Had the blank for awhile, just getting around to starting something. Working out of town a lot, so likely to proceed very slowly. But since I took it out and did a little work today, I thought I'd go ahead and start my thread. Will update as I proceed.
My first time working with EPS. 2 lb. US Blanks 9-4B from Fiberglass Hawaii in Ventura. Steve Huerta my go-to sales guy ordered it for me, took about a week to come in.
I picked up the blank with no stringer, so I could put my own in. Couldn't believe how "floppy" the blank was, when I picked it up. Wow. Thinking I'll go triple stringer. Center basswood, sides redwood or paulownia. Wood tail block.
Kinda an old school single fin longboard - with a "twist" (or maybe even go twingle fin), thinking of going glass on, but not sure. Everything subject to change.
I cut the blank today, just used a floppy blade pull saw. It did a real sloppy job, cleaned it up as best as I had patience for, far from precision but close enough, went ahead and mixed some epoxy resin with Q-cell and black pigment, and clamped everything together.
Below is the board so far.
Damn Huck. What's going on with the stringer? Can't be a F U with your tool skill. I did an xps and my stringer has a bit of wave in it and it bugs the shit out of me. Yours makes me cross-eyed. Mike
haha, that's funny. I guess that's the intent - so to speak. The concept for this one was born way back when I was making a wood board with wavy lines, and I drew this up to someday build from foam.
I like going outside the box like building a wood board out of old weathered fence boards, or painting a new board yellow and adding faux-dings.
This is in the same vein.
On a philosophical note, a lot of this is kind of a reactionary thing, against the cultural obsession with machine-perfection and cosmetic aesthetics. Computers replacing human craftsmen, plastic implants in human bodies, etc. etc. Rage against the machine, I suppose. Now I admit I love the look of a precision made showroom finish board as much as anyone - I just can't build them LOL, so I go in a different direction.
And maybe on some level I'm influenced by the work of Thomas Vincent Leman, and his wacky fun furniture designs that make you re-think what furniture is supposed to look like.
51Ugmlv7xXL._SS500_.jpg
Dang. I guess I don't care much for Mr. Leman's stuff. I appreciate the skill and talent. Just don't care much for the function. Where would I set my beer when I'm changing out to my street clothes after work? Does he do work for Disney? Do sets for Tim Burton movies? I'm sure your board will surf well. Mike
Yeah, I get that its not for everyone :-)
Although I've had this design on the backburner for quite awhile, I have to give credit (for pushing me to go ahead and try this) to Barry Snyder and Mattwho for their inspirational work with custom stringers posted on this forum. Even 'tho they're in a different league than my crude efforts.
Huck,
Very stoked for you! Way out there and cool.
One more for you Big Isl cat Dean Edwards , I think Barry started the "bone" glue up the ultimate recycle job!!!
(edit) posting without coffee this AM and did not mean to waste your post.
Huck why EPS?
My take is two more strigers.
What fun! I see your fix's to the usual (glue up blues) problems.
Nice work!
Aloha
Dean Edwards bone glue up.jpg
I would rather be someone's shot of whiskey, than everyone's cup of tea.
www.mattysurfboards.com
Huck, I really like the thoughts and follow-through in your boards.
I am also thinking of trying some 'secret sauce' and EPS, did a small test with yellow, red, blue, and black. Barry and Matty sure get a guy to thinking...
Am I seeing a little Dardevle in your theme? Wishing you could be fishing?
All the best-J
http://pushheretosavealife.com/ Be safe, have fun. -J
Huck,
I wonder if it will twist when you laminate it. Might be cool to add another that is symetrical to the first. If not I'll just close one eye as I follow your build..... Mike
Hey Mattwho thanks I've been wanting to try EPS just because I never have, Some love it, some hate it, wanted to see for myself what its all about. Also, I didn't think I could get a stringerless blank in poly, but now that you mention it I don't think I asked, either. I agree, I'm gonna add two more stringers, just a matter of what kind. Probably redwood, but might be paulownia or just colored glue, also.
I added q-cell as thickener and to make the resin easier to sand, and black for effect, but my cut is not that clean. Meaning the width of the black glue line will doubtless vary. I'm thinking I might add a black pin line either side of the stringer, that's why I went with black. But will wait to see how it looks before I decide. My motto has kinda become "celebrate the imperfections", so an irregular glue line either side of the stringer might fit into that.
I had saved a stringer from a previous board that died, made from the same blank (9-4B), so that worked out good.
That's a crazy glue-up project in your pic there, nice to see the offcuts put to use, what a project! Barry's stuff is just on another level. Yours too.
Really enjoying this!
Most the old timers must be taking naps!
Sorry but you are not the first madman. Greg Noll is premiere and I know other craftsmen have done it.
Your whimsy stringer, blasted me back to a time when I was a gremmie. We had beat up Holden’s and Jacob Velzy’, a fellow grom’s Pop had a dive shop and featured Greg Noll boards.
Noll’s promotion sheet had these figure 8 stringered boards, we all said “bitchen” (now days “awesome”).
Enough on theflashback, dig on these.
How about a “chop stick fin” it is Mr. Noll’s signature, but made one a few years back and could make one to your spec, you if you like (fin box or glass in).
Carry on!
Noll figure 8 ad 001.jpg
crazy Noll.jpg
chop stick GN fin.jpg
I would rather be someone's shot of whiskey, than everyone's cup of tea.
www.mattysurfboards.com
" sorry but you are not the first madman " ...
..... indeed !
[ as bowie , and others , have known for a long time eh ...?? :) ]
" http://www.metrolyrics.com/all-the-madmen-lyrics-david-bowie.html "
keep up the experimenting ....
cheers Huck !
ben
*************************************************** http://www.benchipper.blogspot.com.au/
Yeah Huck.
Welcome to "Club Twisted"!
Never be afraid to go outside the box, rather pick it up and smash it to the ground!
Keep it up.
http://s346.photobucket.com/user/barrysnyderdesigns/library/Dissect%20Series?sort=3&page=1
Barry Snyder
Surfboards made by hand. Not machine.
http://barrysnyderdesigns.com
Instagram @barrysnyderdesigns
brothers from another mother , barry ??
*************************************************** http://www.benchipper.blogspot.com.au/
Thanks all, for the encouragement.
J - when I was just a kid I had a mean stepdad that used to make me go fishing with him, I've hated it ever since, ha! But that lure sure has a familiar look...
Mike - I could always say its a test in asymetrical flex!
Mattwho - that's a great offer, but I'm thinking of going with a twin-gle-fin setup, aka the thrailkill double, so I would hate to ask for two fins! Leaning toward a "pivot fin" shape - it would be a special challenge to glass on the fins, so I may go fin box, but really leaning toward trying to figure a way to glass on twin-gle fins.
BTW sways member Balsa did a curved stringer like that, turns out it was really just a strip that was routed into the surface, I'm thinking that's probably what they did in those pics too? Nothing new under the sun, so no claims to being first here, just doing my thing, but have never seen a pic of actual asymetric curved wood stringer. Would love to see one 'tho!
Barry I like "Club Twisted", might have to make a logo for that to put on this board!
Guilhem Rainfray...
Guethary-Surfboards.jpg
Cut the blank and glued it back with black resin. I'm sure I didn't do it right, I just cut it open, slathered some epoxy on, and clamped it back. I didn't clean anything up, just left the ragged edge from the cut. Just eyeballed the cut freehand with a handsaw - its wonky in more ways than one! (more than shows in the pic). No worries, wonkiness is allowed on this one.
Got it foiled and roughed out. Emphasis on rough.
My first EPS board, its a lot more work than shaping polyurethane foam, and not nearly as fun! My hat's off to guys who shape this stuff with confidence, it seems hard to finesse like I can poly foam. Is it stronger than poly, or weaker? (I mean in the sense of pressure dings on the deck and fin box strength.)
wonky tank 01.JPG
wonky tank 02.JPG
Eh,
hate to wreck your tread.
Waited
But
ah, no one home.
So here Buddy!
Your glue lines are excellent.
"Advanced concepts from advanced minds"
Nuff kudo's.
Jus' a little bit older than you.
But I think you can remember.
Just a little more classy than TS.
Old Guys Rock, Roll and Rule.
Oh!
wait for it.
I would rather be someone's shot of whiskey, than everyone's cup of tea.
www.mattysurfboards.com
Haha - wow, 73 yrs young and rockin!! You go Chubby, hope I can still move like that when I'm 73 LOL.
The lines are a bit wonky meaning the curve on top doesn't match the bottom, as the saw wandered a bit. And the glue line looks weird cuz it wasn't a clean line, so its kinda jagged looking. Lesson learned, I just jumped in and did it, I'll probably do it different next time. But it'll be OK, the board turned out better than I thought it would, so far at least (of course thanks to spackle, that is!), cuz that EPS is nasty stuff after shaping poly blanks. At one point I was close to tossing it and saying never again! I will say this, when you're done shaping, if the board looks good, you feel like you really accomplished something.
I was toying with different design ideas using inlay fabric and resin tints, but I think I've settled on just painting the blank and glassing it clear. Probably just go with single box fin too, don't have the energy for my original plan of twin-single glass-ons, maybe another board down the road. Trying to keep it simple on this one.
The EPS feels really light, and I'm not a big fan of light boards, so I'll probably go a bit heavy on glass, I like 'em strong anyway. I picked EPS cuz I wanted a stringerless blank and didn't think I could get it in poly, but didn't think about the weight.
BTW this one is a reproduction of my "magic" board, which is getting older and nearing retirement!
Did a foam stain / seal on the rails - the spackled foam took the stain really uneven. No biggie, I can tint the glass, just have to figure how I want to handle the clean line, not sure if I want to try to do that with a squeegee, or mask off and glass separately.
Put a fabric lam down on the deck and tail (bottom), didn't babysit the tail part like I should have, it got some bubbles which I had to cut open and push some resin into, then weight back down. Seems to be OK now.
You can see my crappy glue-up line, I'll hide that with pin lines.
I'll probably keep saying this, but working with EPS realllly makes me appreciate polyurethane foam!
Love it!
Kinda like a "Cat" on LSD!
? mystro?
Lap?
How did you finish this???
17149861227_58dc6480f6_z.jpg
I would rather be someone's shot of whiskey, than everyone's cup of tea.
www.mattysurfboards.com
Where daj go???
I would rather be someone's shot of whiskey, than everyone's cup of tea.
www.mattysurfboards.com
I like this shot-nothing straight but things just look right. Nicely done Huck!
http://pushheretosavealife.com/ Be safe, have fun. -J
You are making wonky look good!
Funny mattwho - yeah, workin' out of town, no surfboard building, during week. Hope to get some progress this weekend if I can sneak out from under the honey-do's!
---------
edited update: Watching the ultimate craftsman videos on another thread, Marc Andreini talks about doing a foam stain, and says it takes several coats to even out - so I masked off and did another coat, looking much better. Trying to match the beautiful blue of my Murphy's Law mini-mal by StingRay.
dorrie cabana and wonky foam stain 042a.JPG
We're all crazy. I really can't wrap my mind around this project. But I think its totally awesome. Murphy's Law board is resin tint. EPS has it's place in the world. Sucks water when dinged.
Ray
Eh Ray!
Modern age balsa!
"Sucks water like a sponge"
2 bad outta the water hodad!
@Huck..
Seems you have always been twisted!
"You have done well pilgrim"
hucks wood.jpg
I would rather be someone's shot of whiskey, than everyone's cup of tea.
www.mattysurfboards.com
When I pulled the tape from the cut lap it took huge chunks of the seal coat with it. Looks like crap. Time for some remedial work already!
Welcome to the Club!!!
I submit
"why do bad things happen to good people"
Also,
Adapt, overcome...
Which in this case I would (almost) bet my life
"Sis" will be bitchen.
BTW tread is a little plain...
Let's spice it up.
Aloha
Oh and welcome to the club!
I would rather be someone's shot of whiskey, than everyone's cup of tea.
www.mattysurfboards.com
Fresh out of resin again, but did manage to get a layer of glass on this one, top and bottom. I added a bit of yellow on the bottom lam, and a lot of yellow on the top lam, because there was more to cover up on top. Cut the tail for my wood tail block / leash attachment.
lemon twist 1st layer glass 001.jpg
lemon twist 1st layer glass 003.jpg
lemon twist 1st layer glass 005.jpg
lemon twist 1st layer glass 008.jpg
few more pics of the tail block / leash detail - gonna be similar to the detail in the last pic, from another board
lemon twist kite tail leash block 001.jpg
lemon twist kite tail leash block 002.jpg
lemon twist kite tail leash block 004.jpg
lemon twist kite tail leash block 006.jpg
tail block leash attachment.JPG
Good stuff huck.
Question?
What keeps the inside of the cut brass from cutting the leash rope?
Or do you round it?
Looks cool as hell.
Nice job.
Barry Snyder
Surfboards made by hand. Not machine.
http://barrysnyderdesigns.com
Instagram @barrysnyderdesigns
Hate to "Bomb" your tread
Saw the earlier post.
And really wondered "what the heck"
is that madman up to with the tail????
I mean I have been worried sick.
Just had to check back.
And Schzaam!
Now I am so relieved
I think I can carry on with Papa's day
Eh?
"Wicked stuff" you are developing there "Sonny"!
Aloha
I would rather be someone's shot of whiskey, than everyone's cup of tea.
www.mattysurfboards.com
thanks, just more of my eccentricity, something to do until I get more resin...
Barry - I chamfer the edges with a drill bit, clean up with rat tail file if needed. No burr or edge.
lemon twist kite tail leash block 003.jpg
tail block / leash attachment and fin box ready for next layer of glass
lemon twist kite tail leash block 003.jpg
lemon twist kite tail leash block 004.jpg
lemon twist kite tail leash block 005.jpg
lemon twist kite tail leash block 006.jpg
oh, that's cool Huck!
Nice work, I like the whole thing
Insane tail block Huck, I love it!
thanks noleash!
Here are some more pics, I hand cut some tissue into strips (no straight edge, just free cutting with scissors), and using resin and a small brush I put them down as pinlines. Then I hit it with some 220, and it kinda frays it a bit, I like the look. Still ready for more glass, but when I went to buy some resin they only had it in 3 gal. quantites, so I'll wait and buy some online. I don't need that much.
wonky pinlines 008.jpg
wonky pinlines 005.jpg
wonky pinlines 004.jpg
wonky pinlines 003.jpg
wonky pinlines 006.jpg
wonky pinlines 007.jpg
Low budget creativity!
Love it!
And (sorry) thank God
I have enought change for Posca pens!
;-{)=
I would rather be someone's shot of whiskey, than everyone's cup of tea.
www.mattysurfboards.com
Funny Mattwho, although you have me wondering, are Posca pens expensive? I've never tried them but they look like a fun way to add surfboard graphics.
For awhile now I've been playing around with laminating colored tissue as a graphics technique, as opposed to painting or drawing. It has it's limitations, as some of the colors can be fugitive when exposed to prolonged UV.
Dark blue is the worst, but they all fare better when glassed over with tinted resin. The red and black pinlines I've done it the past have held up pretty well, however, so I thought I'd use them on this board, this particular design lending itself to the slightly imperfect hand-made look.
Here's some of my past work with tissue graphics.
Thank you Huck!
As a matter of fact
I never realized the "how"
Till now!
Great stuff
I would rather be someone's shot of whiskey, than everyone's cup of tea.
www.mattysurfboards.com
Unreal craftsman work their huck! I dig that tail / leash plug.You should pick up a posca paint to mess around with, I think you would benefit.
Scrub it kook
A little progress, snuck out to the surfboard shack and got a bit of glassing work done this weekend, In lieu of deck and tail patch did a "reinforced hotcoat" (per Gene Cooper), maybe have it in the water soon? I'm hoping...
lemon twist surfboard 1a.JPG
lemon twist surfboard 3a.JPG
lemon twist surfboard 4a.JPG
lemon twist surfboard 5a.JPG
lemon twist surfboard 6a.JPG
Finally finished this one up, got some beach shots this week. No ride report, waves just haven't been there for a couple weeks now. Some windswell this morning, but kinda disorganized looking and not very clean, so I opted to start work early so I could get off early, lotsa holiday traffic on the way home.
I did resin pinlines on the deck (over the paper pinlines), and left the paper pinlines on the bottom.
Glassed heavy by most people's standards, finished weight 15 lbs., about 5 lbs. lighter than my comparable polyurethane foam board.
One of my buddies told me it made him dizzy looking at it, haha.
lemon twist 01.JPG
lemon twist 02.JPG
lemon twist 03.JPG
lemon twist 05.JPG
lemon twist 06.JPG
Does weird things to your eyes....
Love it.
@reclaim_surf formerly Skatement
(Adam) Sunshine Coast Queensland Australia
Just 2 cool!
Lemon Twist
Hope she surfs as good as she looks!
I would rather be someone's shot of whiskey, than everyone's cup of tea.
www.mattysurfboards.com
Nice Huck!
rroger
a few pics in action...
LA Surfpix-070a.jpg
LA Surfpix-071a.jpg
LA Surfpix-074a.jpg
LA Surfpix-080a.jpg