El Cocko's Centerfold, collapsible surfboard

Hi,

 

Just finished and tried my new collapsible surfboard, and thought let’s show it to the swaylockers.

I started this project some time ago because I wanted to take my board with me on hollidays. Here, in the netherlands we don’t have the best waves and sometimes me and the family take a trip to other european countries with (possible) better waves. However one can never be sure, and to take a board (costing at least an extra 50 euro) with the rest of the luggage, the kids luggage and then fit it al in the bus, plane, small rental car etc, only to discover there are no waves, feww… 

So I googled a lot, looked around here on sways, collected all kinds of ways and ideas to build a collasible one. In the end I decided to go the backyard route. No high tech materials for this guy, but I thought of a simple method every boardbuilder can use to make one. foam, wood, glass, resin.

here’s pictures of the finished product 5’8" x 22" x 2,5" biscuit type small wave board

 

This board can be stored in a bag I made for it, and I can take it on the plane for free.

 

It has already been to Spain (barcelona) and back without any problems. Big fun to see it comming on the luggage belt.

If there are people interested in the build process I can post a small “how to”. I took some pics while building this thing.

regards,

Erwin Woldring

 



Excellent!  Of COURSE we want to see the “how to” info…  with as many pictures as you have!

thanks,

very cool

Hell yes we want to know how it was done! I’m always curious about how other people solve this particular engineering problem.

Wow, that thing looks tight!

Well, heck yeah, please show how you did it!

Nice build! I vote for your how to :wink:

Erwin 

Laat zien die how-to !

Wouter

 

Okee, there he goes.

What almost all my examples had in common
was that they took an existing board, cut it in half and then added the
re-connecting system. I already imagened the problems this would give if
the parts were not aligned perfectly, or under a faulty angle. I read
something here on sways about a carbon tube that couldnt be fitted in
hole it was supposed to go in. It also seemed a problem to me to connect
the “connecting system” to the internals (foam, stringer) of the two
halves

So I decided to make collapsible blank first. Double stringer, connecting piece in between.

This
connecting piece had two functions, aligning the parts and pulling them
together. I decided to use wood. Weight was not really an issue in this
project.

I first made the two stringers and used them to hotwire all my foam. Then I made the connecting piece by glueing two pieces of maple together with a layer of glass in between.

On the stringers I glued 6 pieces of wood on the places were the stainless tubes were supposed to come.

This connecting piece I clamped between to 2 stringers, drilled 4 holes,and disassembled. the holes in the connecting I sawed open to the sides and top.

 

I filled the rest of the space between the stringers with foam, glued in 4 stainless tubes.

 

 

 

then I cut the stringers in half, and re-fitted the connecting piece

 


The stringers were getting some extra glass to make em stronger, and after that the rest of the foam was glued to the stringer.

making the foam sides fit.

glueing on the sides with foaming glue. what a mess on the underside. next time i use epoxy.


why do i get all these multiple pictures.

I will stop for a moment until i have found out how this shit works

try again,

 

used a small hotwire for cutting the outline

also used the same template and masking tape to cut to the right depth for the railbands

 

 

 


Then, shaping time.

I decided for this model 5'8" x 22" because of the airport luggage restrictions. The size of the luggage may not exceed 1,50 meter l+w+h that is 5'

so a board of 0,75 l + 0,55 w + 0,15 (6") thickness (2 board pieces stacked) would just be possible. I don't expect enormous waves during my hollidays so I decided for volume. this is why I went with the biscuit shape. low rocker 2,5" and 1,5" tail.

I also made small wooden nose and tailblock that I glued between the stringers, and also 4 extra pieces on the corners of the halves.  This was done to protect the board during traveling.

 

 

shaping is a bit hard with all the wood in the
middle

After shaping the blank I decided it was time to cut the thing in half. I glassed the 2 parts separately. If I should make a collapsible again I wouldn’t do this again. It would be a lot easier to cut a piece out of the foam on the cutting line. then glue in a piece of hardfoam or wood. than glass the board and cut it in half in  the middle of this hardfoam/wood, after glassing. that way the sides of the halves would be watertight and easier to finish. but okee hadn’t figured that out yet.

the two halves are taped and ready for glassing

you can see the little nose and tailblock here

Here are the two parts after laminating. I tried to make the resin swirl pattern as if it was laminated in one piece, but i dindn’t really succeed. looks reasonable though.I glassed it 2 layers on the bottom, then cutlap the deck panel 2 layers. I finished with one layer freelapping.

Then it was time to laminate the sides. I used heavy glass 2 layers for this. Pretty hairy to glass the hole for the connecting piece.

later I had to make the connecting piece smaller on the bandsander to make it fit.

After laminating, fillcoat, sanding and glosscoat. I never polish the epoxy glosscoat but try to do it in an dustfree environment so I only locally sand away the bugs and flies


hi cocko, it looks like you have made a really good job , i don/t know if its me but from the pics i can/t se how the board is bolted  together , can you explain how it is held together firmley , thank , pete 

After glassing I also did some resin pinlines, and covered the sides af the halves and the brims with dark resin to hide all colour imperfections. 

Then of course fin and leashplugs and very important 4 plugs on the inside of the halves. 2 with a small hole and two with a stainless pin for perfect alignement.

All a tremendous amount of work which could have been less if the board was cut on a later moment in time.

 

did you recieve permission to use the lightning bolts?

“and very important 4 plugs on the inside of the halves. 2 with a small hole and two with a stainless pin for perfect alignement.”

Do you have a picture (or can you take one) of this?  I’m having a hard time figuring out how this would look.

Thanks!  nice build thread.