since a sways and google search didn’t yield any results, i’m going to think it’s not a great idea, but figured i’d ask.
is a veneer deck patch an option instead of fiberglass for the heavy traffic zones (under feet/knee paddling)?
i imagine it would just cause stress risers which is the biggest problem. i don’t care about weight, but i just get bummed on dents. i realize there are other construction options to minimize/eliminate dents, but wondered if slapping a wood patch into the mix is worth investigating.
Vacuum bagged 3/32" planks are like 10z fiberglass equivalent. So a foam/4 oz under wood/wood plank/ then 6oz deck would be like 20 oz of fiberglass strength.
I had a major delam/foam rot situation from a board that one of my guys abused and didn’t take care of in the timely manner. I roughed in some new foam and covered the damaged area with a bamboo veneer patch. It worked great and didn’t add a lot of weight. I did the same to repair a PU/PE board that buckled between the fin cluster (broke most of the stringer, too). Bamboo veneer tail patch. Again, worked great.
Greg Loehr compared the bamboo veneers to really heavy weights of fiberglass, only lighter.
I only do composite surfboards vacuum bagging them. They are great for repairs. I don’t quite understand what your goal is? To beef up your deck you can use wood, high density foam, nylon, CF,cork. If you aren’t vac bagging it on I would just hand lay extra fibergalss like everyone else in the world. You are at the point of design or the board is already made??
Did this one with a corecork patch before and after picture.
i had actually planned on vacuuming the skin if i did it. this would be a first-time vac project for me, patching onto an old board just to learn/experiment. i was just curious about the potential with no real plans. like i said in my first post, since i hadn’t really seen it anywhere, i didn’t think it was the optimal way to go, but wanted to ask.
i’ve been looking at all the old vac threads and your info is invaluable so far in my research. will probably try a cork patch as a first go.
Gordof , if you went a few mm thicker than veneer and used a fabric underneath , you would create a back foot area with very good impact strength. A template and a router , set at the correct shallow depth would do a neat job of this. Inegra ( for instance) would be relatively inexpensive for a small area under the back foot. If you get the router depth accurate , there would be almost no extra sanding involved.
As Kayu said, going thicker than veneer and route/insert the material on the shaped blank before laminating would yeld a very impact/dent resistent deck. I recently used 2mm Corecork for a deck insert:
Here is a deck insert I did a couple of years back using cedar strips. After running a bunch of strips through a thickness planer, I taped them together lengthwise along each seam and vacuumed the panel to a vacuum table with a layer of fiberglass on what would be the inside surface. After the epoxy cured, I templated the panel and vacuumed it directly to the shaped blank - the concave deck was recessed an additional 1/8" to allow for a flush fit of the skin. I slapped the deck a few times with a strip of wood with nails poked through for a ‘3-D’ glassing effect.
