Basically this is a photo archive of my chambered western red cedar build. The reason for the title is that now the board is just over a year and a half old but people think it’s from the sixties or something… the post-build pictures will explain.
[img_assist|nid=1054373|title=cedar on car|desc=|link=none|align=center|width=640|height=480]
Raw material. Recycled western red cedar. Dodgy paint, nails and rot incl. nice.
[img_assist|nid=1054374|title=bandsaw|desc=Bandsaw the rocker (very wasteful yes!)|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
[img_assist|nid=1054375|title=chambered.|desc=chambered with fostner bits and bandsaw.|link=none|align=left|width=475|height=640]
A lot of time passed between the previous pic and this one!!!(and many cups of tea!)
[img_assist|nid=1054377|title=Gluing|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=640]lost all my pics of this build so had to download my own pics from good ol’ facebook…
[img_assist|nid=1054388|title=Mini.|desc=“how long?”…‘awwww. bout a mini’|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=438][img_assist|nid=1054386|title=in the sun|desc=film quality.|link=none|align=left|width=429|height=640]
As with any board that is made to be ridden, over time its character will develop as dings are created and repaired, wax is applied and soiled etc etc. Well this board’s character developed very quickly as you will see.
you can kind of see it in this photo. the break was not really perpendicular to the deck/bottom but ran with the grain. from inspection it was pretty obvious why it broke here. by cutting the rocker out of rectangular planks, the timber’s grain runs at an angle to the board where the nose kicks, hence the strength of the timber (along the grain) is lost. hope that makes sense, i usually explain this to people with some top notch arm waving.
so #1 of things i could do differently next time: steam bend the rocker (or laminate…lots of glue though) instead of cutting out of planks. a lot less wastage too. has anyone tried this?
#2 chamber the planks more ‘extremely’: set up a router jig to chamber 80-90% of the timber’s guts out then place thin stringers between each planks to provide the stiffness.
so after a year… nearly [i was away from the ocean for 6 of those months ]… a new nose.
the epoxy went really cloudy around the fin too. any ideas why?
[img_assist|nid=1054396|title=cloudy fin patch|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427][img_assist|nid=1054397|title=cloudy|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427]
[img_assist|nid=1054398|title=peeling|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=427]Third epoxy help topic. filler coat on one side of my new nose is peeling big time!
badly mixed epoxy maybe.
i (think) i warmed the epoxy up in a hot water bath while mixing… too hot maybe.
dirty glass maybe. don’t think so but maybe lots of dust on it or something i didn’t notice.
if anyone can help with any of these problems please… ahh. do that. I still have half this epoxy left and my mate wants to use it for a carbon fibre build.
"Beautiful board and cool shape. What type of cloth did you use? I had similar issues on standard boards using Aerialite that had some weave exposed after I sanded it and didn't seal it. The cloth wicked water and the whitener really showed up."
This is what I had in mind also. Raw sanded glass will eventually go cloudy with salt water. I would'nt say just Aerialite in particular.
cheers guys. yeah i did seal the wood first with 1 coat of epoxy. I think humidity probably was the cause of the fin patch cloudiness (rainy days in the garage), although it didn’t start clouding up for a couple of months. Does that sound reasonable? My first experience with epoxy…
doubt moisture in the timber would be an issue… recycled timber so it was really dry in the middle.
what’s blush? which problem would that be referring too?
cheers Robb… looked so nice when it was fresh off the press! and no i did not vent… newb. didn’t really have any instructions/advice for this build (hadn’t discovered sways) just started it one day. it did get a nice venting when the nose broke though. haha. now it rattles a little too as i didn’t quite get all the wood chips out before sticking the new nose on. ha.
i still think it looks good though… just a little weathered. haha.
my main concern at the moment is about the epoxy since i want to use the rest of it. has anyone else used this one?
[img_assist|nid=1054408|title=bubbles|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=0|height=0]Cannot stress enough how important a vent plug is in a hollow wooden board.
When glassing the vent hole needs to be open.
The photo is an example of varnishing a paulownia board with the vent hole closed on a 40 degree celcius (very hot) day.
The air inside is expanding and escaping through the more pourous areas of the wood.
With paulownia it is noticable that there are lines of bubbles along the grain where the darker winter growth lines in the wood are.
I would assume that your western red cedar is more evenly pourous and so an even spread of tiny air bubbles trying to get out through the drying resin.
Another lesson I have learned is that the inside of a wood board needs to be sealed to make it completely waterproof, because once water gets in through say a ding and then soaks into the wood it is impossible to remove, plus it increases the weight.
Beautiful board and cool shape. What type of cloth did you use? I had similar issues on standard boards using Aerialite that had some weave exposed after I sanded it and didn't seal it. The cloth wicked water and the whitener really showed up. The nose repair made me think sap coming out of the wood as the culprit for the weird crystals in the glass.
I don't think you need a vent plug in a chambered board. The chambers don't connect through the length of the board, so the vent isn't effective for the whole board.
As for the nose breaking, did you stagger the chambers in each plank, or are they all along the same line cross ways? If you stagger them in sort of a brick pattern, that could help prevent breakage, just a thought (obviously way too late).
so had to download my own pics from good ol’ facebook…
I still have half this epoxy left and my mate wants to use it for a carbon fibre build.