Cleaning glass from broken board

I was coming out of the surf and saw this guy with a broken longboard. The piece I took was about 55" the same length as the BBs I ride. The glass had already been torn off the bottom and the deck glass easily peeled off as well. The only places the underlying laminated glass, or the complete glass job appears to have held, was along the rails.

I was interested in what would be the best way to deal with this. I started cutting along the rail apex with a drimmel like tool, but small chunks of glass came out. Alterntaively, I could sand what is left, but that will be a messy job.I didn’t want to make the board narrower, but that would be an option - just cut off 1" inch from inside the rail.

Thanks

bob

 


IF you have a big air compressor you can force compressed air say at 125lb under the glass using a pointed air gun , it will brake the bond between the glass and foam , I believe surfboard restorers use this method .

What I’ve done in the past is sand through the rails at the apex until it gets soft enough to cut with a utility knife and then just peel it off top and bottom of the cut at the apex

This is the method.

Hi Bob,

Being as you don’t have the big air compressor or the raft of sanders suggested, you might try a putty knife slipped between the underside of the glass and the foam to break the mechanical bond. Go from both sides, top and bottom, patiently working your way along, much like how you’d peel an avocado with a spoon getting the spoon between the flesh and the peel. Then pull off the glass, it will probably take a little foam where the putty knife couldn’t get all the way around (pull or wedge up the loose glass to let your putty knife go further towards the outside edge) but that’s sort of unavoidable. 

It won’t be perfect, but hey, you’re looking to salvage enough free foam to make a paipo, not restore a longboard. If you get the absolute apex with your dremel-like gizmo, that may ease things some and allow your putty knife to get nearly all the glass off cleanly. 

Hope all’s otherwise well

doc…

Gday John (& thanks to others),

I have an orbital sander, a sander atatchment to an old drill and the drimmel (a Bosch) has a few sanding attachments. Then there are a few rasps. I’ll experiment a bit.

I used a putty knife to to partially prise up the logos, it was a bit rough. A stanley blade pushed along by a screwdriver was effective on the flats.

All ok here, I’ll drop you a line to hear the latest escapades.

Bob

Hi Bob,

Glad to hear things are well.

Putty knives are … shall we say ‘variable’ as to flexibility, thickness and more. A thin, flexy one may be your friend here, especially if you sharpen it a little, say a ‘chisel’ type of one sided bevel around 45 degrees. 

john

Thanks. I have  a couple under the house.

Your mailbox now has one more e-mail.

John, The flexy, sharpenend putty knife worked fine. Thanks again.

 

 

Hi Bob, 

Gratifying that it worked and that you tried it so quickly.

I think I stumbled across the method while dealing with excess spray foam insulation, either on wood or on a glass boat. Just goes to show that a lot of stuff from other trades is useful. 

john

Gday John,

I might by more tardy when it comes to the reshape.Or, I just need to think it through. It had a high domed deck, so I was going to out a shoe style deck in, and put a moon style tail in (instead of the current straight back). To ride it finless I want some concave in the bottom. Wings may be added after glassing. Far too complex for a first attempt, but the thick tail has to be honed down . Any suggestions for sanding curves?

Thanks again.

 

Bob

p.s did you get an e-mail from me. Some of my e-mails have eneded up in spam filetrs lately, but it may be a quality issue.

Ahm, to paraphrase something on marriage: Shape in haste, repent at leisure. 

If you have the depth to do it, those deep straight ‘channels between sponsons’ John Galera did have long fascinated me. Though that may well be the ultimate in bottom concaves.  Losing volume, yeah, well, I think that’s a good thing, Rod likes real floaty boards but I always liked something I could push under easily, kick and get well under an incoming wave. With a paipo you’re dealing more with planing area anyhow, buoyancy beyond what’s necessary for the board to float it’s own weight is something I was never convinced was a good thing.

Sanding curves or maybe more importantly forming curves to shape. The boatbuilder’s way-

You start with a batten, a straight grained piece of nice thin softwood, not too thick, that you can bend to a curve. Take a piece of plywood and something to do your patterns out of and a bunch of icepicks or awls or finish nails and play with that curve, bend it a bit, set one of your pointy things. look at it, futz with it some, stare at it  Work from a centreline, measure a lot, a framing square can be your friend here. Before you cut a pattern, scribe a line along your batten,  flip it over, measure, repeat  going the other way. What looked good as one side might look really weird when you do the other side too. You learn to see if there are lumps and divots in that curve, picking up that …skill, ability, trained eye…is a very big part of an apprentice boatbuilder’s journey. Some never do. They become carpenters. 

That’s your outline shape, and then there’s deck and bottom cambers, convexities and concaves, but you work from patterns you make, with a batten and by eye. 

Then- well, hey, you have some time, take it and work carefully. Cut, or rasp, or surform, or sand, just outside the lines and very carefully You want to be faster than erosion, but not much

john - barely faster than erosion

Thanks John. Erosion here can be pretty severe and fast.

Hi Bob - I think you already have access to these(?)  Just in case, or if any readers need to see:


Thanks John, I have a couple of John Galera’s boards and not so long ago had the bizarre experience of seeing one of his boards (I think it was the one in the bottom photo), that I’d sold - in a surf museum on the Sunshine Coast. Since these photos John has been experimenting with carbon fibre and I believe is going to make a foil board soon. The board I have in mind has some chines like John’s but wings on rail, like this board.

I had half a mal and was bored once…

 

Thanks.

Where yor tail is V shaped I’ve cut out an arc. I ended up stripping all the glass, so scooped out the deck so the tail end isn’t abrupt. The plan is to ride it finless, so I’m going to add some rail wings.  Photo to come.

 

How does yopur board ride?

 

 

 

 

I used what I had laying around, so have 3 glass on fins in a line, centre one slightly taller.

Haven’t been out on a “good” wave but it does go left and right with no dramas  :slight_smile:

 I usually ride a mal.

Ok, here is the finished board, glassed by Harry, maker of handplanes and other craft.

The outline was essentially the original broken longboard shape, bottom was based on a board Huie made me, wings based on a Chris Garrett design.  The deck was scooped out so the tail wasn’t so thick and the crescent tail is an experiment. 54"

I’ve not picked it up yet, so a ride report will have to wait.