When a little knowledge can be a bad thing..

General Discussion
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I just completed 50 epoxy vacuum pulls today…

God I’m dead…

Of course they only sat in the bag for 10 minutes and I used 5 minute SystemThree Epoxy Glue…

But I had a little knowledge of somethings

the need to find 25+ unique and reasonable christmas presents for the office staff

and a silly if not stupid inspiration to make it with my own hands…

Two pulls per balsa

one for the top piece and one for the bottom

not accounting for the sides which were put on my hand…

Bitch part is I still have to sand them all and finish them with either a super glossy clear coat or hand rubbed finish.

I’m lucky I still have the weekend since I’m already off vacation.

Took awhiel to figure out bending hardwoods over a curve finally gave up and went with the grain rather than against it… used up alot of wood but my taping experience came into play…

Sounds like some incredible sando experience right?

Wrong!

Same concept different purpose… It’s all good

Your surfing knowledge overlaps into the rest of life if you let it…

Just feel like I’ve been run over by truck though…

Started at 6AM finished at almost 9PM…

Here ya go…

Koa/Rosewood

Redwood Burl/Myrtle Burl

Purpleheart next to Aromatic Cedar

Made 25 of these suckers today for my staff…

Some big some small…

All balsa epoxy skin composite construction (ha ha)

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Wow! They are just great. How do they ride?

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What are they, coasters?

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Not bad at all - at least you were able to do 'em all in a production run so your setup/knockdown time was reasonable rather than having to do the Whole Damn Thing every time.

Like the burl especially, the myrtle I hadn’t seen before. Very nice. I like doing such things myself - waiting 'til my great-niece is old enough to appreciate her own bookcase.

Now, the sanding won’t be a whole lot of fun. I might try giving one some of the System 3 Clear Coat, without sanding or other prep. It penetrates quite well, too well perhaps for some things requiring several coats. But if it does, same company makes a thicker ( Mirror Coat ) product that might work real well, save you a lot of work - haven’t used it myself. Apparently they use it for bar tops and such, so it’d be a real time saver. While I like a nice hand rubbed oil finish, still it’d be awfully time consuming, more like New Year’s before all was said and done.

Anyhow- hope that’s of some use

doc…

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Quote:

What are they, coasters?

…fin panels ???

are we close ?

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expensive mouse pads?

401k document holders?

karate break boards?

wooden frisbees?

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Wall plaques?

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Those rails might be a little soft for your waves, I’d turn then down a bit more, more of a 80/20 design?

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I think I got it…handboards?

or places to rest your gavel?

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Bookends?

Really fancy sanding blocks?

Sushi plates?

…this is fun :slight_smile:

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Thanks doc…

was thinking about S3 mirror coating them as well…

The veneer edges all overlap the sides so I do need to sand them flush but my bench belt/disk sander should make quick work of it as well a quick brush over the flats to smooth things out…

I did them just like mine balsa lam EPS boards with a couple of diffs

measure hardware positions

dismantle the original product

wrap and save hardware for remounting later

cut out and blue tape up wood lams to make the top and bottom (important grain must go 90 degrees to curve experience shows parallel will not work with hardwoods and sometimes a little spray of veneer softener for the real tough stuff like ebony and koa.)

cut out a spacer from a 2’x6’’ to help wrap the lam around the curves on the sides

prep vacuum and place bag on a “no-rocker” table (i,e, brick in bag over a piece of wood on a TV-table using bubble wrap as a breather)

on a separate glassing TV-table lay down some plastic to “glass on”

mix up some 1-1 system three epoxy glue

pour out and squeegee epoxy on wood over plastic on “lam table”

on a “layup” tv-table lay epoxied wood lam on a sheet of release film epoxy sideup

lay down product top or bottom upside down using centering marks to align lam

place on “no-rocker” spacer from 2’x6’ inside of top or bottom pieces

pull the release film tight over spacer pulling wood lam around curves and seal with blue tape

place piece in bag lam side up on no-rocker table (small brick on bubble wrap in bag)

seal bag and open vacuum

hold down and flatten out lam over piece until the vacuum clamping takes place.

set timer to 10 minutes

get next piece ready

when the time goes off clamp vacuum open bag and remove piece

take all holding blue tape off lams and place in sun for “heat curing” of epoxy

repeat process until you finsh the tops and bottom of 25+ various balsa designs

Everything I did above I learned from CMP to make my epoxy balsa lammed surfboards

Hicksy/Chip/Scott

they are various sized balsa wood jewely/nic-nac boxes (made in china-sorry folks) I got from the local Ben Franklin Hobby Crafts store for any where from $4.99 - $8.99 which I am “dressing up” with some exotic hardwoods I had but never used for my boards (1/32" veneer lots of Koa, Mytle Burl, Redwood Burl, Ebony, Rosewood, aromatic Cedar, Makore, Purpleheart, Birch, Mahogany, Sapele, Maple)

I’ll be lining the inside with dark colored felt and some with pieces of aromatic cedar under that and if I have ENOUGH time I’ll cut out and include a koa little turtle christmas decoration inside to hang on the tree

I figure they can be used to hold just about anything…

I apologize to John Cherry, Paul Jenson and Richard McCormick and any other fine woodworker if I’ve insulted them but I am severly pressed for time and need to crank out volume without a wood shop and the funds to “buy” the real stuff which I’d never consider giving away to 25-35 people I don’t especially hold dear but have to support at work day to day.

So I’m using a little of what I know about vacuum board building to try and create something of a little beauty…

Just like any of my Lowes 1lb EPS wood lams…

they look heavy

but feel light

and look like a miliion dollars…

like they always tell me at work…

“Take what you know and think out of the box”

only in this case I thought of the box…

ha ha ha…Happy Holidays everyone

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mmmmmm sushi

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Quote:

Thanks doc…

was thinking about S3 mirror coating them as well…

The veneer edges all overlap the sides so I do need to sand them flush but my bench belt/disk sander should make quick work of it as well a quick brush over the flats to smooth things out

Ah, I see now, that’s just the right tool for that, I think, give you a nice 90° sanded surface.

On occasion, a wee bit of Radar Love helps with bending wood: thoroughly wet it and nuke it in the microwave. Another option is to put it in a low oven between a couple towels. Though with veneers that might have a real short ‘bendable life’ as it were.

Had I had a leetle foresight, lets just say I had a LOT of cedar come down in the recent breeze here. All the veneer you could want, in the hand-dandy tree-trunk form. So, rather than doing any fancy woodwork, it’s been me and the Stihl these last few days. Gawd, what a nice chain saw.

Let me think a bit here- for your felt lining, a spray contact adhesive is probably the best way to go, though from the way you set up I think you prolly planned on that already.

And, while I can’t necessarily speak for Paul, Richard et al, speaking for myself;

Hey, I am always trying to figure out how to do a better job than I have tools and setup for. There are lots and lots of well-off hobbyists who have better and more completely equipped shops than I do. They can buy it for the hell of it, I have to justify upgrading in terms of time saved and hourly wages.

The most efficient guy I know, among pro cabinet guys, I think the average age of his big tools is around 50 years, and his thickness planer has to be pushing the century mark. But he lays out his manufacturing process in detail and sets up/makes his jigs and such, then he gan go right to town, cranking out things like shojii screens and the like.

Anyhow- you have fun. Me, for the next week or so… http://www.mwscomp.com/sounds/mp3/lumberjk.mp3

doc…