what is the trick to getting the veneer to bend around compound curves like on the surftech boards. i'm looking to wrap the rails and was just wondering if this is possible for the home builder or if you need to bag the veneers to a mold to get them to wrap the rails or if the veneer softener would allow them to bend far enough.
bandito
It isn’t a wood veneer, but a photo reproduction of wood veneer, lays on really good
Hi,
the one I repaired looked like it had real wood given it showed signs of grain when cracking and discolored when wet.
It looked to me like there was some relief cuts here and there. That with a combination of expensive female molds would probably do the trick. IMO Crap construction though with only polyester on top of the wood.
regards,
Håvard
Try your wallpaper section at the local hardware, use a few layers, a few sheets for different areas and line up the pattern nicely.
“relief” cuts with a razor blade will help, especially on the rails, but keep them to a minimum, cover any shit joins with a pinline…
and glass over the top of it…
You should get the idea…
Just guessing… or am I …
it's not wallpaper and it's not a photo reproduction, it's real wood. now does anyone have an idea of how they do such a good job wrapping the rails getting the veneer to follow the compound curves. i'm not saying that they make a good board only that i'm interested in how they make them look so finished. are they using 1/64th " veneer and vacuum bagging the veneer to a mold first? any ideas or first hand experience? i was at the Cobra factory ten years ago but did see any veneer work like they do today.
bandito
Yes, the later models are better than the early ones. They've figured out the relief cuts and rail seams better. I'm not positive but the ones I looked at really close ( I owned one) the seams of the relief cuts were somewhat visible in places but nicely faired in most of the way. They may even do a single layer right along the edge of the outline to back up any gaps between the edges of the relief cuts. It appeared to me that they did a good amount of feathering. At the edge of the tail, they may have done the bottom first, then wrapped the top so it just overalpped the bottom along the edge. That was on a Yater with a hard edge through the tail.
FWIW I had problems with mine that were not addressed by the company. "Nobody said they were ding proof" was the reply I received in reference to cracks and water leakage that occurred with moderate use only. The board was never impacted or straps cinched too tight. I think it flexed during riding, the gel outer gel coat (no fiberglass) cracked and water seeped in. I can't think of any other way the damage would have occurred. It also had some minor pressure denting.
there’s a woodworking technique for veneering called “cold forming” it involved the use of male and female molds to bend the wood until the glue hardens or wet wood drys.
if you saturate wood veneer with epoxy it becommes pliable. if you sandwich it between two layers of thin glass it’ll resist tearing.
my assumption is an inside and outside layer of thin glass saturated with epoxy and laid over the core(shaped blank) then placed in a bag in female mold under heat.
there’s another technique I’ve used which is to pre-form the top and bottom layers seperately over a male mold/plug and a bag. or just use a male/female mold. a layer of epoxy prepregnated glass over the male then the veneer the clamp tight with a female mold/call with heat untill dry. you can then store lots of these veneer preformed shells on the side until needed then just attach both over a core in a vacuum bag and clean up the seam overlaps with some light sanding when done. kind of like timberflex except the compound curves are pre-formed into a veneer shell versus a flat sheet.
I’ve seen CMP bend 3/32"-1/8" balsa over the rails of shaped blank with strategic relief cuts and some patching and it looks like a solid balsa board. 1/20-1/42" veneer is like rice paper compared to 1/8" balsa.
BTW the fake wood solution is real and way easier just not too many choices
The surftech wood series I repaired did not have any glass on the outside of the wood. However there was evidence of peelply being used, so maybe they saturate and only use peelply to hold it together on the outside. Then peel and fair in the edges and fix all problems. It also looks like they cut slits parallel to the rails and not perpendicular like you would with glasscloth when laminating.
If you choose some wood which is pliable and without too much grain pattern it would be fairly easy to wrap rails without to many problems. The problems you can fix by using the same wood and glue it over any cracks, try to match grain and fair it in.
regards,
Håvard
Benny
I think for Surftech it should be called "Stool Softner".
I believe they are doing the premade shell method that Oneula mentioned
veneer is precut then wetted or steamed put in a mold and pressed untill dry
they may do multiple sheets at the same time then stacked untill needed
mass production for sure