Just curious as to what everyone is using for stringer material for those who make their own blanks or if you even use one. Or how about alternative materials instead of wood. I just got a large block of foam and want to play around a little here.
Redwood, balsa, Basswood, Spruce, Spanish Cedar, Western Red Cedar. I even did a board with three Black Walnut stringers. (once!) It all works, pick your poison.
Thanks Bill I actually have just come into 2 large lengths of cedar from my wife’s grandfather who recently passed just need to mill them need a bigger saw! I thought it was mahogany at first and almost shit myself! Excuse my excitement there, I was around a few protein deficient rednecks today!
Ryan
Redwood is nice, used some from old reclaimed redwood siding recently and it came up nice.
Also Paulownia and Poplar are good…
get a nice planer, benchtop type to get the stringers nice and even
Plenty of variety for stringer materials, as mentioned above. The trick is finding material that is a good thickness and width without the requirement of either paying someone to mill it or milling it yourself. Sanderly ply is available at Home Depot for about $28 per 4x8' sheet. Makes a decent semi-lite T-band stringer,, no milling required. I've heard that it can be found in 4x12' at certain lumber yards in the LA area. If you are going to mill stringers from raw lumber You will need at least a band saw, surface planer and a joiner, in that order. Sheet PVC is also a good alternative. A glue line of pigmented laminating resin is another. All the "Eggs" I rode in the SD area during the early '70's were glue-line only. Never snapped one.
Clark Foam closed in early Dec 2005. The Swaylock's world went crazy from there. I will search for some links. I have worked with PVC foam / plastic in black and tan. Great stuff. Sign makers use it. If you are near San Diego I have a piece of black Komitec PVC that will work for a board less than 7 feet. If not I'm cutting it up for tail blocks. Not sure the spelling but the Komitec works like Basswood without grain.....
Read this thread...most people flaked out....we did it...I made a few new friends along the way....
http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1018286
I bet there's still lots of balsa in San Diego...be nice...I bet Keith and Mark still have some balsa....
and it keeps going....The Marine Adhesive did not work so good....
http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1019259
Go there...click the links...helpful stuff.......and....we don't use clamps anymore...Masking tape!!!
Wrap it up !!!
Mcding - thanks for sparking my curiosity with pigmented resin glue lines! Do you think a single glue line stringer on a 6'6 HPSB would be enough or multiple stringers? I know guys are doing stringerless boards but I'm not vac bagging, yet! I really like the glue line idea and its very simple. I can see if I was doing a longer board the need for a stringer. I am headed to Nicaragua on the 12th and scrambling to get a board done. Want to test it out in some quality surf.
Stingray - thank you for the links I feel like I'm late to the party as I'm follow your footsteps almost exactly except I'm keeping the whole block of foam for myself! My Variac and wire should be here today and if I get off the computer I need to go pick up my foam! HAHAHA.
I'm gonna start posting a build thread here I think it would be a fun read. I wish I was closer to you guys but I'm in Florida would love to meet at a Sways gathering guess I need to see about finding a group here to meet with.
Many Thanks!
Ryan
It's Komatex AKA Sintra
[quote="$1"] Do you think a single glue line stringer on a 6'6 HPSB would be enough or multiple stringers? [/quote]
Back in the day, as the expression goes, the colored glue line was cosmetic at best and was intended as a mid line reference. There was also the colored resin/strip of paper stringer. Some small amount of strength when compared to glue line only.
…I make my templates from sintra and the problem is the total length; goes ok for small boards
-sand the sides before apply the glue
do not use resin to do that; use glue.
Got the block today its a BIG block a little overwhelming to look at. At first look I thought to myself I must be insane, then I saw about 14 different surfboards looking back!
The one thing I always remembered about High School Woodshop was the statement by my teacher that the "glue line" done properly and with a good glue was stronger than the material being glued. So a polyester lam resin glue line should be stronger than the polyurethane foam being glued. Is it as strong as a basswood or PVC stringer? No!
I went and bought the 1/4" sandply from home depot no planing no fuss just trace and cut it was too simple! Did not want to worry about strength issues while in Nicaragua especially this time of year there! When I get back a bandsaw and bench top planer are the next purchases for those large lengths of cedar I have.
I’ve just finished sanding a blank with a 1" red cedar stringer. Some glassers seal the cedar (or pine) with some dilute lam resin or some other epoxy resin mixture before glassing.
Just curious, is this mostly due to absorption of the resin too much and the subsequent drying time issue? And perhaps also an issue of too little resin gets into the glass along the stringer line? Similar to the issue of glassing over a wooden surfboard? Fear of oils leaching from the wood - so the sealer allows for letting it happen first, then wipe up/let dry/sand, then glass over it later?
Any kayak builders out there? Do you use lacquer and it works? I guess I’ll try the lacquer for now. Can’t hurt, unless it would hurt the foam, which I doubt.
Lacquer and polystyrene foam, are not compatable.
I may not have mentioned that it’s PU foam, not PS. Sorry if this created confusion.
I’m getting ready to glass a board whose foam is polyurethane. I had ordered the blank with a 1" red cedar stringer. Please correct me if I’m wrong: I now have at least 2 options:
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Just glass the board with Epoxy resin, and DON’T worry about the red cedar stringer too much.
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Use polyester resin to glass the board and WORRY about the red cedar stringer too much. It seems it takes more inventiveness to guarantee strength and durability since it seems polyester resin does not adhere well to red cedar (I wasn’t talking about polystyrene).
I’m prepared at this point to simply order some epoxy, additive F, some hardener, and do the lam and hotcoats that way. I would also order a scale since I want to weigh out the epoxy.
But I’m still pondering how to seal the stringer and just use polyester resin. I might just use shellac, but since I’m out of polyester resin, I might have to order resin anyway, so if I do, can I avoid troubles by simply glassing with the epoxy? If so, I’d like to do that. I also want a board that has better durability and flex, even if it costs a little more. I would bet that tung oil would seal the stringer, but I would probably want another coat of something over the tung oil, perhaps even a little epoxy resin. Just wondering do people sometimes seal red cedar stringers with epoxy, then glass with the polyester. I just don’t have the experience to know what works and what will not delaminate down the road. I like a board that lasts.
I guess I’ll decide by this weekend - I don’t mind using epoxy if need be. Maybe I could just use the epoxy to seal the stringer, then sand, or perhaps this would come out too thick - I would need to thin it, and that would weaken it, or possibly just brush a tiny bit on. Something to think about.
I would say ‘yes’ to Resin Research epoxy and cedar and ‘no’ to Tung oil (or vegatable or linseed or motor oil) as a pre-treatment for a stringer. Mind you I am only 10 homemade blanks deep into this crazy trip.
Do you have rail bones and wood scraps for a test panel?