To use cabo-o-sil or not to use cab-o-sil? Specifically with FCS2.
If so, how much? Is there a ratio?
epoxy no need, scrub boxes first. poly…id say yes
I use it to thicken the resin that I brush around the inside of the routed cavity. The thickened resin doesn’t drain off the sides and into the bottom of the routed cavity that way. I’ve used it with both Epoxy and Poly. I don’t make a paste. Just thick enough that it hangs on the vertical wall. We used to call Cabosil “Resin Thick”. Saw Greg Loehr use it this way in the Epoxy 101 video. He would also take a little of the left over and brush it into the crack on a Fish as he was laying up the glass. I found both uses to be neat little tricks and have adopted the use of Cabosil for Futures and FCS products. I do not use it on longboard box install. Although the same trick would probably work well on the Futures “Strong Box”.
Same use than Mc Ding for me.
A small amount let the resin flow when you move it with brush or spreader but reduce resin free movement. That’s the tixotrope resin you can find in other industries, called gel coat for mold surfacing works… more and you have a gel past, easy to spread that don’t move free, with lot of tack for gluing, cured hard, sell as adhesive in industrie. Combined with hollow sphere and you have a lighter sandable past sell as fairing compound…
I do a 50/50ish cabosil/glass bead mix, and pack it in all over. Pure cabo and epoxy is a hard, hard sand.
With Futures or any of the FCS boxes all that’s needed is something to hold the box in . The strength of the box is from the lamination over it. I used to just use resin basted inside the cavity, but putting a little Cabosil in the mix makes it hang on the sides. There are quite a few different ways people do longboard boxes. Sinking cloth under and around the box, Q-cell, Milled Fiber etc. Cabosil is a bitch to sand, so don’t use it in any situation that may need sanding.
It may be worth mentioning that, I too, put my boxes in “under the glass.”
Still using that system of Robin’s? Or Probox?
Hi McDing, why don’t you use cabosil on longboard fin installs? Would you recommend milled fibreglass instead? Any insight would be appreciated.
koala02blue
You are right. I prefer milled glass and a little pigment for a longboard box. Longboard boxes usually aren’t the tight fit that a Futures, Fusion or FCS 2 box is. So I like to have something that will fill the gap and secure the box underneath and sides. Some guys keep a little White Gel-cote around and use that with milled Fierglass. I have done them with cloth sunk in the box, but that is usually more work, takes more time and I don’t really believe any stronger. After all 1/32 milled Fiber IS ground Fiberglass. Put a patch over that and you have a secure water tight longboard box install.
About 10 years ago I scored a case of cans of West System 403 Microfiber filler for free from a boat supply store that had stopped selling West products. Been using that ever since. Works great.