OK, I started talking about that board in an other thread, but I don"t want to hijack josh's thread so I'm posting everything back over here.
Here was my project : make a portable surfboard that fits in a bag I could easily carry in my small car and travel without having to worry about airline luggage constraints.
Since, I'm used to ride longboards, I wanted to keep some glide as well as some paddling power.
Here's the template : 
Deck is purposely flat, so that I can optimized storage while the board's three parts
are piled up.
Unlike the pope bisect system, I do not use any inner tube. Therefore, having a flat deck
helps also in assembling the parts.
I decided to cut the board in three parts rather than two for two reasons :
- Air France and most airlines require that the sum of the dimensions of
a bag do not exceed 158 cm, else you'll pay extra fees --> This was
not feasible with only two parts
- Three parts seemed to me less fragile than two
Board is built out of 30kg/m3 EPS. Template was designed using Surfdesigner
and Atua Cores, a french EPS blank company offered me the blank (mahalo nui nui !).
Blank was machine cut precisely according to my template. I then shaped it,
keeping the deck and bottom mostly flat and some 50/50 rails throughout.
Blank was then cut in 3 by Atua, taking into account the thickness of the 3mm
PVC faces plates I addes later on.
Here're some pics of the cutting and shaping process :
More pics. Stephen, owner of Atua Cores, checking the freshly cut blank
:
The board shaped and ready to get cut (I used Atua's shaping room,
my garage is such a mess ...) :
Board cut in three parts :
50/50 rails and lots of volume :
To be continued ...
At this point, I'd like to make a few precision : I'm not a professionnal board builder and I do not want or plan to market this system. What I came up with is experimental. It's not a proven design. So far it works OK but I don't know yet if it will last or if some signs of wear will quickly show up. If you want something reliable and more user friendly, I would advise to get a Pope bisect. I would have bought one myself if I had had the money.
darn good job
keep us posted
like i said on the other thread, pure genius.
Pierre dropped by this morning, and I had a chance to see this board for the first time. I'd like to say that it presents much better in person!
While Pierre was a bit bummed by a couple of small details in the finish, I was really impressed by both the solidity of the attachment and the ease at which it assembled. About five minutes while drinking a cup of coffee, and the board was ready to surf. The PVC panels fit perfectly, the rail line wasn't disturbed in the least... heck, it made me want to try it out! (That's for tomorrow, in fact)
Anyway, great job Pierre! I am stoked to see this project come to fruition.
Here are the pics of the finished board (I'll take some more sometimes this week) :
Once the board was shaped and sliced in three pieces, I used an exacto knife to cut the holes were the connecting
plugs were going to be glue in.
Next, I laminated on the faces a layer of 6oz fiberglass that overlaps on the top and bottom :
In order to be able to laminate the angle, I sanded the edge a little bit.
Next, I reinforced the holes by laminating in each hole 3 strips of 6oz glass, one strip in each direction. Strips overlap the deck/face for about 2" long. This is probably overkill but I wanted something strong. I hope my explanations are understandable ... Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures of that part.
Next, I laminated the board top and bottom, using 6oz twill carbon fiber. I used carbon fiber to gain weigth, but if I had to do it again I think I'll probably just use regular fiberglass.
Next, I built the connecting plugs out of a fin US box. I cut two boxes
in slices in order to get 16 plugs. I then glued a layer of plastic on the bottom
of the plugs (used plastic food plates and cyano glue).
I then protected the 2 opened faces of each plug with some tape and glued
the plugs using resin + glass powder.
Next was hotcoat + sanding. The 6oz twill carbon is quite thick and it takes
a lot of resin to fill the weave (one reason I'm not sure carbon was the best choice).
I didn't want to sand through and weaken the fiber therefore I added some
more resin with micro spheres and sanded again ...
Next I cut some 3mm PVC plates to fit the faces. I cut them with about
1cm margin all around.
Then I prepared some resin with a lot of micro spheres so that I had something
not too liquid.
I then lay down the PVC face plates on a flat table, spackle a thick layer of resin
and then press the board face on it and let it cure (the board piece standing vertically).
The plugs were protected by filling them with modelling clay.
Using the PVC face plates is important in order to get a good contact
surface between the two parts (initially, the faces are irregular because of the different
strips of fiber reinforcement).
More cleaning up and sanding ...
At that point I can start to assemble the board for the first time :
To be continued ...
That is so cool. It would be sad if you didn't at least license that so someone could make them! I love the profile. Hope it surfs well and lasts.
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