Board out of the bag

This is the board straight out of the bag with the materials stripped off.

When laminating the board- as each side was done, cut the excess glass off and leave a bit as seen here
The vacuum is very effective- The glass is pressed into very tight contours.

Just use a sharp knife to cut off the excess. The epoxy is not too hard 24 hrs later (17C i cellar) but after a week it is really hard.

If possible it is best to "bake" the board in the V-bag after 24 hrs have passed. Depending on the epoxy, but a 50c temp for 12hrs will increase the chemical cross linking and make the board 20-30% stiffer and stronger and will stand higher temperatures- such as being in a hot car or in the sun in hot climates.

Several ways to do this- make an oven from Frigolit and use a car-heater, use infrared heat and blankets. Most methods have fire risks for the home builder.....

Preparation and Vacuum bagging

This section is missing some photos. Time is short and the laminating process must go fast before epoxy hardens.

1. Cut out all the materials needed
- Vacuum bag material
- wicking material
- perforated plastic film
- Tear fabric
- Glass fiber
2. Roll up everything but the vacuum bag material in separate rolls and set aside carefully and so you know whats-what. Think all the steps through first.

3. Set up your V-bag on a table or rocker table it you have one. I used a wide material folded over- Put the sealing tape on one side of the bag and leave the protective tape on the top side. This will be removed at the last step befre sealing bag. Put your vacuum fitting on the bag in a good position

4. Set up you laminating area and start by using a plastic "squeege" (skrapa) to put epoxy on the bottom of the blank- Then put each layer of glass on and apply epoxy with squeege, apply to center of board and work outward. Scrape of any excess before applying next layer. I mix about 2-3dl of epoxy at a time to keep the working time as long as possible.

5. Once all the layers are on, put down tear fabric, then perforated plastic film and turn the blank over to laminate the top side as above.

6. Put the wicking material on the vacuum bag and lift the board over, bottom down onto the wicking material. Put the top layer of wicking material over the board.

7. Close the bag by pulling protective tape off sealing tape and carefully sealing down bag. Avoid getting wrinkles- they can leak.

8. Attach the vacuum hose and turn on the pump. smooth out the V-bag as it gets tighter.
Use spacers and clamps to put in the rocker.

Here the bag is tight and the epoxy is "wicking" thru the perforated film into the wicking material- it is absorbing all the excess epoxy.
The Vacuum pump- no bigger than 1kg coffee. Amazing little device

Inserts

Route into the foam for your inserts. Measure them out and make a drawing for later use- you will not see them when you are drilling for them later.
Cast in with epoxy. These inserts are from www.snowboardmaterials.com
Stainless Steel, 6mm, closed end, with thin plastic cover over threads to keep glue out!
Casting in area for fins. Fill up to almost full and let it set- top it off or use glass ballon-epoxy putty to fill up to foam surface. Be careful it can be hard work to sand them down to foam surface if they are overfilled.

Rocker set-up

This is a simple way to put a flat rocker into the board. Here I am jsut esting the set-up that i will use once the board is in the vacuum bag.

I decided to put a 14mm tip rocker in each end. (not what is seen here).

In the background is a rocker board for a deep concave with rocker- by vacuum bagging the board down onto a form the shapes are more controlled, but it is a lot of work to build a form.

Final Shaping of Blank

Shape the blank with a sure-form. I use a guideline to keep it symetrical.
The last 3mm can be sanded down with 40 grit sandpaper, and a final finishing with 100 grit.



Use a side light to see the surface and keep it smooth.
use big sweeping movements with your arms and body- this keeps the surfaces smooth. Hacking away with small movements will make your blank lumpy.

Shaping Blank

This is ny home made belt sanding table.
I take off the excess foam with a rasp file first and finish with the beltsander. I jsut sand down to the epoxy edge. It´s so hard it´s easy to use it as a guide.
Here is the foam blank with correct outline, sanded to epoxy edge.
I have marked a guide line on the top of the blank and am sanding down the blank to the epoxy edge. Go slowly and gradually, use long strokes to avoid uneven sanding.

Finishing the edge

This is the underside of the movable slider used to hold the electric router.
I adjust the router depth and route off the excess epoxy to make it flush with foam.
I sand the edge lightly with a rotation-vibration sander and with a sanding block.

Here i am cutting off the excess foam.

Today I have poured epoxy into the groove i routed earlier. I made sure the table was flat with a level, otherwise the eposy will flow to the low spot and not be even in the groove.
At this point i have not filled it all the way. Tomorrow i will pour in some more and make it even with the foam.
I use some weights to make sure the foam is lying flat.

Preparing the Blank Part 1

Make sure your foam sheet is large enough. Cut off any excess with a knife.
I´m using Divinycell H80 15mm thick which i buy from DIAB in Halmstad. U usally buy 2-3 122x244cm sheets at a time.

Tape the template down onto the foam sheet with regular double-stick carpet tape.
I set the router depth to 4mm. The edge will be this thickness + laminate thickness.
Before i made my template, I measured that the router bit edge was 80mm from the edge of the router plate. By first drawing the true outline in CAD, then offsetting the line inward by 80mm, this created the template outline.

By following the template carefully with the router it makes a nice groove, with the true outline.

The groove is routed, the template is still on the foam.

Now you can see the true outline on the foam sheet. A nice elliptical shape 130x 50,5.

Next step is to fill the groove with epoxy.

Stay tuned.

Finalizing the Template

Once the paper drawing is glued to the hardboard, cut just outside the line, save about 3mm. Being accurate here saves work later.

The cut looks like this. If you want a cleaner cut, you can saw from the underside.
This is the rough sawn template.
I have a homemade belt sander. It is a B&D belt sander with a sanding plate attachment (included in sander set). The sanding plate attachement is clamped in a B&D Workmate. A 19mm MDF sheet is screwed to one side of the Workmate as a table. Using 60 grit sanding belt, i sand carefully down to the line. I stop several times and sand off the paper excess.

I use this drywall sanding block with 80 grit paper a lot. A great tool.
I sand the edge carefully to take off the excess paper so i don´t remove the outline.

I sand the last 0,5mm by hand with the sanding block. This is the finished template.

Today i started a new board. It will be a lightwind twintip skimboard 130x50cm with deep concave.
This is the form i will use to vacuum bag the board. The form gives the 25mm concave and 25mm rocker.





My first step is to make a template. Here I have glued the full size print out of the outline onto 3mm hardboard. Actually it is the outline minus 80mm.


This because i am going to use the template to route an edge groove, described below, using a router that has a bit edge that is 80mm from the the edge of the router plate. Here I am showing how i will place the router when the template has been trimmed, sanded fair, and taped to the Foam sheet.

This will give me a groove in the foam that is 3mm deep and has the exact shape of the final board.

More to follow.

First Step to building your own board

The first step is to build a so-called "template". This is what defines your boards final outline and it is very important to make it perfectly symetrical and fair.

I suggest that you first draw your board outline on a computer program such as Adobe Illustrator and try to find someone to print it out in full size on paper.

If this is not possible, you can draw it out using old kiteboards, string and nails as big compasses, plates and any other objects that work. If u draw only one half with a centerline down the longitudinal center, it will be symetrical. Rolls of wallpaper are nice and thick to use as paper.

Once you have a paper copy of your board outline. You can glue it to a 3-4m MDF or hardboard sheet that is overtsize. Use contact cement (kontakt lim) and brush it down on the paper and hardbaord as per instructions on can. Glue it down nice and even on the smooth side of the hardboard.

Using an electric jigsaw (sticksåg) carefully cut about 2 mm outside the board outline. Be careful to not destroy the paper.

Using a rough file, a rasp, file down close to the line. It is important to clamp the template to a work table, hanging over the edge, and work with long strokes, checking you progress often, to make a fair shape. As you get close to the line, 0,5mm, you can use 80 grit sand paper on a sanding block to sand down to the line.

I do the long edges first, then the tips and transition to the long edges last.

Now you should have a perfect template.

If you have not done this before, you may need to make several until it is correct, so buy extra material. This is the most important step of your board building, so it needs to be right.

If you go to the building supply store, ask them to cut the hardboard into "blanks" that are slightly larger than your board and it will be easier to handle.

Mako inspired board

This is a OR Mako inspired board tailored to my own needs.

135x34cm with 18mm concave and 25mm constant rocker.

The flip tips add 40mm each side.

This board has less splash than any board i have ridden, including the Mako.

Turns just as well as Mako, but is more skatey, probably because the edge is shorter, and a bit more rounded.




























I added the flip-tips afterwards and they do not look too nice. The board was very splashy without them. You can see the rocker above.

Lay up is 3 layers 165g/m2 glass and 1 layer 245g/m2 carbon each side. 5 extra layers just under each foot pad.

This board is really stiff. Could have left the Carbon off the bottom, or used less.