Garage Works - 8/18/2023

This post actually covers a few days of work in the garage.  A few days ago I cut the mast track boxes in No.32

I got them epoxied in the same day.

Today I added layers of carbon to really stiffen up the part of the board that will be under my feet.  There is some logic to a layout like this - but I'll keep those reasons to myself.

And I kept on going by preparing the bottom laminate.

And then I went ahead and laminated it.  Normally I would wait for evening, but it was still relatively cool outside so I went for it.  It came out nice.

I used some saran wrap in the critical spots to ensure the carbon stayed tight to the blank.

I'll sand the laps and laminate the top deck tomorrow.

I also made a big push to get Ken's board finished.  Every time I touch this board, I find another thing that needs to be fixed.  I decided to should just stick to what I said I would do and finish up.

I cut the finbox slot the same time I did them for No.32

And I got the open holes closed up.  I'm going to try and get this done tonight.

Garage Works Part 2 - 10/29/2022

And to clear the garage and get rid of distractions (so I can start shaping Prayot's wing board), I went ahead and sanded down the repair on Tim's Greedy Beaver (if this board looks familiar, I sold it to him).

Here it is sanded down to 320 grit.

Nice and smooth.  The repair is flush with the surrounding area.

It's hard to tell in the picture, but here it is with the clear coat on.

Good as new!!!  It's ready to go back to Tim tomorrow morning.

Garage Works - 10/29/2022

After we got back from the dawn patrol, I sanded down the fill on Tim's Greedy Beaver repair.

I got it pretty flat but depressed the area over the repair so the fiberglass would become part of the repair (instead of sitting proud).

And here is the fiberglass patch

And here it is set for the cure.

After this, I took a nap.  I love lazy Saturdays!!!

More Board Repairing - 6/23/2021

I was pretty tired after work today.  I passed on going to the beach and took a nap.  After I got some rest, I hit the garage to try and get some projects started/finished.  This is Nick's kitefoiling board.  When he was here last, I was not yet foiling and he had just retired from the Navy.  He brought a Ride Engine foil (same as Slingshot Gamma) and this foil board and taught himself to kite foil.  I did make it out one session with him and I was lit on the twin tip.  He broke this board late that session.  He was able to get a replacement sent out - and this one has been living in my garage rafters since.  Well, Nick is coming back out for a visit, and I'm going to see if I can fix this board.

The front half of the board split.  The bottom deck is still connected so a difficult repair is only very hard now.

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I was originally going to put some stringers in the board - I thought the board was thicker for some reason.  Well this board is really thin, so I changed my approach - first step is to stabilize the board so it is not flopping around.  I cleaned up around the break and poured in a milled fiber/epoxy slurry.  Next step will be to clean off more of the old deck pad, cut the deck front to back to insert four bamboo stringers (chopsticks), and set those in place with carbon strips and milled fibers.

Actually, before I worked on Nick's board, I worked on Fabien's board.  The repair was pretty much done, but there were air bubbles down below the top layer and those were bugging me.  So I used the Dremel to open up the bubble voids. After the voids were open and clean, I filled them with epoxy/thiksil.  Tomorrow I'll sand the repair area and this repair should be done.

Board Modification

I got the carbon overlay on Tim's Pyzel yesterday.  I didn't have a single sheet long enough to cover nose to tail.

And he changed his mind on the tail deck pad after I got the first group of patches on.

The deck pad came off without too much drama.

Now some sanding, some filling, a cover sheet of fiberglass to ensure the rails are covered completely, more sanding and then done again for the fourth time.

More Garage Works

I cut out the second batch of tail wings - rough cut with the jigsaw.  I'll use the belt sander to dial them in, the grind the foil fore-aft the wing tip to wing tip.

I also finished up the mast track repair job.  Looks pretty good if I do say so myself.

Fun in the garage!

Final Steps

The OCD in me is definitely showing itself.  I mixed up a small batch of epoxy, used up the last of my cabosil to make a slurry - then tried to fill in a few known divots.

The main issue to be addressed was getting a sealing coat around the vent plug on the 5'2" prone foil board - just in case the epoxy used to set the plug in place did not fully seal.

The next issue was filling in low points around the leash plug and tail on the Dually Stubby.

Lastly - I took the remaining slurry and filled in what I could on the new 4'10", both on the top (where there were definite holes from the spray foam) and the bottom (a couple of spots that shrunk when the first batch of epoxy burned the interior of the board).  I'll sand all of these down tomorrow.

Self-imposed Rework and Some Progress

I set the reinforcement blocks in the new 4'10" - but forgot to defuse the epoxy with fibers.  So instead of moving this project ahead, I'm setback a few days.  I'm going to have to dig out the melted EPS areas, splice in a fresh chunk(s) of EPS and then sand back to the intended shape.  Luckily the damage is somewhat the same shape as the blocks so it won't be too bad (I'll keep telling myself that to make me feel better about this botched job).  Any ways - doing things right sometimes means doing them again.  No pictures of this because I'll just get more pissed.

I did not want to end the day on a bad note so I reset the Futures Longboard Box Template for the 8" boxes, then I cut out the three in the Stubby.  Those did not go without drama (and I'll have to add some filler to one and a half of the three boxes), but I'll take a small victory today.

Tomorrow afternoon I'll tape a trim line on the top deck, cut out the bottom deck laminates (carbon patch over the finboxes is done, I'll use patch of innegra and a top coat of 6 ounce fiberglass), set these boxes with epoxy and get a tinted coat of green on.  This point between shaping and glassing is where the shaped blank is pretty vulnerable - garage dings, layers of dust, bugs and other things can add irritations to an already unfun period (did I mention I hate glassing).

SUP Handle Repair Finished

Grinding - Sanding - Dremel - Filing - Finished

Cracked SUP Handle

I'm fixing a buddy's (Jimmy) SUP board.  Some water keeps seeping out of the handle area.  Jimmy said it might be the old deck pad, but I kept the board out in the sun at my house to see if I could get more water to come out.  There were salt deposits all along the handle area.

Originally I was going to just lay down a cap sheet with laps over the edge, but with the coverage required, the short space to work in, and the fact that the handle opens inward, I couldn't get the laps to stay down.

I shifted over to using milled fibers to get a slurry.  I had to stay with the board though to make sure the slurry didn't slump back into the box.  Times like this I wish I had fast curing resin.

Today I'll grind down the overage with the grinder, then use the dremmel to trim the inside portions.

Marlon and I went surfing at White Plains Friday and Saturday evening.  Packing up Saturday, I noticed he had a few breaks in the bottom of his board.  What a fine opportunity to teach him how to fix a ding!

We opted to use UV Cure Polyester resin instead of epoxy (faster).

After prepping, we moved into the dark garage to place the resin.

All fixed!  He opted to not sand the bumps down (unlike me who would have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to feather in the repair - darn OCD).

Midweek Ding Repair

Charlie B gave Marlon a 6'6" funboard a while back. Marlon has been hesitant on dropping down to something shorter based on his previous experience with a 5'0" that we have, but he's over that now. But the funboard had a few cracks near the tail. Well - he wanted to take the board out today (Thursday), so I had to find the time to get those dings water tight. All pau already - time for surf!!!