Surfboard build WIP

[Trainee neophyte]

heres your next fibre glass challenge.

hover dad by David Rees, on Flickr

I can see why you'd want a smooth top, hadn't considered pulling wax off (it's been a long time since I had that problem). If I didn't live in the middle of the country I think I'd be following your lead and building myself a long board, not worth it for the 2 days a year I'd get chance to use it though, might as well higher a foamy for the day., or stay on the beach with the kite and board.

Got any water near you at all? River, lake, reservoir, puddle? That's why God invented paddleboards - although it's looking like the entire world is taking it up, badly, so there may be credibility issues. How about a strip built kayak?

 

[Trainee neophyte]

I had one of these in mind for the next project, can't be that tricky.

Definitely a good idea to rent something for few days per year, and foamies seem to have improved a lot recently - all kinds of shapes and sizes, some becoming popular with regular surfers.
Finish coat today and tomorrow, then I'll be back asking for advice on routing out for the fin box. That said, I'm tempted to make our own fin and set it straight into the board - if it did ever snap, we could re-route it and replace or route larger and set the fin box in its place. One step at a time, tho...

Really impressed - I think now you can fibreglass, this should be your next project - knock it up in a weekend.

 

[Chris152]

Does it have a wave machine, Tn?

Put it on and walk away, they say (final coat, top):

I put it on as thin as I could without the risk of the texture coming through to keep weight down, but it's tricky to know how much to take off with the brush - I reckon this coat had about half that used in the glass coats. It doesn't really show in the pic, but it has dust specs in the resin which is annoying, but I suppose some's to be expected doing it in the wood workshop. We think it looks great at the mo, let's hope it's still that way in a few hours...

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Does it have a wave machine, Tn?

Put it on and walk away, they say (final coat, top):

I put it on as thin as I could without the risk of the texture coming through to keep weight down, but it's tricky to know how much to take off with the brush - I reckon this coat had about half that used in the glass coats. It doesn't really show in the pic, but it has dust specs in the resin which is annoying, but I suppose some's to be expected doing it in the wood workshop. We think it looks great at the mo, let's hope it's still that way in a few hours...

An outstanding work of heartbreaking beauty. Good work! The only problem as I see it, is you will never get out of the car park to get in the water. "Cool board, man! Did you make it yourself? Can you do me one? Can I have a go?" etc.

I think only the person who does the glass sees the dust. However, some kind of "clean room" with duct tape and plastic might be a way forward. Always remember to buy rope, a shovel and a torch at the same time, because Breaking Bad.

 

[Chris152]

I think only the person who does the glass sees the dust. However, some kind of "clean room" with duct tape and plastic might be a way forward.

Thanks Tn! We took another look and it looks just the same (to my relief) and I saw that what I thought was dust was in fact tiny air bubbles. Not many, and somehow that feels better than dust - I did wonder if I was being over-quick with the brush, I'll know for next time.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Is it time to get it wet yet? Photos or it never happened!

 

[Chris152]

Is it time to get it wet yet? Photos or it never happened!

Not yet - top coat goes on the bottom tomorrow, then it's on to fitting the valve, leash plug and routing the fin box. Maybe end of the week. And I'll definitely post a pic of it in use, really looking forward to trying it out! (Tho no doubt I'll be second to try it...)

 

[novocaine]

Hair dryer about half way through the cure to pop the bubbles.

Looks spanking that.

 

[Chris152]

Well, that was far from relaxing.

Final coat went on fine, all looking good til I realised that because of the rocker, which is far more pronounced on the bottom than the deck, some resin was running toward the nose and tail. As a result I had to remove that with the brush, then do long strokes front to back to get rid of the brush marks. Don't overwork the resin, they say. It seems I overworked it, as it looked like someone had taken a tiny bubble-blowing machine to the resin. Awful! Not having a hair dryer I hadn't taken one, so I had to jump in the van, drive home, get my hot air gun, drive back and use that on the lowest setting from a safe distance. Much better than it was, but there are still bubbles.

Live and learn, eh? Still, having played the hot air on the board I decided to re-drill the small hole (in case it was blocked since top coat went on the deck) which I made to mark where the air vent's to go and to equalise pressure in case of heat changes while I worked on it, and as I did so the was a gentle shhhhh of air released. So I know the board's air tight...

 

[novocaine]

meh. still looks stonking. scary part next. the polishing. start at 800 and work your way up. it's the bit I find most scary, not sure why.
I don't think I could have left the underside alone without staining it, it looks really good as is.

 

[Chris152]

Struth, I thought we were done! It hadn't occurred to me that we needed to polish it. So I looked at Silver boards and they say, after the hot coat (which I just did) to do a gloss coat and then a varnish coat!
http://sliverpaddleboards.com/paddleboa ... loss-coat/
and
http://sliverpaddleboards.com/paddleboa ... o-varnish/
That's going to add a load more weight! I prefer the idea of just polishing as you suggest, novocaine - tho a coat of varnish would be ok I guess. I'm off to do some research on other sites to see what's normal for surfboards (as opposed to SUPs). Thanks for the heads up, I was about to start figuring the routing of the fin box.

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Is it not something to do with UV protection? Perhaps surfboards aren't in the sun as much as SUPs, or perhaps in the UK it just doesn't matter (no sun = no UV)?

Edit: https://sliverpaddleboards.com/paddlebo ... o-varnish/

It is recommended that epoxy is finished with some sort of varnish with UV protection. Some epoxy companies claim to have UV protection but it is nowhere near the amount of protection that varnish provides. Traditional boat building varnishes like Epifanes are great for boats but may be too soft for paddle boards. Most of what you read about varnish is based on boats that are outside twenty four seven. Most paddle boards are stored inside or in a board bag and it’s questionable if any finish is actually required. The biggest benefit of varnish in my opinion is that it’s an easy way to both protect the board and make it look awesome!!

 

[Chris152]

Hmmm, this video (which I linked to a few pages back, but obviously didn't take in properly) uses a thin paste coat over the glass coat before the hot coat:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JKnbOpC_mic
So in theory, I've just done a thick paste coat and it still needs a hot/ gloss coat. But the question is, does it need it given that my paste coat isn't 'thin' and is glossy?!
Do you think the paste coat is just to give a better finish, so the final coat goes on to a completely smooth surface as opposed to the texture of the glass weave? The finish I have now looks pretty good (overlooking the bubbles - the weave can't be felt when I run my hand across it) and sanding and polishing would make it a better finish again.
And yes, I read that Tn - UV protection (it'll be stored inside when not in use, so probably not such an issue - especially given the limited direct sunlight here in South Wales(!), but also coz it looks good.

Can't believe I've not noticed this process, I must've watched that video 4 times and not spotted the paste coat, so bleedin obvious!

Edit - I found this:
https://greenlightsurfsupply.com/pages/ ... ide-page-4
Useful on the sanding and polishing stage, and says the following:
'Gloss coats are essentially a second hot coat that is fine sanded, compounded, and polished to a shine. Typically, gloss coats are found on longboards and retro-style boards, where weight isn’t a factor. Adding a gloss coat increases the weight of your board, so typically high-performance shortboards skip a gloss coat and are considered done after fine sanding the hot coat to 400 grit or so.' (Terms are used differently on different sites - what's elsewhere the paste coat seems here to be called the hot coat.)
This isn't a high performance short board by any means, but I'm confident there's a good amount of resin on there already for strength, so we'll get on with polishing.

Novocaine - they refer to surfboard polish, which I don't have - can you remember what you used for that final stage? Are there any more readily available polishes for resin?

 

[Trainee neophyte]

(homer) Just to let you know - I don't know! Interested to find out. It's a huge learning curve for me. (homer)

 

[Chris152]

Ha, yes, it's definitely like watching Homer trying to build a surfboard!

 

[novocaine]

I used G4 cutting compound same as I'd use for any fibreglass polishing (and something I had in 5 litre tubs at the time). I also had access to a machine polisher last time I did it, but it can be done by hand.

surfboard polish sounds like small bottles of massively marked up normal polish compound to me.

there is nothing and I mean nothing different between your epoxy or a standard epoxy, but as ever, someone, somewhere will want to niche a product and make out like it's the only way.

 

[Chris152]

surfboard polish sounds like small bottles of massively marked up normal polish compound to me.

That's what I thought - so specific! Could I use a ROS on the slowest speed and minimum orbit size with a buffing pad to do the polish? That's kind of what they use on cars, right?

 

[novocaine]

maybe. a DA is a bit quicker than ROS but I can't see why it wouldn't work, not tried it though.

 

[Chris152]

Have to say, few things are as pleasurable as wet sanding your wooden surfboard in the back garden in the pouring rain - wonderful!

The website I linked to above (Greenlight Surfboard Building) says to use
'wool compounding bonnet and compounding liquid' first, then 'surfboard polish (finer grit) and foam polishing pad'
- do you think there's a difference between these two, or do I just use cutting compound and leave it at that?
Sorry to be the source of endless questions.

eta: I'm really grateful you mentioned sanding and polishing, novocaine. It's now back in the house and drying, and I really like the relatively muted finish I've got with 1200 grit. Tempted to keep it that way! The colour works better with polish tho, so I guess I'll go ahead and do that - but I can already see the surface is way better than it was this morning.

 

[novocaine]

Hit it with g4 then see.