I posted this deal a long time ago but in typical fashion I didnt follow through.I have a big chunk of cork that I weighed and did some testing on…it is as light or lighter than balsa and glass stuck down ok…it has good springback similiar to E.P.S…I messed around the internet and found a lot of info and suppliers…it comes in all sorts of forms.I think that you could make a blank out of it.I am a total computer kook and I am wondering if someone out there would do some research as to cost,weight etc.Where are you Tom Sterne?Any help appreciated…the stuff is beautiful with a coat of blass on it.
I posted this deal a long time ago but in typical fashion I didnt follow > through.I have a big chunk of cork that I weighed and did some testing > on…it is as light or lighter than balsa and glass stuck down ok…it has > good springback similiar to E.P.S…I messed around the internet and found > a lot of info and suppliers…it comes in all sorts of forms.I think that > you could make a blank out of it.I am a total computer kook and I am > wondering if someone out there would do some research as to cost,weight > etc.Where are you Tom Sterne?Any help appreciated…the stuff is beautiful > with a coat of blass on it. Excuse my typos on the above post…at the end I meant to say a coat of glass.Like I said…I’m a computer disaster.Sorry.
Sounds like something I might try!!!
Cork is primarily grown in Portugal but I think some is also grown in Napa, CA. My cousin lives up there and every time I drive by the cork factories I get the same idea about cork surfboards. Another factor is that cork resists liquids very well. Many people are realizing how durable cork is and are making it into tile for bathrooms, kitchens, and outdoor walkways, but besides all that. The only problem I would see is that you are not going to find a big enough piece of cork. The cork farmers just peel off the bark. They don’t use the whole tree. It’s easy to find sheets or rolls of cork but no 2"x4"s. It would be interesting to take enough sheets, glue them together and make a blank. It’s always possible and can be done, maybe like bamboo surfboards. —Michael
Over here in France, some people use expanded cork for home insulation. Pannels are up to 10 cm thick (4"), density is 120kg/m3 (balsa’s about 160kg/m3). I’d love to try it as well, but I wonder how difficult it would be to shape it (to experiment, I just tried sanding a wine bottle cork and it’s a nightmare!) Pierre
Cork is primarily grown in Portugal but I think some is also grown in > Napa, CA. My cousin lives up there and every time I drive by the cork > factories I get the same idea about cork surfboards. Another factor is > that cork resists liquids very well. Many people are realizing how durable > cork is and are making it into tile for bathrooms, kitchens, and outdoor > walkways, but besides all that. The only problem I would see is that you > are not going to find a big enough piece of cork. The cork farmers just > peel off the bark. They don’t use the whole tree. It’s easy to find sheets > or rolls of cork but no 2"x4"s. It would be interesting to take > enough sheets, glue them together and make a blank. It’s always possible > and can be done, maybe like bamboo surfboards. —Michael Thanks…bamboo is a skin…I am thinking as cork for the core.Seems to me that you could get sheets of reconstituted cork 3" thick by 24’ wide and 12feet long.But what in the hell is reconstituted cork?I think it is also known as “Black Cork”.I went back to the internet and found tons of stuff but I can’t figure it out.
Over here in France, some people use expanded cork for home insulation. > Pannels are up to 10 cm thick (4"), density is 120kg/m3 (balsa’s > about 160kg/m3). I’d love to try it as well, but I wonder how difficult it > would be to shape it (to experiment, I just tried sanding a wine bottle > cork and it’s a nightmare!)>>> Pierre My Skil planer cut the sample pretty good but I never tried sanding it.Maybe we would need a planer with a grit drum or finish it with a sander and a soft pad.Interesting.Perhaps that expanded cork that you speak of would work better…it is probably some sort of fabricated material using cork as the base product and then fabricated into sheets.I wonder how heavy it is?
Here’s what I found about cork : -it’s environnement friendly : 100% natural, renewable (trees are peeled every 8-10 years, tree’s life is not altered) -pieces collected are irregular. They’re then reduced in small regular grains. Initially panels were made gluing these grains together until they found out once cork grains were cooked at high temp (300° C) it would expand, take a bron color and bond by itself using it’s own resin. What you then get is pure, natural expanded cork. -Cork is non toxic, dimensionnally stable, flex and compression resistant, resistant to “hydrocarbures” (ie- petroleum based products such as resin ; sorry don’t know the english term), chemically stable. -Expanded cork weigths 120 kg/m3. I too thought of it as a core material, but on a second thought a veneer could also be interesting. Pierre
Prices (in France): Largest size found is 100 cm (40")x 50 cm (20") x 10 (4") cm Price is 30 to 40 euros (about 30 to 40 USD) For those who speak french, here’s one supplier : http://www.eco-logis.com/isolat.htm#lep Pierre
Too bad I just finished glassing my board (#2), otherwise I might have tried adding a cork nose block, just to see how it works and how the material ages… Pierre
Sounds like something I might try!!! hey Paul! what about a fin utilizing cork???
hey Paul! what about a fin utilizing cork??? Pierre did a great job on research…thanks man.I learn more everday.Any of you U.S. guys willing to research it further?Hey TOM STERNE…you are good at research…get on it,this could good.The fact that you can reconstitute it into sheets without using a glue or binder sounds real interesting!The prices in France didn’t sound that bad but we may be able to get it cheaper in the U.S.A.I am looking for panels say 3 or 4 inches thick…maybe 20 inches or more wide and 8 to 10 feet long that I could mill like balsa and glue up a blank,maybe even with a stringer.If I read the other posts right it sounds like it is lighter than balsa.Hey Maybe the Swaylocks crew can come up with a whole new board core material…no petro chemicals…plantation grown…doesn’t absorb water.I would pay extra.I’m stoked…keep it coming.
I’m in the process of another hollow…Wood deck & bottom…CHAMBERED CORK RAILS!!! I’m gonna use 1/4" sheet cork attached with sprayed on contact cement…This is the answer to the time and labor intensive rails!!! The cork fin …Cork core with 1/8" thin ply outer layers, foiled so fine … thin epoxy glass job…
I’m in the process of another hollow…Wood deck & bottom…CHAMBERED > CORK RAILS!!!>>> I’m gonna use 1/4" sheet cork attached with sprayed on contact > cement…This is the answer to the time and labor intensive rails!!!>>> The cork fin …Cork core with 1/8" thin ply outer layers, foiled so > fine … thin epoxy glass job… Yo Paul…do you have a bandsaw?I tend to think that you could resaw the thicker stuff to maybe 1/2" and still be able to make the rail bend…it would save a lot of glue and weight.
Yo Paul…do you have a bandsaw?I tend to think that you could resaw the > thicker stuff to maybe 1/2" and still be able to make the rail > bend…it would save a lot of glue and weight. …My lumberyard has 1/4" x48" sheet cork in 200’ rolls…I’ll get a 9’ piece, then rip it on my tablesaw to 4" strips…6 strips per rail…The set-up time with spray contact cement is 2-3 minutes…The weight of the glue is negligable… The advantage to the sheet cork is it’s uniformity…If I were to re-saw thicker cork it with a band saw I would have a less than smooth surface that would need attention prior to glueing… Also The sheet cork is available here and now…I wont have to find a source, contact them, make the deal, arrange shipping, wait, then possibly not get what I had in mind…
…My lumberyard has 1/4" x48" sheet cork in 200’ rolls…I’ll > get a 9’ piece, then rip it on my tablesaw to 4" strips…6 strips > per rail…The set-up time with spray contact cement is 2-3 minutes…The > weight of the glue is negligable… How do you plan on shaping the rails ? Will your deck be domed ? When I built my balsa/styrofoam board, I couldn’t really foil down the deck (the balsa layer was 1 cm), I built the rails with 5 planks of balsa (1 cm each) and it was just enough to allow me to shape fat, round rails. Pierre
…My lumberyard has 1/4" x48" sheet cork in 200’ rolls…I’ll > get a 9’ piece, then rip it on my tablesaw to 4" strips…6 strips > per rail…The set-up time with spray contact cement is 2-3 minutes…The > weight of the glue is negligable…>>> The advantage to the sheet cork is it’s uniformity…If I were to re-saw > thicker cork it with a band saw I would have a less than smooth surface > that would need attention prior to glueing…>>> Also The sheet cork is available here and now…I wont have to find a > source, contact them, make the deal, arrange shipping, wait, then possibly > not get what I had in mind… Thanks Paul…sounds like you are a woodworker.You got me thinking.What if you took a roll and cut in half…build a flat table mold with rocker and glue the 1/4" sheets together face to face…stagger the lengths to get foil.I figure that twelve layers would get us 3’’ in thickness.By using spray contact cement and a J roller we would end up with a a blank with the rocker built in.Then if needed we split it just like a foam blank and add a stringer.Is this confusing?I hope that you get where I am coming from.I wonder what a roll of this cork costs at a wholesale level.My only problem is that if the board is glassed will the resin bond to the exposed contact cement glue seams?Perhaps it could be primed with another product before glassing.But than again maybe they dont have to be glassed…just a coat of sealer…that would be unreal.Please let me know what you think and if this string goes dead I would like to talk to you personally…let me know,thanks.
Thanks Paul…sounds like you are a woodworker.You got me thinking.What if > you took a roll and cut in half…build a flat table mold with rocker and > glue the 1/4" sheets together face to face…stagger the lengths to > get foil.I figure that twelve layers would get us 3’’ in thickness.By > using spray contact cement and a J roller we would end up with a a blank > with the rocker built in.Then if needed we split it just like a foam blank > and add a stringer.Is this confusing?I hope that you get where I am coming > from.I wonder what a roll of this cork costs at a wholesale level.My only > problem is that if the board is glassed will the resin bond to the exposed > contact cement glue seams?Perhaps it could be primed with another product > before glassing.But than again maybe they dont have to be glassed…just a > coat of sealer…that would be unreal.Please let me know what you think and > if this string goes dead I would like to talk to you personally…let me > know,thanks. …What you suggest is viable…But, heavy…Thats a lot of dead weight in the center of the board…Cork is relativy light, but you might be able to do a similar thing with cork veneer over a regular blank, then deal with the rails differently…The resin bond issue does not exist with epoxy, polyester would most likely be fine since cork isn’t particularly oily… How about this, Hollow wood frame (weights about a pound for an 8’er) skin both sides of the frame with 1’8" luan ply (again relativlt light)…I have one sitting in my shop now and it weights 7 pounds…You could then get the sheet cork and apply that to the luan ply with contact cement…Build the rails out to 1.25" (chambered if you please)…Shape the rails, light epoxy glass job…Voila, a CORK BOARD !!!
…What you suggest is viable…But, heavy…Thats a lot of dead weight in > the center of the board…Cork is relativy light, but you might be able to > do a similar thing with cork veneer over a regular blank, then deal with > the rails differently…The resin bond issue does not exist with epoxy, > polyester would most likely be fine since cork isn’t particularly oily…>>> How about this, Hollow wood frame (weights about a pound for an 8’er) skin > both sides of the frame with 1’8" luan ply (again relativlt > light)…I have one sitting in my shop now and it weights 7 pounds…You > could then get the sheet cork and apply that to the luan ply with contact > cement…Build the rails out to 1.25" (chambered if you > please)…Shape the rails, light epoxy glass job…Voila, a CORK BOARD !!! sounds neat.I’m with you on that cork fin-if you make one and try it could you post your feedback?