It’s been a couple years since my last build, but that all changes today. I’m in desperate need of a “light wind” wave board, but just too busy to shape. I’ve got a break in work & decided now’s the time.
I don’t have a great place to shape @ my house & have been unable to find any shaping bays to rent. My last build (i posted here on Swaylocks) was a disaster as I had to shape it out in the driveway (which is west facing) and it was very difficult with all that direct sunlight.Did some “brainstorming” & the picture below shows my solution for a temporary bay. An extra heavy tarp from Harbor Freight. I built a couple of portable light stands as well (roller stands from Harbor Freight; 4’LED lights from Home Depot & I built the boxes around them). This will at least keep the direct sunlight out of my eyes.
On to the build. I’ve decided to build a “tomo style vanguard” type of board. The board will be 5’-11 x 22" x 2-3/4". I’m using a US Blanks Blue. My glassing schedule will be 2- 6oz top & bottom. The bottom will also have a layer of Carbon Veil (fake carbon) that I got from Fiberglass Hawaii & the top deck will have a Mahogony Veneer on it. Progress photos to follow in the coming days.
For those who didn’t know what this was for, Bill (stoneburner) and I were discusing a way to make cheap perf ply (for vacuum bagging) from the cheap painters plastic that you can buy @ Home Depot.
Attached are latest photos from my progress. Today, I laminated & “bagged” the bottom. Glassing Schedule is as follows" 6 oz. e + carbon veil + 6 oz. e.
The 1st photo is me preparing the deck for the cut lap using the red “stucco tape” method I’ve been using recently. The 2nd photo is just prior to “wetting out” the 1st layer. I remember reading a prior thread on swaylocks where he wet out the cloth on a seperate table & then rolled it up & put it on the board. While I liked how even the saturation was, it was difficult to align the cloth on the board. I should have waited to cut the cloth after if was layed out on board. The 3rd photo is while applying the the perf. ply before putting it in the bag. The perf. ply was made using Home Depot painters plastic & “perffing it” with the Wartenberg tool shown in the photo earlier up this thread. After the perf ply, I rolled out paper towels on top to absorb excess resin & protect the bag & then I threw breather cloth on top & threw the whole thing in the bag (4th photo).
This is exactly the inspiration I need. I recently got a vacuum pump and have been doing my best to get good results on small things like fins.
I’m extremely curious how your perf ply works out. I’ve been using saran wrap. It works good, but sanding out the wrinkles is annoying to say the least.
I’m also curiuos about where you are located on the globe. You mentioned fiberglass hawaii in a post and I’m always willing to help a hand and learn if you are on Oahu.
I’m located on the Central Coast of California. There is a branch of Fiberglass Hawaii down in Ventura (~ 2-1/2 hours south of here). The perf ply I’m making is an ongoing process that I will need to “tweek abit” to work perfectly, but I’m not giving up.
The HDX .31 mil painters plastic from Home Depot is too thin. The bottom flats peeled fairly easy where here wasn’t an excess of resin, but the rails were a little more saturated so resin had come thru the little “nibs” of the perforations so the plastic didn’t come off as 1 sheet. In fact, I had to sand the board down to remove the “nibs” & bits of perf ply. I’ve already bought some 3M .4mil plastic for the next lamination. Also, I think I overlapped the perforations too much which also weakened the ply as well.
I was following an old thread from Greg Tate where (if I read it right) he made his own perf ply as a substitute for peel ply & then put paper towels on top to absorb the resin before putting the breather cloth on). Peel Ply is somewhat expensive when you buy it in small quantities and I don’t build enough boards to warrant buying a roll of it.
I did a studdy for composites airplane parts design and building process, we found that the only way to have improvement of vaccum bagging is with full process with right materials, peel ply is needed to help resin spread to perf of perf ply and to peel it right.
All in all thin monolithique board skin have to be waterthight and flexural/buckling résistant, for both hand lam with right process gives better results ( weight/strengh) than vacbag.
Over the weekend, I routed & installed the future fins boxes. This is the 1st time I’ve installed the boxes after laminating the bottom so I added a tail patch of 4 oz over all thgwe boxes (see 2nd photo). I also ran a small 4 oz. stirrup inside each box cavity. I like to do this as Kitesurfing tends to be a little harder on the fins & boxes.
I also finished stripping the red stucco tape & protection from the top deck. i also laid out & cut the Mahogony veneer top deck & routed & installed the Chinook footstrap inserts. If you look closely , you’ll see that I installed a “Tongue depressor” strongback on the outside edge of the inserts as well & also installed a 6 oz stirrup with 2" wings out onto the top deck. I hope to lam & bag the top deck this week.
Laminated & Vacuum Bagged the top deck including the Mahogony veneer. The glassing schedule is as follows" layer of 6 oz. “e” cloth, then multiple carbon fiber patches in the foot areas, then the Mahogony veneer deck which I cap with one more layer of 6oz. e cloth. Once again, I wet the cloth out on a table and transfered it to the blank, squeeged to the blank & cut in place.
I wanted to start out by giving a “major props” to John Mellor who was kind enough to come over and lend an extra set of hands. His knowledge and experience mdae the job extremely easy. That’s what’s great about Swaylocks. Members helping each other out. I owe him “big time”.
1st photo-I always put chinook 5 hole footstrap inserts in my boards just in case. It can be difficult locating the holes afterwards since their hidden by the wood veneer. My solution- place a 10d finish nail (point up) in the front & rear hole of each insert. I usually wrap a few times around the bottom of each nail to “snug them up” in the hole.Before wetting out the cloth & veneer, I will align the the veneer (starting at the nose of the board) & gently roll it down towards the nails til they poke thru. After that, I slightly enlarge the holes with an awl to be ready for “lamming”. After laminating ( but before bagging), I pull the nails out.
2nd photo-Lay-up is all complete and I’ve applied my “homemade” perf ply followed by 2 layers of paper towels (to absorb excess resin) & finally followed with breather cloth before going into the bag. For this layup, I used 2 mil plastic which was strong enopugh that I could pull on it to remove wrinkles.
3rd & 4th photos- Were posted at the request of John M. This is a "homemade " bag closure clamp I made.In the past, I’ve always used those “snap on” clamp closures that you buy from the supply house. I’ve never had any luck with them as they were difficult to apply & always seemed to tear my bag a little requiring me to slightly shorten the bag after each pull. This is my solution. This is now the third time I’ve used it and it is easy and works great.
Since I’m building this board partially outside , weather has factored into my completing the board. We’ve had a couple of minor winter storms & some major winds (gale force on one of them which tore down my “temporary bay” tarp) so progress hasn’t been quite what I was hoping for.
The 1st photo is during the hot coating of the bottom. The weather “killed me” on this. Every time I mixed up the epoxy, the wind would come up & start flapping the tarp. This kept dropping debris onto the wet out. Ended up sanding & hot coating 3 times. Very frustrating. I’m going to have to find an indoor solution for this.Because of this the board ended up slightly heavier than I planned (~10.5#) but I’m not to worried as kiteboards don’t need to be super light.
2nd & 3rd photos are of the finished hot coated/sanded board with 3 coats of acrylic sealer applied.
Board is all finished & “ready to go”. Can’t wait to try it out.
My final thoughts on the board? I’m very happy with the shape. Considering that I haven’t built a board in over 2 years, I think this is my best shape(accuracy & symmetry). I know theres’ still room to improve, but I’m “stoked” to see if it surfs as I designed it.
Finish wise, I’m not that happy. I hadn’t used that carbon veil before & didn’t like its “transparency” & then I compounded the problem with a tinted hot coat which made the bottom look “streaky”. We’ll do it different next time. My sanding skills also need “alot of work”.
Charlie-I’m not really sure about it for wing foiling as I don’t do that (yet).The wing foil boards I see at my local break appear to be shorter & wider (they almost look like body boards). As for switching stance - sometimes yes & sometimes no. Since it takes slightly longer to switch stance with footstraps I don’t always.If its a fairly big day (overhead +) sometimes I have to do a “chicken jibe” in front of the wave going out to avoid it dumping on my head then I won’t change stance. Most other times I do change so that my feet are “regular” for dropping in on rights…
Know little or nothing about this, but understand what you are doing. The heavier plastic will certainly work better. And I think if you do as uniform as possible perforations you will get a better result.
