A while ago there seemed to be a ton of HD board threads and I am thinking about making an epoxy one myself. I was just wondering how they have been holding up and if there were any updates? Also, I remember some people saying you had to vent them and other people saying you did not. Any news on that as well?
Im also interested in some feedback on the 1lb EPS projects. i got a gallon of epoxy left, and 30yds of 4oz E-warp. What kind of glass schedule you guys use? and how has it held up for you? also you weight would be nice, cause im a fatass (190lbs), so obviosuly my glassing schedule will be heavier. Im think about doing a fish, and the lowes/homedepot foam will save me some dough (broke…collegesucks). thanks guys (ive looked in the archives, but not much follow-up on how the boards have held up).
Better yet… How has the FROG held up??? that was my inspiration to try fish.
“super shakka” haha
I must say you have the greatest picture EVER!
I heard HD is configuring DIY board kits made in China…only $45.
Hey Cambell, you gotta a nice ass…can you say “cheeeeeeeez”
We’re still making our cores with Home Depot foam, but we vacuum bag a layer of balsa over it. We have not tried glassing the HD foam without a wood skin.
We do all kinds a variations with glass ubder the wood and over. I think it works best with a double 4 oz on top, no glass under the wood for the top, and a single 4 oz no glass under the wood on the bottom.
I think the HD foam might be too soft without the composite skin, but maybe double 6 oz on both sides, and another 6 oz deck patch would work. POst curing it might also help to make a stronger glass job.
I only have one board that has delamed, but it was that way before I even got it in the water. I still use that board a lot, and it’s starting to look like water is getting in there. All the other boards have stayed pretty solid.
I have another one waiting to be shaped, I haven’t decided what I want to do yet. It started out as a 7 X 22" egg, but may end up in a retro shape. I have a shot of the foam.
If you want to make a nice EPS board without making a Compsand, get a Marko blank, or 2 lb EPS.
I have one, I call it “Patches”. I’ve left it in the car three times, and three times I’ve cut out large deck delams. But, I just spread some resin on the piece and vac it right back down with some cloth at the seams, perfect every time! The main reason for the delams is I thought I could use Gorilla Glue to attach my deck skin to the blank, bad call. It was obvious what happened when I cut the piece off, I didn’t spread the GG around very well. I used a 4oz/balsa/4oz schedule on top and bottom. Then I glassed the rails. Many, many sand-thrus later, I decided that one layer of glass on the rail is very insufficient, thus more layers on the rail. This seemed to make the board work better too. To make the blank, I glued foam blanks together, the ones I bought were only 4 feet long. I used books, etc. to form the rocker, very crude! The glue lines on the blank get funky when you start thining out the nose and tail. The board hasn’t seen the water since October, but I used it a bunch last summer and it’s holding up fine, zero dents/dings.
My first was a HD foam board, glued up multiple sheets, bent the rocker in, ugly glue lines as noted in previous post, but I immediately bought a block of higher density foam and now hotwire it all out. Much easier, cleaner, stronger, faster, etc. No use for HD foam anymore, but that’s what made shaping possible for me in the first place. Great way to learn I think.
Hey Shark country, do you ever have problems with the wood delamming from the foam? I was thinking about eliminating the glass between the plywood and foam on my next project.
pau…aloha and mahalo!
Oneula, I eagerly await that thread.
fosta
My ‘homedepot’ project is going on…
http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=299589;search_string=mote%20singlefin;#299589
Thanks Neira, cleared up a lot of little questions I had. Oneula, please post pics when you can! I’m a little confused what a “springer” is. Could you elaborate?
Check this out. It shows how we do the springer.
The beauty of doing our boards this way is that we can set the rocker from a board we like pretty easily. Once the rocker is set, you can change the bottom from flat to concave or even rolled. Or you can use a bottom contour mat and set that in at the same time.
Then you cut out the outline, and the foil. Then add rails and finish shaping the board. You could also use the bottom contour mat, when you add the bottom skin.
Nowadays. we’re making foil templates, and combination rocker/outline templates for the rail bands. Once the initial rocker is set, we use the foil template to hot wire the board’s thickness instead of cutting it down with the planer or surform. Saves time and makes less mess.
I’m slowly progressing on my HD balsafish. I’ve just procured ($50) a Gast vacuum pump from our local electronics/mechanical junk warehouse, astro too, and I’ve currently got my bottom skin out curing in the nice Florida sun today.