We had a burst of creativity on this forum some years back and I thought it might be interesting to revisit the topic.
Anybody buying them? I was thinking about getting into veneers, not for the commercial aspect, but for durability/weight for myself.
Yes I still do some wood veneers deck. It’s a good improvement for durability/weight when well done.
Yes. A guy who goes by Johnny Fever who hasn’t posted in quite awhile here on Sways. He has been buying a few Markos from me lately and teaching a couple of young guys to shape. I will see if I can get him to post up some pics. He is very good at it and has mucho experience. Lowel
Hi Lemat; when I ll have some time I am thinking to make a few with bamboo veneer on deck; now that you mention. Did you used it? What about to use it on PU? What about the weight or better, the pressure to laminate it on a Pu foam? Any other bad or good experience?
Thanks
I used many kind of wood, balsa, samba, bambou, ash, oak… What I can find easily.
Lighter one’s i used thicker 1 to 3mm other’s veneer 0,6mm with or without backing paper. Thick one’s work is like foam sandwich work, harder to conform need more pressure, need more work to adjust on rails. Ended as a stiff and strong skin. Good for wind toy on light soft eps not so for surfboard and stiffer foam.
As deck skin on standard eps or pu 0.6 veneer is better. Between fiberglass it add stiffness at lower weight than all glass skin. More you go far on rails more it stiffen the board, think of it with a stringered blank don’t go too far, think it like a deck insert.
Spray glue on back of veneer, tack glass (2oz for PU Blank) on it, cut glass and wood in same time, epoxy lam glass, return on blank, some masking tape (good one) at nose and tail and at middle each side then in bag, pressure around -0,4 bar is enough, less you go on rails less you need pressure. Roller push skin in foam like with cut lap work or sand feather. After many try, my way to go then is to seal wood with thin epoxy before lam to reduce degassing problems and leak after. You want at perfect watertight layer over wood because even thin one’s take water like sponge. That’s main problem i see with wood. Think veneer as a very effective uni fiber reinforcement layer that need clamping to be set and watertight layer over.