EPS board construction

Yep Jeff possibilities are endless. I think that for concaves or even whole shaping you can use router riding on template sleds or what about some kind of CNC cutter/router or mill machine

Siting and just clicking button ... nice but I think that safe some part of shaping for my hands coz I love to create something



(Message edited by hawaj on October 16, 2007)

Hey Jeff
here is some hobby dude who already did it

another czech link
http://www.wagsoft.cz/rservice.php?akce=tisk&cisloclanku=2005031503

Oh my goodness - what are the costs of those? $100K? Have you priced a CNC machine capable of run lengths of 60"x25"x6" in a hotwire? I think I priced them at $11K. Sheesh. I can't bring THAT home

To me, a hotwire, some carefully shaped masonite and the rocker table are all within the reach of a hobbyist.

I agree with you Petr, it's great fun to feel the shape as it's coming together.

Yep that's the concept. It's just a matter of rethinking the "tool". What was that quote from Rusty. Why use a tool that would take 5 minutes when you can use a planer to do it in 15 seconds.

To me, why use the planer when I can get a perfect cut in 16" per minute - one pass. You can't shape a rocker with a planer in one pass as is possible with the hotwire. AND it will be accurate. Even the outline with a saw, will require cleaning up with a surfoam. Pin a masonite template top and bottom, hotwire it and it's done and it's the exact shape of the template, that many shapers would have used to draw the outline to begin with.

Jeff dont panic from czech text, pictures are more important than words

CNC hotwire machines are not so expensive - for just around $4K you can buy them here at Tekoa
http://www.tekoa.com/home.php#FEATHER/CUT

But as usualy there are plenty of hobby dudes who
mount them at home - look at this sweet one
BEWARE of french for this time!

http://www.teaser.fr/~abrea/cncnet/meca/tbnico.phtml
http://www.teaser.fr/~abrea/cncnet/table/spartia/spartia_eng.phtml
http://gm.cnc.free.fr/en/index.html

and some CNC dremel router
http://smorel.net/page_cnc_fv3.php

Laser cuting is next best thing

there it is, I found it: router profiler rig
And when you add another profile on sleds than you get 3D hand milling machine and computer is your brain




(Message edited by hawaj on October 16, 2007)

(Message edited by hawaj on October 16, 2007)

Too funny Petr. My "computer" is suffering from AAADD - Age Activated Attention Deficit Disorder.

my too Jeff

I hope that surf shaping will be healtly cure for my mind. When I bought my first blank, everybody around was so excited that I'm going to shape something. I think that I'm on right way now

This is too cool. I might have to do this at home. I was thinking of glassing my first traditional board this winter. This might be a good way to start.

I saw the Transformers movie this summer. I was pleasantly surprised by the reasonable quality of the movie. My son, Jimmy, grew up with transformer toys and cartoons. He took his identical twin girl friends out to see the movie. He said that the movie held to the original Transformer premises fairly well.

Hey Ed - Identical twin girlfriends? As in GF type girl friends or just - female friends? Man, that begs for double trouble quips.

A ployU with ployE resin is TONS easier and cheaper...tons messier too It's easily within the realm of anyone with adequate skills with a planer and square.

The vacuum bagging is decidedly more difficult, but again not outside the realm of anyone with average power tool skills.

Petr, I have found that no matter what you shape, it will ride ok. I still look back fondly on the boards that James and I first shaped. Over the years, learning what does and doesn't work on a board is great fun! It's the challenge that seems to make it such a blast.

Everyone be sure to post pictures of your progress!

Four years ago when Jimmy was a high school freshman he took the twins to the Homecoming dance. He took three on his sophomore year, the twins and one more with the same name as one of the twins. At his Senior Prom he took the twins and two other girls to the prom because the rest of the girls wouldn't fit in his car. The other four girls had to find their own ride to the prom. The twins were going to get him a pimp hat. Funny thing, none of his male friends had dates for the prom, I wonder who had them all I'm very proud of the young man.

The girls are truly identical, I can not tell them a part. Once Jimmy told me that one always wore a hat. The next time I saw them I couldn’t apply the rule because they were both wearing hats. The time after that neither were wearing hats. This year his girl friend cut her hair shorter than her twin, now I can tell them a part.

Oh, and only one of the twins is his girl friend but the other is in tow a lot.

Ok, so I cut the 3" block into a "blank" and teh offcut can be used as a rocker table to be slipped inside a bag/tube so long as a piece of linoleum or formica is laid on the surface to prevent the blank being bagged from being pressed into this offcut table.

One thing I learned is that if you push to fast, the wire snaps

Another thing I learned is that you have to continue with a smooth cut, anytime you hesitate the wire melts a very smallish line across the surface - so...smooth and continuous motion is the key.

The actual blank with the masonite guides still attached.

And we have all the bugs worked out of our vacuum system. Just some tests to see if the offcut (2 pictures up) could be used as a rocker bed, and it can. The 1 pound EPS vacuums nicely to the shape. I slapped a piece of smooth (and ugly) linoleum scrap on the surface.

We were able to pull 18 inches of mercury on the 1 pound EPS.

Fin boxes installed on the 1.7# density stringerless blank.

Total weight: blank, sealed, fin boxes 21.9 oz.

I believe that I can laminate top and bottom with the addition of 12 to 14 oz for glass and epoxy. I'd like to have this board come in at less than 2 pounds and be a rideable stick, but that doesn't look possible. Although I am pretty confident that it will be sub-3 pounds and rideable.

I finally found some time to glass up my EPS board. I used Resin Research Epoxy. Fairly painless stuff to work with although I did get a few fish-eye bubbles on the gloss coat (I think from trying to pull the lamination too tight). Nothing that can't be fine sanded though.

I'm very happy with how the board rides. At 5lb 2oz it is about 2lbs lighter that what I'm used to riding. The "inset concave" seemed to work as I hoped -- keeping it very loose in the front for carving hard without digging in the rail and the concave towards the back gives it a good amount of lift/speed. I felt like I was able to get deeper in the pocket and recover, as well as get a little bit higher on my "big man" airs (those of us over 200lb have a fat chance of getting as high as chase, johnny, & james).

Anyway, final specs on the board
L - 4'7"
W - 21"
thickness - about 1 3/4"
Weight 5lb 2oz
2 layers of e-glass each side with a butterfly patch around the finboxes.

If I didn't do a gloss coat, I would have come in right around 4lbs even with the 2 layers of glass on each side.

I also decided to go all out and throw a name and logo on the board...

Here's a few goofy pics - my wife said do some "blades of glory type moves" so I gave her a silly cheater five...

Sweet looking stick Matt! Looks like you painted it...when and with what? Great artwork, too...ricepaper through a printer?

I finally got the last layer of 'glass on mine. Calculating it will have a final weight of 36 oz - 2.25 pounds, right? That's LIGHT!

Check this picture. Drew form Inspired Surfboards. The blanks in the truck - the blanks with blue rails are Dow XPS 2 pound around a 1# eps core. Interesting think about all the various materials that can be used for rails.

Jeff - no paint on the board -- it is just the spackle showing through in some spots if that's what you are referring to. I actually like the way it came through kind of streaky on the inset concave....

As for the graphics, yes I just made up the logo and threw it on rice paper from Michael's.

It looked like a resin smear or paint to me. Nicely done

Nice board. I'm getting some new foam this week. I scrapped my other clark blank due to its width. It's about 18.5 wide. Here's a link to last weekend.

http://picasaweb.google.com/toemastergeneral/Wakesurfing

cool Matt. enjoyed the photos - looks like you guys are getting ready for halloween.

don't scrap that clark blank! once you get glass and resin on it it should be close to 19" - should be surfable...

Matt S. That looks very cool, nicely done, love the logo.

Can’t wait to see how Jeff’s board turns out.

I've been working on a design for a second recycled materials surf board. Last year’s "design" was a thrown together hack. Led design and more I'll shape it when the resin dries effort. Then it took tons of resin to make up for glaring flaws stemming from the lack of design.

The new recycled board will have construction similar to the balsa board. Kind of an egg carton design. I’m still working on the details. I have plenty of surf board shipping boxes that I will use for the base material– Thanks Jeff.

However after building the recycled board I’m contemplating building a long board. I see that Foam EZ has some starter kits. I have looked at a few online resources. I might have a few questions for the master board builders.

My wife rented Surfs Up last week. Also a friend gave me a copy of Step in to Liquid. Between these movies and these threads I feel inspired.

You're welcome Ed, if you need more material, just shout...I seem to have a ton of it here.

If I may, like the old Lay's chip commercial - betcha' can't shape just one - that is how it went, right?

The shipping on the blanks is astronomical, but thankfully, they typically can ship 1-4 blanks for the same cost. You KNOW you're going to get the bug to shape more or shape for a friend or something. Get the fin, boxes and PLOYU blanks from Foam EZ - I'd suggest the max number of blanks you can get in the same shipment. You can get the PloyE resin, MEKP, wax and E-glass locally and save the cost of shiping that and I'd bet probably cheaper than what FoamEZ is selling it for.

We can give you all the step-by-step details.

Woohoo - you go Ed!

Has anyone noticed the post count in this thread? I think it's more popular than the surf vs skim debate thread I sure do miss THAT like a hole in the head.

Finished weight is 35.2 oz...crappy picture, but that's what it read as I peered under the board I do believe that is 2.2 pounds.

Ready to ride with futures boxes and easily 2 pounds, possibly 3 pounds lighter than the PloyU based boards that we've ridden.

AND it will hold me up! No pressure dents or deformation on concrete, so it's looking sturdy enough.

Wow Jeff - that is very light!! Remind us - did you use the Tap Plastics Epoxy on this one?

Ed, if you are looking to do a Recycled Board using foam at some point - you should check Greenlight Surf Supply. They sell a full kit to make a longboard with bamboo fabric (instead of fiberglass) and an EPS blank. More environmentally friendly. I just got a box kit from them with enough to do a mini log. It is a little more expensive than e-glass, but I'm excited to try the eco-friendly stuff out. Look forward to see your cardboard model though!

Matt, I'm planning on using card board as the core material. Last time I skinned it with Kroger’s shopping bags. This time I'm planning on using a Pizza Hut box for at least part of the top skin. I'm thinking about using rice paper on the bottom. Then I'm going to add a layer of glass to the top and bottom. I want the Pizza Hut to remain visible from the top. I want the rice paper to help stop resin from dripping through the body and I want it to become clear so the inner frame work will be visible after construction.

Here’s a link to a summary of the last recycled board project: http://www.wakesurf.net/media/showphoto.php/photo/259

It was a total hack job, I think I can do much better with up front design.

As far as building a long board goes, I want to do something more traditional first. I want to feel like I understand what it takes to make a traditional surf board. We have some materials guys at work. One of the things they do is develop polymers from soy beans. I want to see if it would make sense to use those materials a recycled environmentally friendly board. Heck, maybe I'll get free resin

The design for Pizza the Hut, a recycled materials surf board. Note, that's a 2-inch grid.

We got a chance to ride the 2 pound board. It's extremely minimal weight made it exceptionally responsive. I don't know what I did, but some of the pictures today were washed out.