windsurfer blanks... shaping ?

okay… Today I scored 2 old windsurfer blanks …9’11 " x 25 x 6-7" approx.

Has anyone here made mals from these ?

A mate wanted an 8’er for summer, I’d been considering a mal lately too, then yesterday my board supplier asked me if I wanted these…dot dot dot…

I realise they may lose strength being thinned at least 3 " , but I figure I’ll go ahead with ‘Irish’'s 8’er , as a guinea pig / crash test dummy board. If that turns out okay, I’m thinking an 8’6 for myself , maybe [they have HEAPS of rocker unfortunately, otherwise I’d like to use the whole blank!]

Anyway, if anyone has done this , I’d like to hear your thoughts, results, comments, advice…

    thanks ! 



      "chip"

just a quick one…is there any way of slicing the thickness in half …like a ‘hotwire cutter’ for polyurethane blanks ?

[ It would be nice to be able to get FOUR mal blanks out of these two thickies, reducing wastage ! ]

 "chip"

The old windsurfing blanks. The 9’11" are at least 12+ years old. Flat rocker line, right. Most of the windsurfer blanks of that era were made with dense foam(heavy!). I know of a few people who have made surfboards out of them. It took a lot of extra shaping. It can be a good learning experience. My experience with the old windsurf blanks is that the stringers are dried out and brittle which cause chipping when shaped. If you do use these old blanks be sure to apply a layer of resin over the stringers before glassing so that you will not have dry spots under the stringer. The resin will just soak into the dry stringer. Do not hot wire a Clark Foam blank, it will produce deadly fumes!!!

I know of a few places that still have the older blank. Where did you get yours (city, state)?

Anthony

thank you… that’s very helpful…especially the tip about resin on the stringer…you’re right about the brittle issue too !

Yeah, I’ve never shaped a mal before.

I got it here in perth, west australia

 ben

exposure of core foam is an issue the soft inner foam is squishy and if you just get a contemp blank the simplifying factor will be imense. you will agree after your ,1/8’’ per pass 8 passes to the inch 7’‘- 4’’ = 3’‘x8 = 24 passes of eight passes per 1/8 inch =192 passesx10=1920 feet of walking with planer thats close to a half mile just to get to thickness …aaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh…perhaps making an explorer wave ski fishing board might have merit… thats what I see the windsurf blanks lingering in my shed might find their highest use… and then the rocker oh greif the margin for mayhem opens like one of those cravasses in the glacier of your choice…that swallow the I G Y polar exploration vehicles in 1953…ambrose …we sometimes pay dearly for free stuff… rip cut the center out, adjust the rocker and make an ama and a small otrigger canoe to surf winkipop on 6’’ days is perf for mid summer madness… the 6’2’’ fish ties on the outrigger [iako] for costal cruising to remote spots

speaking of " margin for mayhem "… “Shwuz”, what are you up to next week ?

Maybe you could fly over for a bit of ’ texas chainsaw massacre ’ on the blank…waddya reckon mate ?!

“chip”

the posts show your possibilities. cut the stringer out and cut the two halfs in half (chainsaw would work, bandsaw will do). this is actually quite easy as you have a flat side to sit on. now you have two “hard” tops, the soft centers will be the bottoms and you can add a bit of glass. obviously you have australian blanks so the core will not be very soft anyway. reglue a matching stringer and off you go, she’ll be right mate …

here they are…