Hello,
i have damaged my epoxy EPS board in the surf and have then to cut it in 2 pices because of guarantee.
Now i want to fix it. What is the best way to do this?
My idea is to tape the bottom and put some epoxy with microballoons inside of the cut first.
And you think that the guys offering this guarantee won’t notice that the board has been sawed, not broken?
Everything is fine. I damaged the board in the surf and it snapped. Then the slingshot dudes told me i will get a new one but i have to cut the old board first.
So i take a saw and did the crazy thing.
Now they dont want the board back and i will try to fix it.
Yes - Glue it back together.
Mask the top and bottom to reduce the mess. I use chopsticks, dowels, or bamboo skewers to help hold the two pieces together while the epoxy bog cures. I think it’s also a good idea to route two 1/4"slots (6"-8" apart and 10" or so long) in each side and glue in some wood strips across the break. The carbon strips obviously didn’t do much to prevent breakage.
After complete cure, grind smooth and squeegee on epoxy bog to fill any defects/low spots. Scuff a 6"-8" wide ‘belt’ area around the glue line. Mask off everything on either side of the belt and glass on a couple of layers of fiberglass. Skip adding carbon strips - just use fiberglass. S-Cloth, if available, might make it less likely to break again. Each side should include a decent overlap to the opposite side and this overlap should be feathered out before glassing the opposite side.
Fill coat/sand/finish your patches as per usual epoxy ding repair. It could be argued that the ‘fill coat’ could be epoxy bog filler to save weight rather than straight epoxy resin.
Expect a slightly heavier/stiffer board but it should be good to go.
Shakin’ My head. Piece of shit Thai or Chinese, no matter. Hope you didn’t put your saw where you can’t find it. Remember; burning EPS can be toxic. Slingshot huh? The whole idea is pretty damned funny. The sling shot popped back and hit you in the eye. What goes around, comes around.
Thank you. No carbon to bring back the stringer needed?
Sorry don’t mean to be so critical. Fix it the way the guys suggest. I just don’t understand why people don’t do a little research before they spend their money. I do understand though why Slingshit would tell you to Saw it in half; They don’t want the general public seeing one of their broken boards down at the beach. Reflects poorly on their product. If you could have seen how many Thai and Chi-com boards were snapped this way in the five or six years that I did ding repair on Maui your mind would snap just like that board.
No problem dude… I am very happy that slingshot send me a new board only with pictures off the snapped one.
You have to know i am a kitesurfer but wave addicted and foil. Slingshot is a very good brand in this buisiness.
To be honest there are much more forces to a kitesurf board especially if you jump it.
I thought because it is epoxy and not poly as my naish custom LE one it would be stronger, but it also gets bumps only from riding like the poly.
Ok so i want to fix it proper and have more fun with it. The shape is very good even if i would prefer more flex to it.
Thanks again but i dont want to put anything inside of the core. Do you really mean that i need this?
I can do the carbon a little bit closer to the nose on deck and bottom if needed…isnt that better?
Two layers of cloth would be good or? On top and bottom? Would it be better to laminate these layers separately ore together?
How much glass you would prefer for bottom and top? Isnt it a good idea to meassure the original layers? We are talking about a kitesurfboard you know!
The board over all is very very light…so no problem with the weight but i want to keep the flex because i dont want to make it much harder.
Maybe its better to peel of some glas before laminating… i dont know…there is a bambo layer under the glas on top.
If you don’t put a short splint routed into the foam across the break; It will snap again in the same place, guaranteed. You can place it below the surface and fill it in. Use white pigmented resin and if you’re any good you won’t see it.
Here’s the point; An EPS core with layers of Fiberglass only will snap easily. So if you are going to by a board of this type you should research the construction of such a board. Also the longer a board of this construction the more likely it will snap. An EPS core with Epoxy Resin and Fiberglass Cloth with no reinforcement internally will snap. The Bonga Perkins Boardworks Model was one of the nicest shapes I’ve ever seen, but of all the ones I’ve seen on Maui none of them stayed together long enough to even take a template off.
It’s a kiteboard? Good luck keeping it in one piece, unless you add some good reinforcement in the repair.
Given the kind of stress those things endure, I’d say that once you snap it, just toss it.
What would be a good reinforcement for the core?
No ideas?
Paint sticks. Gallon or Five gal. Size cut to six or eight inches. Otherwise if you can cut some strips of 1/4 or 1/2” high density foam or PVC “Sign Board”. Either one of those will work as well. I’ve always used paint sticks. If you look at them in a paint store or Home Depot; you’ll see that most of the time they are Basswood. Inserted to a depth below the surface across the snap, you can use a filler like Q-cell and opaque resin/cloth. On a Thai or Chinese board that is already white opaque, the repair will disappear. Keep in mind that a lot of the Asian boards are painted and then clear coated. If the board is clear, that’s a different situation. I couldn’t tell from your pics.
