink wink nudge nudge …I BET she does eh eh ? know wha’ I mean , know wha’ I MEAN ??
Keep up the entertainment , los turdos ! er I mean lost boys ...er " ....the boys" !
cheers !
ben
photos of john prone paddling the thing on your back lawn , would create interest […in "stub’'s ward down at the hospital , at least !]
Sorry about the leave of absence guys. I’ve been working with getting my Asian production house up to speed. Let us resume the POS chronicles…
I’d like to explore two issues in depth: 1. vent install and 2. fin box install. I’ve not encountered a great deal of pictoral guidance on these processes and felt perhaps my trials (and possible errors) might be somewhat helpful for the uninitiated swaylander.
Proper tools and meticulous organization are key to successful venting of a POSSUP. Here we see my workspace, which boasts specialized vent hole drilling tooling.
I carefully dremeled out a hole of sufficient diameter to accept my chinook sailboard vent (from FGS–less than 2 bucks US a piece)
I then scuffed up the vent hole area with 60grit and wiped with denatured alchy-hol.
Sorry, no pics with the alchy-hol.
Next, I used the same 60grit to scuff up my vent plug flange.
I decided to give the plug a DNA bath, just for good measure. I have no idea whether this was remotely necessary.
Next, I mixed up a super small batch of RR using my wife’s teaspoon from the kitchen. In a stirring testament to the theoretical underpinnings of newtonian mechanics, my wife became super pissed by said super small batch. I allowed the resin to sit in the pot to accelerate the reaction (the resin’s not my wife’s). When it began to thicken up I basted it around the vent hole, careful not to let it drain in. I also basted the outside of the plug with resin.
I then inserted the plug (splat) and went on my merry way. Please note that during the install process, I removed the vent screw itself and seated only the mounting, being careful not to get epoxy on the inside surface or the threading.
I also dribbled a little extra epoxy around the rim to get it nice and sealed up, again taking care not to get epoxy on the inside surface (a little tape here might go along way towards averting disaster, this occurred to me after the fact).
Perhaps, you’ve noticed my leash loop thing. I figured that I’d maximize adhesion by maximizing the surface area contacting the board. This is why I went with this version rather than a loop. It’s just the tip of a homemade plywood fin blank sawed off with a hole drilled through. I soaked it in epoxy and applied it while the deck lam was still wet. Notwithstanding the rationale stated hereinabove, I actually decided to use this because I realized I’d forgotten to make a loop and wanted the leash plug to chemically adhere to the lam. I was running around the garage and shed looking for some solution. That’s what I came up with on relatively urgent notice. For you nitpickers out there, I did make sure to get epoxy in the little hole and then pushed out the excess with a nail.
Quote:
Next, I mixed up a super small batch of RR using my wife’s teaspoon from the kitchen. In a stirring testament to the theoretical underpinnings of newtonian mechanics, my wife became super pissed by said super small batch. I allowed the resin to sit in the pot to accelerate the reaction (the resin’s not my wife’s). When it began to thicken up I basted it around the vent hole, careful not to let it drain in. I also basted the outside of the plug with resin.
Ah, always good to run across another experimental physicist.
As well, it’s good to see somebody understands this s’pozed to be fun.
Enjoy… you’ve made my evening
doc…
I agree with Doc. Funny stuff. If you need a new (slightly used anyway) yellow plastic kitchen teaspoon, let me know, I’d be happy to mail you (or your wife) a new one. Just in partial recompense for the chuckle…
Now for fin box installation. I decided to eschew the conventional wisdom concerning such installs and forge some new ground. CAVEAT: What follows may suck really bad and be a real problem. I would strongly caution all lockers and lurkers to refrain from utilizing these methods until I test thoroughly and report back.
I once installed a FU box slightly askew and it really got in my head. The fin hummed a bit and bummed me out. Accordingly, I took pains to ensure a successful (at least geometrically speaking) install on the POS. To that end I shot a chalk line down the board to ascertain the true centerline. I brilliantly and accurately postulated that the home depot stringer would probably wander a bit.
I then marked off the front and back centerpoints as indicated by the chalk line using a sharpie (permanent marker).
As you may recall, the green tape masks the slot I cut in the stringer pre-glue up. I went ahead and removed the stringer in advance to avoid routing (as I am presently routerless).
It’s called foresight, and it’s priceless.
Then, I lined up my finbox with my front and rear center points and traced it with the marker.
I next used my carbon fiber dremel cutting wheel (woo!) to create fin slot.
While some may think that robots are the future of surfboard construction, I personally believe that the future is astronauts.
Here I am finishing of the fin slot in space. Space is the next China, methinks.
Now for the truly radical stupidity. I mentioned the following method in another thread once and was invited to be the community guinea pig. With that truly irresistable gauntlet thrown, I sought install the POS finbox with PU glue (dun dun duuuunn!):
I smeared lots of go-rilla glue in the slot and sprinkled with water. I did not reinforce the sides. I invite the naysayers to save it. Suffice it to say that I’ll report back. The stringer is nearly as wide as the box and I’m hoping it will provide sufficient support.
Why PU glue you ask? Well, with the 1lb eps I was concerned about resin pooling and the resultant exotherm. Plus, I just wanted to try this. It is, after all, the POS.
I’ve read a great deal about prepping the fin box prior to install. Convention prescribes sanding and an acetone wipedown. I understand the need to rough the surface for mechanical bonding. I decided to simplify matters by scraping the finbox on my driveway:
This actually worked pretty well. I then wet the box and inserted it. I trued it up directionally with some balsa shims (as I anticipated the glue expansion might skew the result). I also stuck some 3/8 inch hobby ply down in the box itself as a true up and clamping mechanism. Blue tape provided my clamp pressure as always.
I sighted down the length of the board and all seemed well.
I let the glue set up overnight and get super foamy:
It was still straight even after expansion. I used lots of glue, hoping that it would penetrate and expand into the adjacent EPS and act as a higher density lateral support. Time will tell.
I then used my grinder to take down the lip, and then my sander smooth things out.
Remember, if the box looks screwy relative to the stringer, remember the stringer wobbles (see title of thread). I then taped the slot and used some resin to seal up the PU glue perimeter. I also layed a 6oz patch over the whole lot, extending about three inches around the box. I used silane washed E cloth for the patch so it would remain discrete (woo!)
Here’s a picture of the 10 incher I got for the POS.
Bottom fill coat time. I sanded with 60 grit and gave it a DNA bath given the time that had elapsed since the last glassing activity (roughly 1 week). I taped the railes to contain things and give me some build up in the tail. I used about 24 oz of RR while gargling additive F.
I’ve been sanding for about a week now. The POS has claimed the life of one grinder and counting. One thing about a good respirator… you can’t smell your (or John’s) crappy tools burning up. “Hmm this thing sure is hot; I wonder why its running so slow?”
The weather here has been quite hot lately. I’ve been storing these boards out in my shed which must be getting over 100F during mid day. Hopefully this will give me a good postcure. Final contruction phase to come, and then, performance reports and analysis (YEEAHHH!)
Well, I’m off to Maui. Hopefully I won’t get my North Cakilaka ass handed to me. See you guys in about 10 days.
los boyos
Quote:
I’ve read a great deal about prepping the fin box prior to install. Convention prescribes sanding and an acetone wipedown. I understand the need to rough the surface for mechanical bonding. I decided to simplify matters by scraping the finbox on my driveway:
This actually worked pretty well… …It was still straight even after expansion. I used lots of glue, hoping that it would penetrate and expand into the adjacent EPS and act as a higher density lateral support. Time will tell.
Y’know, after I cleaned the spray of coffee off the keyboard, the screen and the dog, I just wanted to point out that there is some very sophisticated thinking going on here.
You want something ‘toothed up’ for a mechanical bond, well, rather than futz around with sanders, jigs and what have you, you have a nice, relatively flat sanding surface in a concrete driveway. With a nice, coarse grit; easy to use and easily set up for the next time ( hose it off, park the car on it) . Very simple, does the job more than adequately.
Wanna tie a fin box into some very light, very soft foam? Well, if ya used resin and cloth, it’s still a box, floating in that soft, soft foam. But gorilla glue will do the job better, spread the load nicely and no worries about melting the soft foam.
Very good. Ya don’t need all the super techy stuff and every third tool on the coast, instead you can indeed do it in your garage with relatively simple stuff, and turn out a pretty good POS. That, in fact, is what this whole thing is all about.
Now, I wanna know how it surfs…
doc…
My suspicion is that the success of your fin box installation experiment is going to depend on how well the PU glue bound the box to the stringer to the front and rear. If that is a good bond, then much of the the torsion stress should be passed to the stringer and well-distributed throughout, otherwise you will be relying on the immediately surrounding EPS and the bottom glass for support and rigidity. Of course, my suspicion is about .0001% as good as diving in and finding out…
Re roughing up the fin box, did you also swab it with the DNA or another solvent? Just curious about doing that for the vent and (apparently) not for the box.
Great project, and the humor is priceless. I strongly suggest that you tell your wife that her photos are superb, no matter how they turn out :->
-Samiam
damn
we wait days for a post , you post , then you piss off to hawaii for ten days , and want to kidnap my pos bushfire fish to surf at macking honolua …
too funny , mate !!
looking forward to your next outlandish installment …
like a good novel , you are building the suspense for an explosive climax , I’m sure !
ben
Boyos - can you please turn this into a children’s book? It would be one that all us fathers would enjoy reading to our kids again & again.
Or maybe a Pixar movie.
I’m cracking up over here. 