here's a hasty shot of the board at Ray Bay which shows more of my happy son (father-son project) than the build. He was super stoked to finish it, and yes, he brought the board into the guys at Foam-EZ "to match the color of the fins we're gonna buy just right"
Center vent IS the Gore-tex vent that is the "retrofit" version we got from FoamEZ. We glassed over the edges of the vent as well as the (couldn't stop my son) FOUR proboxes.
Gotta say doing the fin boxes is much more tricky than in a standard foam board. Had to cut out the "bottom", glass it in (since there was nothing to stick it to), then stick the box in. We decided against making a supporting bottom block or gluing more cardboard onto the other side so we could keep with the translucent effect as much as possible. Since we (I) was worried about the board being watertight and strength (he is 14 after all) , I put glass over the boxes too.
End result is a cool looking board. Stops people when they see it here in Seal Beach. It's not really super light (since it has like 14 oz glass on the top and 10 on bottom),, but if I were to do it again, I could make it lighter for myself (just two glass-on fins), stingier on resin, etc.
My son is smiling, and that is more than worth it. Just gotta see how it does when he gets slammed. Concerned about Gore Tex, since I used to mountain climb a lot and know its limitations.
Son's choice onthe vent--was worried he'd forget to close the vent, since he sometimes forgets to put his leash on . Did I say he was 14?
Good point. I went with 2 plugs, and Pete C has been on it, letting me know what to expect from this vent. I believe we are pushing its boundries a bit, 2 should help. And, this is sways, pushing boundries is what we do. I stuck on more glass than your board, but used 4oz S-cloth. 4-6-4 both sides. We have jagged reef out here. The water is more floaty due to how close I live to the equator, so I should get good buoyancy. The next Sheldrake build will have less glass, and be cut lapped.
Heres the posts for the Gore-tex vents you can get from Foam EZ, by Pete C.
The fins, on my son's board were tricky,,the Proboxes are usually pretty easy...but on this board, we had to carefully trim the core once we cut through the lam. It was easy to get through the skin, but I made the mistake of pretending the cardboard core was like foam and used the router. Large mistake, since the bit easily handled cardboard as long as you didn't try to router the cardboard from the flat side. If you did, it would jump and I chunked a good slice from the lam and significantly enlarged the hole on one of the boxes.
After trimming, such as it was, I laid in 4 oz e glass and 6 oz s glass in each hole with a small overlap all around the hole's edge-- over the board's bottom surface (like 3/8 of an inch, or so)--- and carefully resined two boxes at a time in. I was trying to make a little pocket in each hole to work with. I took an insert and covered it in plastic wrap, then placed it (gently) into the fiberglass pocket while it was curing and flattened out the edges of the cloth that were above the hole.
I kept a long aluminum level with a weight on top touching two boxes at a time so that the pockets would level, wouldn't float up, and be easy to do the final glue in. It is important, because during the lam stage, it is actually hard to figure out what level on the board is...the bottom really isn't completely flat, and the core kinda gives you a little bit of an illusion.
Once the pocket was hard, I sanded and feathered out the overlap on the board's bottom, then... I resined in the box (again with the level across two boxes at a time) and waited for cure. After that, I took a pull-saw and flush cut the flashing on the box, rather than traumatizing the board again with my router or sanding through the lightly resined bottom lam. I then used my younger son's play doh to cover the grub screw holes
Then we put another, carefully trimmed 4 oz oval piece directly over each box and resined each one over, covering the slot and overlapping the initial glass for the bottom of the box, so the oval piece overlapped like three quarters of an inch away from the plastic around the box. We kept some wax rubbed in the main slot to keep resin out ( mistake, we found out later, since we didn't fully wax every slot). .
I then took a razor and sliced out the cloth away from the slot with when the resin was set enough, but not completely hard. At the end, I took a Dremel (but a drill would've been fine) and ground out the grub screw slots. I knew I was deep enough with my Dremel when pink Play Doh showed up
Two pic's highlighting the mistake and recovery. One is the munched hole (the one with the fin in the box) as evidenced by what looks like extra white stuff outside the plastic box. The other is what happens when you try to dig resin out of a plastic finbox. The resin extraction kinda scarred the plastic, but it is fully functional.
Speaking of fins, thanks to Nick for hitting me up about making some customs for this board. I've been looking for a good reason to make some hollow wood fins for a while now - just haven't gotten around to figuring out the bracing. Here's what we'd agreed upon so far:
After taking a look at a close-up shot of the bracing pattern for the Sheldrake design it became apparent how the joints work - twice as many notched on one side (SS) as those with alternating notches (DS). I had a chance this morning to do a quick mock up with some 1/8x3/8" strips of cardboard testing that idea, and yeah, it went together like buddah. One tough, rigid little sample . . .hmmmm . . .
I'll have a chance to repeat with wood this evening and let you know how it goes. As you know, there is some flexing that needs to take place in order to put those last strips in and that could determine which wood is to be used. On the other hand, it might not be a problem at all . Until then . . .
Yo, Camplus. Your fins are going to out-do my board for sure!
Just a minor update on the build. Brads package from Foam EZ showed up today. Tomorrow I will start the install of the Lokbox fin system. Wish me luck. Also, Pete C's Gore-Tex vent plugs arrived. Im thinking about where to install them at the moment. Probably near the tail, both sides???? There is some debate to why they should go towards the nose, but these puppies never have to come off. So, I think it should be ok to put them there.
-Anyone do custom board bags? Im looking for a hollow core design. Something along these lines, only in honeycomb translucent styling.. Just kidding ;)
AW SNAP! Literally! This one's going in the "old enough to know better - too young to resist" file. 5mm birch ply strips, 3/8" wide with the notches cut 90deg. through like the cardboard.
The smart side of the brain was telling me that I wouldn't get enough flex to put that last run of strips in without snapping the grid. The hasty side of my brain that told me to go ahead and try it anyway . . . No worries though Nick! I'm setting up the jig for 60deg notches tomorrow and moving on to phase 2 (halo casting) shortly thereafter. I'll keep you posted.
Woody-O wanted an entire board made out of balsa. I figured balsa would need an angle cut like you just discovered, at an angle of approx 45-60 degrees or so. to allow the board to shift into position, or align from a grid pattern to the Star of David honeycomb. The cardboard allows for flex, as shown in Post #5, on top. But, perhaps Im missing something, and your doing it a different way. Either way, im just going to sit back and enjoy the show! These fins are going to be sick!!!
I will say this, hold the board up to the light and it looks friggin awesome.
here's a hasty shot of the board at Ray Bay which shows more of my happy son (father-son project) than the build. He was super stoked to finish it, and yes, he brought the board into the guys at Foam-EZ "to match the color of the fins we're gonna buy just right"
fish at ray bay second try.jpg
Shrunkenhead,
What kind of vent thingy is in the center there? Gore-tex by chance?
Nickyarnes,
Center vent IS the Gore-tex vent that is the "retrofit" version we got from FoamEZ. We glassed over the edges of the vent as well as the (couldn't stop my son) FOUR proboxes.
Gotta say doing the fin boxes is much more tricky than in a standard foam board. Had to cut out the "bottom", glass it in (since there was nothing to stick it to), then stick the box in. We decided against making a supporting bottom block or gluing more cardboard onto the other side so we could keep with the translucent effect as much as possible. Since we (I) was worried about the board being watertight and strength (he is 14 after all) , I put glass over the boxes too.
End result is a cool looking board. Stops people when they see it here in Seal Beach. It's not really super light (since it has like 14 oz glass on the top and 10 on bottom),, but if I were to do it again, I could make it lighter for myself (just two glass-on fins), stingier on resin, etc.
My son is smiling, and that is more than worth it. Just gotta see how it does when he gets slammed. Concerned about Gore Tex, since I used to mountain climb a lot and know its limitations.
Son's choice onthe vent--was worried he'd forget to close the vent, since he sometimes forgets to put his leash on . Did I say he was 14?
Good point. I went with 2 plugs, and Pete C has been on it, letting me know what to expect from this vent. I believe we are pushing its boundries a bit, 2 should help. And, this is sways, pushing boundries is what we do. I stuck on more glass than your board, but used 4oz S-cloth. 4-6-4 both sides. We have jagged reef out here. The water is more floaty due to how close I live to the equator, so I should get good buoyancy. The next Sheldrake build will have less glass, and be cut lapped.
Heres the posts for the Gore-tex vents you can get from Foam EZ, by Pete C.
http://www2.swaylocks.com/node/1027651#comment-1353356
Your sons 14? This site should be good for him, if he were to ever want to learn board making. Treatosea as well. And other sites....
Key Hole cuts_0.JPG
The fins, on my son's board were tricky,,the Proboxes are usually pretty easy...but on this board, we had to carefully trim the core once we cut through the lam. It was easy to get through the skin, but I made the mistake of pretending the cardboard core was like foam and used the router. Large mistake, since the bit easily handled cardboard as long as you didn't try to router the cardboard from the flat side. If you did, it would jump and I chunked a good slice from the lam and significantly enlarged the hole on one of the boxes.
After trimming, such as it was, I laid in 4 oz e glass and 6 oz s glass in each hole with a small overlap all around the hole's edge-- over the board's bottom surface (like 3/8 of an inch, or so)--- and carefully resined two boxes at a time in. I was trying to make a little pocket in each hole to work with. I took an insert and covered it in plastic wrap, then placed it (gently) into the fiberglass pocket while it was curing and flattened out the edges of the cloth that were above the hole.
I kept a long aluminum level with a weight on top touching two boxes at a time so that the pockets would level, wouldn't float up, and be easy to do the final glue in. It is important, because during the lam stage, it is actually hard to figure out what level on the board is...the bottom really isn't completely flat, and the core kinda gives you a little bit of an illusion.
Once the pocket was hard, I sanded and feathered out the overlap on the board's bottom, then... I resined in the box (again with the level across two boxes at a time) and waited for cure. After that, I took a pull-saw and flush cut the flashing on the box, rather than traumatizing the board again with my router or sanding through the lightly resined bottom lam. I then used my younger son's play doh to cover the grub screw holes
Then we put another, carefully trimmed 4 oz oval piece directly over each box and resined each one over, covering the slot and overlapping the initial glass for the bottom of the box, so the oval piece overlapped like three quarters of an inch away from the plastic around the box. We kept some wax rubbed in the main slot to keep resin out ( mistake, we found out later, since we didn't fully wax every slot). .
I then took a razor and sliced out the cloth away from the slot with when the resin was set enough, but not completely hard. At the end, I took a Dremel (but a drill would've been fine) and ground out the grub screw slots. I knew I was deep enough with my Dremel when pink Play Doh showed up
Two pic's highlighting the mistake and recovery. One is the munched hole (the one with the fin in the box) as evidenced by what looks like extra white stuff outside the plastic box. The other is what happens when you try to dig resin out of a plastic finbox. The resin extraction kinda scarred the plastic, but it is fully functional.
Probox with glass overlaps.JPG
box with leveling illusion.JPG
Speaking of fins, thanks to Nick for hitting me up about making some customs for this board. I've been looking for a good reason to make some hollow wood fins for a while now - just haven't gotten around to figuring out the bracing. Here's what we'd agreed upon so far:
After taking a look at a close-up shot of the bracing pattern for the Sheldrake design it became apparent how the joints work - twice as many notched on one side (SS) as those with alternating notches (DS). I had a chance this morning to do a quick mock up with some 1/8x3/8" strips of cardboard testing that idea, and yeah, it went together like buddah. One tough, rigid little sample . . .hmmmm . . .
I'll have a chance to repeat with wood this evening and let you know how it goes. As you know, there is some flexing that needs to take place in order to put those last strips in and that could determine which wood is to be used. On the other hand, it might not be a problem at all . Until then . . .
Yo, Camplus. Your fins are going to out-do my board for sure!
Just a minor update on the build. Brads package from Foam EZ showed up today. Tomorrow I will start the install of the Lokbox fin system. Wish me luck. Also, Pete C's Gore-Tex vent plugs arrived. Im thinking about where to install them at the moment. Probably near the tail, both sides???? There is some debate to why they should go towards the nose, but these puppies never have to come off. So, I think it should be ok to put them there.
-Anyone do custom board bags? Im looking for a hollow core design. Something along these lines, only in honeycomb translucent styling.. Just kidding ;)
AW SNAP! Literally! This one's going in the "old enough to know better - too young to resist" file. 5mm birch ply strips, 3/8" wide with the notches cut 90deg. through like the cardboard.
The smart side of the brain was telling me that I wouldn't get enough flex to put that last run of strips in without snapping the grid. The hasty side of my brain that told me to go ahead and try it anyway . . . No worries though Nick! I'm setting up the jig for 60deg notches tomorrow and moving on to phase 2 (halo casting) shortly thereafter. I'll keep you posted.
Camplus
Woody-O wanted an entire board made out of balsa. I figured balsa would need an angle cut like you just discovered, at an angle of approx 45-60 degrees or so. to allow the board to shift into position, or align from a grid pattern to the Star of David honeycomb. The cardboard allows for flex, as shown in Post #5, on top. But, perhaps Im missing something, and your doing it a different way. Either way, im just going to sit back and enjoy the show! These fins are going to be sick!!!
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