My OCD behavior wouldn’t let me wait months or weeks to dry the foam. I have been moving the blank into direct sunlight then back under cover while a rain squal passes, 2 to 3 times a day for the last week. In between moves, I’ve done a little shaping, then if I hit a wet spot I stop. I got it to where I figured the top and bottom thickness can’t be cut anymore, so I filled the bad spots and waited a little longer. I’ve been slowly shaping this board over a week now, and it’s done. I’ll need to get poly resin now because I don’t want to glass it with Epoxy, and I need more glass.
Here’s what it looks like. The bottom has a slight roll, thanks to Bill T, it has about 3/16 difference from the middle to the rail. I also made the rails more pinched than I normally do, but it turns down and gets a very hard edge about 16" from the tail and the tail is flat. I sprayed the top with a white paint made for plastic. Some of the darker areas and where the fill is still shows through.
Started glassing the board. I did one layer on the deck first and I added a full bottom cloth inlay. After I cut the cloth, I’ll add another layer of clear glass wrapped around the rails, then add another layer of clear glass on the deck wrapped or maybe a full deck inlay just shy of the rails.
Thanks guys. It would have been way better if I used good glass. I have this crappy heavy glass that I keep using and it can be a nightmare to saturate. The deck would have been really nice, but I had to work so hard that it got a bit muddy.
I didn’t have enough good glass, so I used my endless roll of cheap shit. My brother let me have some hexcell to do the second layers and it was so much better.
I Have an old hobie Peter pan slugg I bought for a few dollars it was pretty beat up glass pealing off the tail I have been thinking about stripping and doing a reshape. Is there a good method for stripping? Seems that Randy Rarick usees a blast of compessed air to remove the glass from The boards he restores. Not sure of how that works or what you need. That Board you did looks great . The splatter made me think you were channeling the ghost of Jackson Pollock . Just don’t let him convince you to start drinking like a fish. Other then drinking I think the Pollocks ghost should be pretty tame.
I’ve been doing the Pollock splash for a while. It’s the easiest way for me to make a colored board. I use the stir stick and fling resin onto the glass. Sometimes I try to do drops, other times, I let the resin drip off in streaks. With poly resin, you can make the cure slow and take time. With epoxy, I don’t try to do more than 2 colors and may mix them for a third.
As far as stripping the board, I’ve done 5 or 6 of these now, and I’ve tried various methods, but I have not tried pumping air into the blank. If you have time and a place to do it, sanding down to the glass seems to be the best for not tearing large chunks, especially on the rails. I’ve used a circular saw and cut very shallow lines a couple of inches apart lengthwise once and it worked well with the sanding to keep as much of the blank intact, but man there’s fiberglass everywhere. You’ll need a protective suit to keep the glass off you.
With the beat up old longboards, I don’t really care because the original board is so much larger than what I plan to make. I just cut the rails off, then start prying the glass off with a putty knife. The deck and bottom come off pretty clean, but if you’re working with a lot of curve in the rail, it may tear chunks of foam. Once I have a blank, I try to see what I can do with it based on rocker and length. I’ve had a 9+ that ended up about 7’ 6" and a 10’ ended up about 8’.
If you are working with EPS, you probably should sand the board down into the lam. EPS usually tears badly.
