I’ve been digging through the forums looking for various materials that you all have made fins out of (with FCS tabs). Seems like G10 is the winner for sure, I’ll definitely be purchasing a sheet in the near future to make a couple fins.
I know it isn’t the cheapest material, but I know it will work, but I started thinking about cheaper alternatives. How do you figure out if a certain material is strong enough to serve as a fin? What is the peak/max force is applied to a fin while surfing?
I was thinking a sheet of 1/4" PVC would make a decent fin material. I do a lot of work with PVC pipe and I know it’s incredibly strong stuff. The schedule 40 pipe isn’t 1/4" thick but it takes a good whack to get it to even crack, so I thought a sheet of 1/4" stuff would make great fins. What do you guys think?
I’m surprised the materials suppliers like Fiberglass Hawaii, Foam EZ and Greenlight haven’t made fin panels to offer for sale in the common colors in 16" x 16" pieces.
Valid point…I suppose if the fin was tall and skinny it would break pretty easy. I’d just like to make a couple of fins for the fish I made, maybe a couple of different thruster fin shapes as well. Maybe a 7" base and a depth of 5" with FCS tabs for the fish. I’d imagine PVC would be strong enough for this and would hopefully be stiff enough!
I actually already made some fins out of plywood and glass them…I’m just a little worried about the strenght of the FCS tabs. So I started thinking “well if these tabs break off what else could I build a fin with” and PVC came to mind. BUT…I didn’t think about the flexibility of the fin once it has been foiled. I was only thinking about the strength of the tabs, so thanks for bring that thought to mind!
I suppose another alternative would be to not foil the fin super thin. Looking at some of my FCS fins, they aren’t foiled all that thin so if I modeled PVC fins after those fins, they might remain stiff enough.
One of my projects for this winter that I haven’t gotten around to yet is to make molds for FCS style fins so I could create my own versions of the expensive composite cored 2 tab fins. That would be the real way to go if you want strength and weight savings.
Aircraft plywood - 3/16" with 10 ply instead of 5-ply. Glass the back of the panel with several layers of 6oz first, then template and foil. You get the fiberglass halo as well as a 25% weight reduction.
Just a thought… how strong do you really want it? Would it be better to have the fin tabs break off instead of ripping the box out of the board? I think FCS used to claim that their tabs were designed to break away. Cheaper and easier to replace a fin than to repair/replace the box and the fin(?)
Some good points here, I definitely don’t want them strong enough to rip out the fin box. But, I also want them to be strong enough to not snap it regular/good conditions. So, being able to drive off the bottom and turn hard without the fin breaking would be good.
Grasshopper, why don’t you think think PVC will do the job?
I can see your point, Barry. I suppose PVC could be a good option up until it gets too hard and brittle and any slight bump snaps the fin. Or too hard of a turn. PVC is cheap enough, I might just give it a try and see what happens.
Mattwho…nice fins!! I love the hibiscus fin, totally cool!!
That material would be awesome!..but, I’d be worried about the fin, being modeled after FCS, taking out the whole box in the event of a fin break!
G10 really isn’t all that expensve, so I’m thinking maybe prototype some fins with cheap PVC to see how they ride, and then use G10 for a more permanent solution. I assume you don’t need to do any finish work on G10 aside from finish sanding (ie, not hot coat)?
