Garage Works - 6/5/2023

I got home in time to edge the grass and mow the lawn.

After that and some other chores, I headed into the garage to work on the ding repair on Tim's Greedy Beaver.

I cut up a bunch of fiberglass patches, and then saturated the repair area with epoxy.  I added the patches one by one to make sure there were no air bubbles.

I placed a cap patch, then placed a piece of peel ply.

If done right, I have found this method effectively reduces the amount of sanding I have to do to get the repair area flat and smooth.

I'll still have to sand - just not as much.

I had a little bit of epoxy left over (I mixed a total of 0.7 ounces), so I mixed in some aerosil to give the epoxy some body - then I placed it in the corners of the mast track reinforcement block hole.  This served as the "skim coat" - so that when I use epoxy to laminate the carbon fiber liner into place, the excess epoxy will not migrate through pinholes.

Tomorrow I'll sand Tim's board and add a fill coat if necessary.

I'll also laminate the carbon liner for No.31

Garage Works - 6/4/2023

I want to move the boxes up on this one (No.31) to even out the pressure on the boxes.  I cut the old stuff out yesterday - this morning I cleaned it all up, made sure the blocks fit, and cut out the carbon fiber liner.  I Gorilla Glued in another piece of EPS to firm things up.

Tomorrow I'll laminate the carbon liner on to the recess.  There is supposed to be a significant bump up in the swell height... maybe this will get delayed....

And here is the Greedy Beaver back in the garage - this time with a ding towards the rail (but still on the top deck - way easier to fill/repair).

I put the vacuum on the ding to pull what water I could out.

I'll let this one air dry a little more also before I fill it.  I'm just going to use progressively bigger patches to fill this in.  

Garage Works - 1/29/2023

And here is the board repair.  The two boxes on Jim's board are cracked at the back ends.  This is a standard removal and rebuild.

Marking the board with alignment lines helps out tremendously.

Tomorrow I'll rout out the broken boxes and make sure the new reinforcement block fits tightly into the block cavity.

Garage Works - 6/9/2022

The board I have in the garage to be repaired was still giving up water - when I got home from winging, there was a good deal of liquid where I had the board sitting.  I decided to go ahead and just open it to allow the water to drain freely or even evaporate.

I bet these high-density foam pieces go all the way to the top deck.

These boxes kinda just fell out once I trimmed the bulk of the foam away.

Now to let the interior dry out.  I should be able to sand the edges where the bottom laminate will hang over tomorrow, and possibly even epoxy in the reinforcement block.

As long as the interior drys out... there was a LOT of water in this board...

Mast Track Replacement for Eddy

I was talking to Eddy after foiling on Sunday evening.  He said he cracked the boxes on his board.  So now the board is in my garage getting ready to have the track replaced.  This is the before - the top had a delamination and the bottoms were cracked.

Here's the reinforcement block measured out to fit in this area - there is the tail kick at the back end of the board and the signature area - this is going to be a tight area.

This is the area I'm going to cut out.

And I marked the centerlines of the track boxes so I get the alignment back to the original.

Same info, different angle.

Tomorrow I'm going to try and get the repair area outed open and cleared.  I'll need to let it dry (it's been draining for a couple of days and it still feels moist around the cracks) for a couple of days before setting the reinforcement block.

Garage Works - No.25

After surfing this morning, I worked on some garage projects.  I got the reinforcement block for the mast track sanded down to match the height of the surrounding blank.  Then I lined the hole with carbon and a layer of innegra.

I used about 5.6 ounces of epoxy to line the hole and saturate the laminates.  I used a roller to spread the epoxy evenly.  Then I spread some epoxy on the reinforcement block to make sure there would be a bond, and then stuck it in.

There was a little pull on the side pieces of carbon, but nothing catastrophic.  I used saran wrap to keep the laminates and the epoxy flat. 

I also finally epoxied the divynicell strips together (this needed to be done a long time ago).  I'll figure out what size these need to be assembled to in order to use them as footstrap reinforcement blocks and augment mast track reinforcement blocks (under the ends of the Futures boxes). 

More Garage Works - Naish Foilboard Track Repair

I sanded the Naish Hover track repair this afternoon after I got home from work.  First up was grinding the boxes open.  After that I looked for air bubbles around the open boxes.  I then sanded the whole laminated area and cleaned out the areas I found by the boxes.

After that I hit the surf for a foiling session.  I went over to Home Depot after foiling so I could purchase some bolts to fix Noe's Laser dolly (and I went ahead and fixed that).  I finally got motivated to fill coat the repair area.  I used straight epoxy all around the boxes, then mixed a small amount of epoxy with aerosil to fill the void spots.

Here it is all done.  Tomorrow I'll do the finish sanding and spray paint the impacted area.  Should be able to clear this one from the garage by Sunday.

Garage Works - 5/9/2022

I actually got home with enough time to pour the epoxy for the repair I'm working on.

3.5 ounces to set the boxes in their slots.

4.2 ounces to saturate the carbon cap sheet and make sure the boxes were filled.

All done.  I used the peel ply to make sure the carbon was tight against the boxes (to hopefully avoid air gaps and the subsequent filling steps).

Remaining steps - open the boxes, feather in the edges, add fill coat, sand, fill, sand, wet sand, apply clear coat and done.

Garage Works - 5/8/2022

Got some time in the garage today (after our Mother's Day celebrations with La).  I sanded down the high spots where the epoxy collected with the block setting.  After that I went ahead and routed out the slots for the track boxes.

Here they are fitted in.  I'm using wooden tongue depressors under the boxes to reinforce them.

And while I was at it, I went ahead and trimmed out the carbon overlay for the cap sheet.  I have overlapping going on at the front end of the repair job - this is where the bending moment is applied.

Tomorrow after work, I should be able to get the epoxy poured on this.

Garage Works - 5/6/2022

I had the rental car loaded with winging gear yesterday afternoon, but I got the call that my truck repair was completed.  Needless to say, I aborted the winging session and went home to get ready to pick up the truck.

When I got home from picking up the truck, I reloaded all the support gear (towing stuff, spare wing pump, roof racks, etc) back into it.  With that finished, I figured I should get more work done on the garage projects.  First up was the mast track replacement.  I routed out the hardened high-density foam I sprayed in to fill the gaps left by the destroyed finboxes.

After that, it was time to get the track block in and all the carbon reinforcements.

I need to sand down the residual resin, then I can rout out the finbox slots.

SInce I was using epoxy, I also filled a small void in the 4'7" Wing Board.

And filled in an air bubble in the 7'4" asymmetric.

The filling and the sanding never end...

Garage Works - 5/2/2022

The continuing saga of ding repairs.  When I cleared the broken boxes and surrounding HD foam from this board, there were some significant depressions and tears in the underlying foam.  I had to seal those voids so when I place epoxy it doesn't pool and burn out the remainder of the foam.  I used some loctite polyurethane spray foam, then placed plastic wrap over it, and got it to stay in place by adding blocks and weights on top of the plastic.

After an hour, I removed all of the blocking and weights, and the plastic wrap so the foam can air dry.  Tomorrow I'll rerun the router over the hole to get the depth correct again.

I also fixed the tiny ding in my 6'8" Sunday, and the bad spots on the Toots Asymmetric 7'4".  I mixed 0.2 ounces of epoxy resin with 0.08 ounces of hardener.  I added about 2 tongue depressors worth of milled fibers to make sure these repairs would have some strength behind them.

I'll sand these down tomorrow and they should be ready for the swell that is hitting.

Block Slots Routed Out

I routed out the slots for the reinforcement blocks.  I didn't have access to one of my kids (Noe went sailing and Marlon drove La and Noe) so I did not use a vacuum to grab the offcuts.  There was foam particles everywhere - I looked like a snowman.

These slot were pretty good - a couple of oversized spots, but I think they can help get rid of any excess epoxy.  After I cut the slots, I went surfing with Marlon, so I'll epoxy these in place tomorrow.  That should set me up for cutting out the slots for the finboxes, epoxying those in, fine sanding the rest of the board, and putting on a seal coat. That will leave glassing for early next week and sanding later in the week.  A little bit everyday and this will get done.

Cuts Made, Outline Drawn

After I posted on yesterday's work, I went out to the garage and trimmed down the blocks.

Then I went ahead and drew out the routing lines.  This sets me up for tomorrow and opening up the holes (and if I get ambitious, to set them in with epoxy).

Mast Track Preparations

Yesterday I split the Foil Block in half and started to do the calculations for positioning the tracks.

I'm thinking about trimming another inch off the front of the two pieces - I don't need reinforcement ahead of the fin boxes, and by my calcs the boxes need to be further back on this board - pretty much just forward of where the cut hits the bottom deck. 

I was going to rout out the slots today, but I had to address another issue.  And I wanted to take some additional data from website pictures of other boards (reverse engineering) to get a triple check on the box positions.

Track Slots Cut

I cut the slots for the Futures 10.75" boxes today.

Perfect alignment!  Measure three times, cut once.  If I start tomorrow afternoon, I should have the bottom and top laminated and the fill coat on by the end of the weekend.