Finally got a hold of a Core Fusion blank (been following that company with quite a bit of interest). The foam looks quite nice and I can feel the density of the foam change throughout the length of the blank. The biggest thing for me though was the price. $50 NZD for a moulded to shape EPS blank. Can’t see thicker (customizable blanks) being much more either. I have a US manufactured blank as well which costs easily twice as much and I can’t see any difference in quality. But I still have to finish off both blanks so it’s still early days. But $50 NZD is half what I would pay for a urethane blank, although I must admit my Core Fusion blank is unstringered. But $50 NZD for a shortboard blank? That’s nearly disposable!
Don’t forget that the epoxy you have to use is much more expensive!
great stuff dean
im really interested in that
you could try some bagging experiments at that price
what density is the blank mate
the big test is when you ding them
they can drink quite a bit of water from unequalized pressure
epoxy is cheap as in NZ
theres a huge boatbuilding industry
you use less and if you buy it by the 20 liter i only cost around 20$ a litre
theres some bloody good epoxies out there
When the entire WCT and WQS are riding epoxy, poly boards might become a thing of the past, but that’s going to be a slow process, so I don’t think the poly manufacturers are going to be too concerned.
A gallon of epoxy in the states costs twice as much as a gallon of polyester.
Finally got a hold of a Core Fusion blank (been following that company with quite a bit of interest). The foam looks quite nice and I can feel the density of the foam change throughout the length of the blank. The biggest thing for me though was the price. $50 NZD for a moulded to shape EPS blank. Can’t see thicker (customizable blanks) being much more either. I have a US manufactured blank as well which costs easily twice as much and I can’t see any difference in quality. But I still have to finish off both blanks so it’s still early days. But $50 NZD is half what I would pay for a urethane blank, although I must admit my Core Fusion blank is unstringered. But $50 NZD for a shortboard blank? That’s nearly disposable!
Buy a block of the stuff and hotwire you own and it’s even cheaper.
…nice title to maintain this thread up
only way the polyestyrene is better than pu, is in a compsand; and thats cause the density
I dont see a real difference building a board like the PU way
and the surfboards epoxy resin is only available in USA
most others are not as good
and all sports more problems than polyesters in different weather situations that you find all over the world
I know the Core Fusion 7’9"s are 35kg/m3 which is about 2.2 pound and I’m assuming the 6’2" is 2 pound (will confirm soon). Polystyrene comes down much quicker than polyurethane as well, making for much less labour in the shaping process so less expense there too. Epoxy is about 75% more per litre than polyester and you use about half the amount I am told, so cheaper there as well. The only complaint I have heard of in regards to polystyrene is that it is too light for shortboards. So bring the density of the foam up and that’s about it I’d say.
It’s a dream or a nightmare?
…sure the density aspect
and the boards doesnt look great too, so you need to spackle it, and the bond is not too tight like direct onto the polystyrene
yes you dont need to be a shaper
cause is very easy with the hot wire to do the rocker and deck and almost the bottom and thickness
but like I said before the epoxy has lot of problems if you dont have the ideal weather or room conditions
-I think is far better to do a “compsand” type of board with those materials
only way the polyestyrene is better than pu, is in a compsand; and thats cause the density
A polystyrene core (XPS or EPS) can have superior strength given the same density as a polystyrene core. What this means is you can have a lighter board with the same strength or a stronger board with the same weight. But regardless, the major advantage is in with sandwich construction as you say.
…yes, I know that
but in my opinion, thats the cause of the delamination
even the epoxy (that is not rigid like poly) is not good enough
may be due to the spackle
i thought one was supposed to spackle a board so the epoxy resin didn’t just seep through the blank
so regardless one has to spackle the EPS blank when finished shaping
do you think one still needs to spackle a closed beaded EPS blank??
if the beads are so tight that water can’t even soak through, then why bother spackling???
…most for the look
if you do a clear board is ok, but not super like pu
and if you do a color work is not so good not to spackle
I am getting ready to take an epoxy Clyde Beatty rocket fish to Cabo. This is my 2nd EPS board - the first (an older rocket fish) was a great board in terms of performance but dings were a nightmare. You paddle out with a 6 lb board and paddle back in with a 17 lb board.
I like the epoxies for weaker summertime surf (and max’d out summertime crowds) but I am not sure that I am ready to give up on PU boards - at the end of the day I like both for different reasons. It will be interesting to see how the Beatty epoxy board does in the merciless Cabo sun. I live in the canyons on the LA/Ventura border where the sun is really intense and just having my last EPS board in the sun for only about 15 mins (to make it easier to strip wax) caused the board to start “softening”. Best explanation I can give is that the rails (it had a “Black Beauty” sort of rail line so it absorbed more sunlight around the rails) became so soft that I could easily cause indentions by squeezing. I am worried that even in a board bag the Beatty board may not be able to stand up in the Cabo heat but only one way to find out…
Yes it is but you use half as much.
I’ve made 10,000 boards with spackle and they don’t delaminate. Reverb, you don’t know what your talking about.
…Loehr,
I respect you cause you did and do many things for the polyestyrene boards including your resin
but I doubt that you did 10000 boards all by yourself from start to finish
yes is possible that you was in the production of those boards but not alone…
anyway, how do you explain the delam problem?
check for ex the post before yours…what to say about this?
enlighten us
Dream on. Epoxy has its place in the market, but Poly is still with us and very much alive and well. I love all the choices especially in Poly foam. There are some great blanks out there now in both Poly and EPS.
bingo
I haven’t found anything out there yet that replaces what you can do with UV cure poly.
That’s the bread and butter method of alot of production and home shops here in Hawaii and elsewhere cause you can not only reduce waste but it kicks exactly when you want it and you still have as much working time as you need…
When I can get an Epoxy lam to flip in 5-10 minutes after I’m done getting my weave just right to lam the other side or be ready for power sanding on 30 minutes so I can finish laminating and glossing my board in a day I’ll believe epoxy has a chance to replace PU. But right now I don’t see how you can beat the capabilities of UV cure.
Epoxy is great from strength but it has it’s own particular problems especially if you don’t RR from what the poxer’s say I haven’t seen anyone find similar limitation with UV-cure in a production line operation and you can even make your own UV mix if you want instead of being stuck to one product to get good results like epoxy.
Just my take cause I never hear anyone talk about the accolades of UV resin other than Kokua…
I’m just a guy that plays around in his garage and takes the stuff out in the water to see what happens. I can afford to play with either material. Time isn’t an issue(don’t have enough of it like most people). When I pull a board out of my truck and it is hissing like a Madagascar cockroach I think there is a problem. EPS sucks air and water. Not good. How many times have you noticed a crack or crease on your board after it’s been in the water for a couple of hours. Usually after bumping into my head, elbow, or knee. I do it all the time. Now, maybe I’m using poor EPS. Maybe the EPS isn’t there yet. Turn me on to some EPs that is better fused or doesn’t suck water after cartwheeling to the beach and I’ll give it another try. Otherwise, I’ll keep using urethane and polyester until I can’t get it anymore. I hope it aint dead because in my opinion it’s better foam than EPS. Mike