Which resin for boat dock billet foam board build

General Discussion
1

hello , my first post but long time lurker here! My brother found a huge piece of blue dock foam in San Francisco bay ( from Japan?) and tried to make a board. He used poly resin and melted it and bummed him out:(. He gave me the other half and trying to figure out what resin to use.I think it’s xps foam,So would epoxy work?how much would I need for a 6’ bored and do I need cloth? Any help would be swell.Is it even with the $ and effort or just cough up $375 on green light .com for a kit

Thanks in advance
TT

2

Yep. Epoxy and glass.

How are you holding rocker? Is there a stringer cut into it? If not, don’t rely on the glass job to hold it in tension.

3

There are some cheaper routes to go if you just want to test the waters. Let us know if we can help you out. Give Wade or Steve a call at our Ventura location and they’ll be able to help you out big time. (805) 644-0009. Or you can check it out online http://shop.fiberglasshawaii.com/resin/epoxy_resin/21_aluzine-98 .

4

Righteous!
@t blank ,the things thick,so just mow it down for rocker, I figured stringer less since I won’t take it out on big stuff
@fiberglass hi. Good lookin’ out,might have to score some epoxy from you guys, cheaper is key

I’ll keep you guys posted

5

TTom, You won’t go wrong using F.Hi. Wade knows his stuff and Mr. H. (as in Steve) has been shaping for many years. I can’t think of a time that Wade was stumped. He’s got the answers.

6

If it’s floated in from Japan, I’d check for radiation, just to be sure.

7

You should glass it, or else it will probably snap in half. I’ve used as much a 5 layers (2 bottom, 3 top) with a full wrap around the rails on stringerless blanks.

I carved out a board from a 3" thick slab of Blue Dow XPS foam yesterday. It ended up 6’4" x 20" x 2.5" I only have a single 9 oz layer on the bottom, but I’ll have 2 on the deck. I am also going to use a seal coat of epoxy and maybe a little filler, like microballoons, on the deck with pigment. Then I can do a clear lamination of the deck in one step instead of a color inlay and a clear over that. I also think the sealer coat will help to keep the off gassing from creating bubbles in the lam. I had to work the bottom a lot to make sure I got the bubbles, but after I went to cut the lap I still saw a couple spots. XPS is not the easiest foam to laminate.

The next board I do, I’ll try painting resin on the foam first then roll the glass down over the wet foam. Do the front, then the back and see if that helps keep the glass down on the foam without getting bubbles. The glass I have may be the reason for this because it’s a heaver glass and takes a bit more time to wet out, plus I’m not leaving the foam real coarse, I’m screening it out to about 150.