Was walking the beach and came across two snapped boogie boards. When i stripped the cover off one it was all bread-crumbly foam. The other is looking higher-quality and stiffer foam. I was thinking of stripping off the cover and shaping a handplane or two out of the foam. Since it was going to the trash anyways I really want to turn it into something that can get back into the water.
Has anyone ever tried this with a boogie board? I’m cautious about glassing, don’t know if the type of foam for boogie boards would be a good choice for glassing, and if so whether to use poly or epoxy resin.
I can put a few pics of the board here later after work.
thanks for the link. i have basic tools, no vacuum bagger or planer or anything. Now what I’m worried about, after reading about the difficulties of shaping EPS, is cutting down the thickness of this foam to make it suitable for a hand-board. I’m going to strip off the cover today, and should have enough surface space for 2 handboards, but now I am thinking it might be easier to make a mini-boogie board, almost like a kick board for a swim pool. If this could handle epoxy resin, I’d glass it over. Not sure if a kickboard would need some type of handle, since it would probably be hard to hold on to while riding a wave.
So I just stripped the deck and bottom off… happy it came off so easily. I had stripped an old boogie board last year, which had a very crumbly plastic veneer, that thing was a pain to come off. This skin just peeled right off so that was nice.
Decided I’m going to make a kickboard. Not sure on dims yet, gotta finalize my outline. My thought is to keep the lines pretty simple, a mini- simmons shape, maybe also cutting 2 small wood fins to glass on to help with turning. Now to my questions:
Do you think a stringer is necessary? I’d really like to avoid this step, as the foam is crumbly and I don’t want to have more work than necessary. I am fine to do a stronger glassing to give it strength, and since I am just going to be riding it prone without my full body weight on it I’m hoping a stringer is not necessary. I imagine riding this board with my arms out in front, more like a handplane, and when getting into the pocket of the wave stacking more of my upper body on top of it to plane.
Once I have the shaping done, I’d like to add some color to the foam before glassing. Since I am cheap and don’t want to buy any tints to add to the resin, I was thinking to spray paint directly onto the foam, let it dry completely, and then glass. But would this compromise the bond of the glass to the foam? If so are there other ways to add color without adding tint to the resin? Again, since this is a trash project, I am trying to keep it as simple as possible and use what I already have on hand.
What would you recommend for buying low-quantity epoxy? I am not a shaper, so I don’t need a big jug of the stuff, just enough for this job. I guess once I have the dimensions that would help you to see the surface area.
There was a guy that was making boards out of recycled bodyboards, I wish I could find that thread. He would cut them into strips about 3 inches thick by 23 inches long. Then he clamped and glued them all together into a blank. It was a really cool idea. It sounds like it’ll be similar to a handplane, I don’t think you’ll need a stringer. If you’re worried about it, glass it heavy. You can order epoxy in small batches from any of the regular places: greenlight, foamez, etc. Or you can go to home depot and buy a ton of the gorilla glue epoxy and mix that up (don’t do that).
Almost done shaping, going to do a final run with 220. Went with a funky experimental shape, deep bottom channel which I’m hoping will provide a lot of lift. Chunky in the nose, hoping that helps me stack my upper body on top when planing. Little anxious on duck diving ability but this is just for fun.
Shape is by no means symmetrical. My only tool was a square of wood that I stapled my sand paper to, but I’m pretty happy with how it’s looking.
Now hoping a family friend can show me how to glass it.
