Garage Works - 5/24/2023

I sanded the fill coat from the other day (I think yesterday???) - but then had to fill two more pinholes.

Then I sanded some more, and sprayed clear coat on.

Now this repair is done.

Just in time because Jimmy is going to bring his downwind SUP over tomorrow.  That repair is just deck lamination - so that should go fast.  After that I'm going to redo the track on No.31 and add a little spray paint to it.  I'll also help Marlon paint and glass his longboard.  Then after all that, I'm going to start on No.32 (a Foil Drive specific prone board, that can also double duty as a wing board).

Garage Works - 5/23/2023

I skipped water time today to get some rest (naps are awesome!!!).

When the sun went down and the garage cooled down, I went in and knocked out what I believe will be the last fill on this repair.

Tomorrow I'll do a light sanding and get the clear coat on it and call it good.

I've got another repair due in this weekend (Jimmy's racing SUP - he is crossing the channel with it), so I need to move this one back to Kalani.

Garage Works - 5/19/2023

More repair work (it never ends... I may make one more board - the Foil Drive Prone Foiling Board, then take a break...)

Here is the board prepped for dropping in the boxes.

Here's the boxes in place and all three patches laminated onto the board.

I decided to put peel ply on to pull off the excess resin. 

Tomorrow is routing open the boxes and sanding down the laminate.  Then a fill coat.

Wing Foiling Session - 10/22/2022

The trades started to come back today!  Big crew greeted the returning winds - Jesse, Matt, Bill, Arvin, Ken, Harris, Jim, Roland, Kalani and a few others.

Contrary to the trees moving all along the drive to the beach, the winds were up and down.  The early shift said pump up the big winds.

I set up the 1210 - if I had the 1440 I would have put that foil on.

Kalani was trying to get the foil setup on his new wing board.

Nice board -

I spent two hours out and had two sessions out in the waves.  With the wind up and down, I had ridden a few waves, then felt it was going to drop out and headed back in.  It did fill back in and I did go out - until it wasn't blowing.  I got stuck way outside and drifted out in front of Seconds.

The wind did fill back in and I headed back in and got stuck on a line between the outside reef markers and the marina.  I didn't want to paddle back in so I kept trying.  This was some really good light wind skills training. 

Nice correlation between my speed and the wind chart.

Marvin was borrowing the Eagle so I didn't have it with me.  Tomorrow I'll wing again and try to beat the wind speed again.

W:98/F:90/S:34

Volume Determination Tank

Kalani asked if I could estimate the volume of the board I made for him.  I told him bring the board over and I can setup the dunk tank.

Archimedes Principle in full use here - submerge the board, measure the rise in water column height, then run the math.

His board measured out at 86 liters.

The 4'7" Wing Foiling Board (pictured above) came in at 70 liters.

The 4'11" Wing Foiling Board came in at 82 liters.

The 4'8" Prone Foiling Board came in at 50 liters.

These are not out of line with what you would have thought the volumes would be.

Garage Works - 7/16 & 17

I got some work done in the garage these past two days.  Yesterday I got the last fill coat on the rails and some of the spots where I shaved down the innegra on the top deck.

I also fixed the deck pads on Kalani's wing foiling board (rubber cement).

Today I got through all of the sanding on No.25 - that is until I finished and found four small spots that I should fill so they aren't problems later.  I grinded those open and applied epoxy with milled fibers, a little aerosil and some black pigment.

At the last second I remembered I had needed to patch some scratches on the 1095 and the 178 - with the extra epoxy, I applied a base.  Once this cures, I'll file and sand it flush.

Here is the 178 with the tips wrapped

And here is No.25 after the "final" sanding, and post grind and fill.  The small spots with epoxy fill should be faired in pretty quickly.  Then I'll start spraying multiple layers of clear coat on the board.

I started planning out the deck pad already.  If all goes according to plan, this board should be in the water on Tuesday (or Wednesday depending on the wind...)

Kalani Picked Up His Wing Board

Kalani came over this evening.  He brought over the deck pad he found at Blue Planet and we did some trimming and setting to get the board all finished.

Happy camper!  

This was a long journey getting to this point.  We're making plans to bring this out on Sunday!!!

Garage Works - 4/15/2022

I've been trying to get some projects done.  To my left, Kalani's board has gotten two coats of clear acrylic already.  Probably need to put a couple more coats, then I can get the deck pad installed.  Probably done by next weekend.

Here I am putting on the final fill coat of epoxy on Tim's chopped 1550.

I just need to sand this down, get clear coat on it and put on a coat of wax then I can get it back to Tim.

After these two projects are done, I'm going to reshape the wing board blank I have been working on (chop off the nose and get the rocker dialed in more).  After glassing that, I am going to shape another short prone foiling board - but this one will be asymmetric (regular foot).  Right now I'm thinking 4'5"...

I gotta finish these first...

Garage Works - 4/11/2022

I needed to pick up Noe from school yesterday afternoon.  I opted to just stay home afterwards.

I ended up getting the first coat of clear coat on Kalani's board.  I'm going to approach this one in multiple stages.

I also went ahead and added the top layer of carbon overlay on to the tips of Tim's chopped HS1550V1. 

This came out pretty well.

Garage Works - 3/30/2022

I've been taking a break from foiling - really just trying to make sure I'm 100% for the up coming 4 to 5 day wind event.  I've been using this time to work on finishing Kalani's board.  I've sanded the board, then added another fill coat (I think I posted about that already...).  Then I got through another rough sanding.  I almost got away with not having to address any issues - but there were some pinholes and I needed to put the vent and leash cup in anyways.  So today I got in a little more work.

I added more fill (epoxy with milled fibers) around the footstrap inserts.

And I also addressed a couple more spots where I got a little close to the innegra.  I used 0.7 ounces of epoxy and 4 TDs of milled fibers - perfect amount.

The wind is supposed to be filling back in starting tomorrow - good thing I made progress (because I'm going to be fully distracted).

Fill Coat on Kalani's Board and Fixing the Armstrong 85cm Mast for Tim

The wind was forecasted to be really good 5.0 strength today.  While I was at work, flags were flapping, trees were swaying and I was getting pretty excited.  I got off work at 3:30pm and headed to Hickam Beach.  When I got there, Harris and Arvin were stuck on the water surface.  Jim was buzzing around on his 6.0 wing.  It did not look fun, so I opted to head home to keep working on the garage projects.

First up was sanding down the fill job on the Armstrong 85cm mast.  I'm selling this to Tim for cheap - but I filled the A+ holes and the crack at the back end of the mast.

Looks like new!!!

Next up was adding a second fill coat to Kalani's wing foiling board.  A necessary evil when using innegra - but the extra work is worth the benefits.  This is the first board I'm using the "Grim Reaper - Wing and Foil" logo on.

I'll get the bottom deck coated tomorrow, then sand again later this week.  After that, I'll have to install the vent plug and leash.  I'm also planning an asymmetric deck pad layout.  If the wind wasn't supposed to come up, I'd probably be done with this board before the weekend... now it'll likely be next weekend.

Top Deck Fill Coat on Kalani's Wing Board

This is a late post - I think I did this work two days ago.  Put the fill coat on the top deck of Kalani's custom order.

Not too much drama.

The more I look at this color, the more I really like it.

And the bottom contours are still looking really good

All that is left for this board is sanding (my least favorite part of the building process), and installing the vent and leash plug.  Should be able to get through all that this weekend.

Grinding, Sanding, Laminating Sunday

This morning I felt compelled to get some work done on this board.  I used the grinder to take down all the high points and I opened up all the inserts.  Then I took the sander and faired in all the laps and got the boxes leveled off and ready for filling (epoxy and thiksil).

After all that prep work, I laminated the port side of the board using carbon rail tape to hide the carbon lap line on the rail.  This picture is the pre-epoxy state, making sure everything fits and will cure lined up well.  I used 2.1 ounces of epoxy to get the carbon tape laminated.

Tomorrow I'll laminate the starboard rail, fill in any voids around the SUP handle and track boxes, add on the logo stickers, and lastly get the fill coat on the bottom deck.  

Slowly but surely getting there.

Bottom Deck Laminated

I passed on the evening session today - the tide was too low anyways, but I really wanted to get through this part of the process on Kalani's board.  Under this layer of 2 ounce fiberglass is a nose to tail layer of 4.8 ounce carbon fiber, and another layer of carbon acting as a stringer connecting the boxes to the bottom deck.

I always sweat this part - during summer the slow hardener isn't really that slow.  And the alignment always seems to get misaligned after getting the boxes epoxied in.

This one came out really nice.  I spent a lot of time cutting the laps to try and minimize overlapping in an attempt to reduce sanding.  I'm still going to have to grind and fill and sand - but hopefully that will go quick.

The nose half of the board has only one layer of innegra (on top) and carbon fiber (bottom, but with a cover sheet of 2 ounce fiberglass).  That was specifically done to reduce the weight up front, as well as the overall weight - but without sacrificing strength where it is needed.  Kalani really rides his gear hard - this is as much as experiment for me as it is a new board for him.  If this board survives him, I know I've gotten to an optimized layup.

There is still a bunch of work left - adding carbon tape to the rail all around to hide the carbon lap, adding to logos, fill coat, grind the boxes open, drill out the plug holes, epoxy in the plugs, fill any voids, sand everything down, and sign the board.  All that, but the hard part is pretty much done.

Laminating Afternoon

And after the de-sticking operation on the two foils, I got off my arse to start laminating Kalani's wing board.  I put two layers of innegra patches on top of the divynicell sheeting, and a full layer of innegra.  I put a base layer of blue tinted epoxy on.

I went ahead and cut out the slots for the foot strap inserts in the innegra - more prep up front means less work later.

And here it is - top deck all on.  I prepped the carbon for the box area - will do the bottom deck inserts when I get back from work tomorrow, and also laminate the whole bottom deck.