My boards cost me about NZ$200 to build. I think this is about US$160. I don't know if this is particularly cheap or not. I use cheap glass-on fins, PU blanks and I buy my resin in 20 kg lots (40 pounds)
At any rate I have been thinking about what it would take to make a super cheap surfboard. My time wouldn't factor in as it would be an exercise in using the cheapest materials. A few years ago I experimented with some pine off-cuts I got from work (I 'm a carpenter by trade). I chambered them but gave up half way through the shaping as the thing was waaaay too heavy.
Polystyrene insulation sounds good but the epoxy resin and extra glass required doesn't come cheap.
Anyway, I was wondering if anybody had any thoughts on this?
Toaster what glass are you useing?
I tryed some cheap 6oz was close to 5 bucks pm but was thirsty coarse and horrible to use. My laminateing skills are crap to which doesn’t help
Fark, I didn’t know those guys even existed! They’ve even got a factory here in Wellington. By the way, how did you manage to make a board with only 1.5ltrs of resin? I’d use close to that just for my filler coats.
There’s some weird sh1t going on with the software. We just went into daylight saving here and I think the software may have spat the dummy as a result
The first surfboard I ever made was built from scraps of wood and offcuts, didn’t cost me hardly anything to build. Glassing with epoxy is a bit more than with polyester resin, but epoxy is less problematic when glassing over wood. I guess you could call me a cheap bastid, but I’m self employed doing remodeling work for cheap bastids (with nicer homes and nicer cars than I’ll ever own, but love to tell me I charge too much, LOL).
Indeed why spend more money than you need to to make backyard boards? Its not about being cheap its about not spending money I don’t have on a hobby. I’m not denying the new blanks and surf specific resin are worth the money.
How could you not be stoked building boards like Hucks fish out of offcuts?
Chip never saw the point in avitars my eyes arn’t much good and they are so little.
The world has been turned upside down by idiots…(lol)…save on cheap materials and don’t keep a record of how much time you put into a project ?..time itself , is the most valuable and priceless commodity on Earth…many don’t realize it until their time is almost gone…please, don’t run out of time , then look back and see an endless trail of cheapness…it just demeans your life.
Maybe it differnt way if looking at things my time outside work isn’t somthing I add price to. The value in it for me is that there is no dollar value and I’m free to start stop or just sit and look at the blank. Its time out from the rest of life.
Kayu what else should I be doing with my spare time?