Am looking to get my dirty little paws on some good XPS stock, but I cannot seem to find any one local in the North Carolina region (am pretty new to the area) who stocks larger billets. Back in South Africa I used to get the pretty white stuff from a commercial refrigeration manufacturer but it just seems as though that sort of industry isn’t present around here - its for a one off personal build so am not looking to stock up on the stuff too much, if any one could point me in the right direction (not Home Depot or Lowes), that would be awesome!
anyone know where I can find XPS foam billets in southern california?
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anyone know where I can find XPS foam billets in southern california?
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Same here, anyone know where to get thick xps block in OC or IE area? i was looking at Dow highload 60 & 100, but they are only comes in 2 or 3 inche thickness. i want to avoid glueing panels together. also 60 or 100, which one would be better and other XPS foam options?
thanks
Their are many suppliers in California:
Try building supply houses in Pasadena?
I would have to pull out my invoices from 2006 and their hard to get too.
The billets I bought were 5.25 Thick - 24" wide - 8 feet long
I would yield two blanks per billet and bend them to a rocker stick.
Gluing panels together is a bit goofy.
Im planning to build a 6'6" x30" x 4.5" SUP, do you think is it possible to bend the rocker(nose: 5.75" and tail: 2.25") into them with 4.5 thickness board? thanks for the help.
NO it’s not possible.
I would have US Blanks hotwire one for you out of 1.5 pound EPS.
For a SUP the xps is not worth it.
Keep it light as possible.
Thanks, that was my original route but reading all the post on xps foam really got me think about xps. I guess i have to go with eps blanks. thanks again.
I have two variacs however will sell one of them for $30 they cost $175 each new so it’s a killer deal.
PM me if your serious and leave your phone number.
Kind regards,
surfding
“sickdog” is the proud owner of the 3 XPS Billets.
I threw in 2 EPS Blanks one CNC’d the whole lot of $50.00.
Kind regards,
surfding
Been a frustrating weekend for surf. We were supposed to have a small swell this weekend, but it didn’t show up yesterday. Today the waves came but the wind picked up and it was raining. I decided to hack out a Blue Dow board.
I started this thing about 2:30 in the afternoon. I got a bunch of 3 inch thick slabs of foam from a guy here clearing out his place. The foam has been sitting outside his shop and some of it was previously used for stuff so they are not in good shape.
I’ve been cutting out rocker strips, but this time I just hacked a board out of the slab. Here’s a bunch of photos.
I started by cutting out a paper template for a MP style MOTE board. I used spray paint to draw the board onto the foam.
Then I cut out the outline with a hand saw then trued it up with a paner and sanding blocks.
Then I started hacking away with my planer, surforms, and sanding blocks. Took about 2 hours, but I managed to get it finshed.
I laminated the bottom then put a brick on the nose to get more rocker.
After the bottom was dry, I did a cloth inlay on the deck.
All this work took me about 6 hours. After I cut out the inlay, I’ll add 2 more layers of glass on the deck, then the fin box and I’m done.
Hi sharkcountry:
I love your energy!
Kind regards,
surfding
Thanks Michael!
nice thread
why is this foam not used much by anyone ? what would people say the pros and cons are compared to pu and eps ?
and what sort of lb does the blue dow seem to be ? it must be denser and much stronger than normal pu an eps ?
i would like to see more pics of blank making and bending in to a rocker line
seems like an ideal foam if you know how to work with it !
Hi JB:
From a technical perspective the XPS is superior to both PU or EPS.
You need to charge $125 more than a EPS to make it worth while.
Surfers are on limited budgets and trust funders can squeeze about a $100 less than it costs to make one.
It’s a matter of economics!
It is temperamental however can be managed!
Kind regards,
surfding
thanks
so what sort of density is the blue dow ?
60 compression is what I have used.
It comes in 40 - 60 - 100.
"The Foam
Since 1999 we’ve used extruded polystyrene, which is similar to the foam used in beverage and fast-food containers (Styrofoam®). This foam contains no VOCs (volatile organic compounds), a source of air pollution. Extruded means the material is forced through a small opening, like toothpaste is extruded from a tube. This gives the foam directional properties similar to wood or a honeycomb. As such, the foam has a constant density throughout."
From FCD (Chouinard website) - not stringerless though...
I introduced Ivon and his son to xps in '91 and he got a board shaped out of it by Yater, and glassed by Clyde Beatty. Those are the facts. It would take some time for Fletcher to start shaping, but the seeds were sown.
The best extruded foam for surfboards I’ve seen is what XTR has. It is white, shapes really well, and comes with a rocker and stringer already set. You just need to cute the outline you want and adjust the rocker to what you really want. I looks and feels like PU, but if you put poly resin on it, it melts. Only problem is that you have to be an XTR approved shop to get the foam.
The blue dow is nice, I like working with XPS more than EPS, but it cost more. You just need to slow down your passes with the power planer to get nice clean cuts. It finishes nice if you want to do that too. Way smoother than you could do with cheap EPS.
I was lucky enough to get some dirty old slabs, dirt cheap. I think my costs work out to just under $10 a slab, and I can get one board from each one. Probably more if I cut rocker slices out instead of hacking it out.
The beauty of it is that you will learn a lot more about shaping a board than you ever will from shaping a pre-made blank. You have to cut the rocker out of a flat sheet, then keep the board from twisting when you shape. If you don’t have enough thickness, you have to figure out how to get the rocker you want. Bend it in or glue foam together? When you get close to the finished shape, you’ll need to be careful because this foam gets fragile, and it’s easy to mess up a rail when you screen it.
Once this is mastered, you’ll be hacking through nice poly blanks so fast, and laughing at how easy it is to work with PU/PE. Or you can be cheap like me and keep working with these alternative materials.