Of course we all luv you peter. Kitesurfers are the friendliest folk on this earth. But don't take my wave
The "wax resin" is called "Filler" resin. Just don't get laminating resin and you'll be fine.
The 4 kiteboard fins - bad idea. They will suck on a surfboard.
Get some FCS plugs. 3 fins are fine
Make sure you give the forward fins a slight outward camber so that they direct water flow over the rails, this will help improve the grip of the fins and rail. I personally would use surfboard fins but if kiteboard fins are all you have, slightly slide them further to the tail but at least half of the physical fin infront of the old surfboard fins.
i will get on to the fins shortly. firstly i'm setting the inserts for the straps.
stance width.... i've set the stance to be just slightly wider than on my twin tip, now before you start telling me where i've gone wrong, let me explain my reason for the narrow stance, and position.
listening and watching some of the best strapless kiters, surfing both with and without a kite using the same board, i've noticed their stance to be quite wide, behind my back footstrap, and forward of my front strap.
yet while watching guys kitesurfing with straps, they tend to have a narrower stance, about the same as where i will locate my straps.
i'm trying to allow the most amount of freedom by not placing the straps in the way when wanting to move the front foot forward.
i'd like to only need one larger board, for no matter what i want to use it for.
Anyway, on to setting the inserts.
got some micro fibre stuff from a mate, found some 'part a' i had in the shed, and got some 'part b' from he hardware store.
i set the inserts with 5min epoxy, just to get the correct height, then filled the void with the mix of 5 to 1 with some of the micro fibre stuff mixed in.
in it went and its now setting.
does it matter if i use epoxy?????? i hope not.
i bent the 'prongs' down so they work as legs holding the insert at the correct height.
Your TT fin setup is quite experimental re placement. You won't get good advice from us. I think we would all be advising use of surf fins.
Yes strapped positions will be narrower than unstrapped, rear foot more fwd as you can get leverage with straps.
Epoxy won't be a problem. It's only Polyester that can cause problems due to the styrene in it which can dissolve some plastics.
Col
Another option on preventing the threads getting filled up and setting fin boxes is to use moulding putty, I use my kids plasticine and it works a charm - it shouldn't disolve with epoxy but may with poly resin.
Fill any hole that you don't want resin in with the putty, glass over and once dry cut outline out of hole and dig out the putty - easy peasy and not chance of contaminating the mix with grease etc.
Learnt something new today, did not realize you could get epoxy based light filler - good to know.
Cheers Rich
can you get a go pro cam and put it on your helmet so we can see some vids while you work? that would be
*cool*
Coming along nicely. Good idea- trim off excess while resin is still soft "green".
Your finbox idea is good too.
thanks col, but too late, you have to reply faster.....
(fibreglass mat - 4m2 = 400g, must be the 6oz????)
got a tin of spray bog/high fill/undercoat from a mate and went to town, and i'm glad i did.
i found hundreds of pin holes in the bog filler. my mate suggests givingme a pot of high fill and using a brush, fill the holes, let dry, light sand, fill again untill all gone.
he told me that it will be fine as long as its clean when glassed over.
but he did say use polly resin, or the UV actvated stuff.
latest pic after its first coat of high fill.
Note the good looking fella holding the board!!!!!!
Looks great. No not you. At least try a sample of resin over a painted test piece 1st to see if it'll verk.
Another tip when wetting the glass round the rail. Expect to get dirty, wear surgical gloves. 1 hand under cloth edge & hold it out flat from edge of board. Work the resin out from the board & wet out thoroughly. Only then lay the cloth down around the rail. If you just try to work the resin down around the rail it'll end up on the floor. Both top & bottom layers should wrap around rail.
Col
Hey Peter,
Nice job, well done.
An option if you are using poly resin is to mix a bit of pigment in the laminating resin to make whatever colour you like (I think you can get pigment for epoxy but is a bit difficult to find)
Here is a couple of photo's, I thought you may find interesting I find this type of stuff very interesting, of a snapped tufflight board I was given, joined the two halves together with epoxy and stringer splints, the tufflight boards have a pvc foam wrapped around the board so where the snap was I used balsa wood to replace the the foam, filled the majority of pressure dings with Qcell resin mix, replaced a couple of the fcs plugs and then glassed the entire board top and bottom. The black area the original owner did with what looked like a carbon fibre with nylon woven in.
I used epoxy resin to glass for the first time and found it alot easier to work with than poly resin, it wets out alot better and you can remove quite a bit of excess to keep the weight down. As I understand it is also stronger than poly resin as the bond is a chemical bond rather than resin going hard (if you knwo what I mean)
The weight doubled but still faily reseasonable, I have used the board now for nearly two season and no problems. Just don't use spray paint in a can, doesn't last.
Cheers
Rich
carsinogenic - Sh1t, I was covered in the stuff - oops could explain alot.
Its also quite b!tch to get off your hands if you don't use acetone (which I hear stays in your body forever).
Did notice that if you leave it in a cup and not spread it out it starts to go off quickly and smoke (thermogenic effect if that the right words) with a very punjent smell, had to evacuate the house for a couple of hours.
I had read somewhere that Green surfboard manufacturers use epoxy rather than poly resin - maybe it is a specific epoxy made from natural stuff.
On my next project, I will wear gloves and keep the kids far away. could be a bit heavy but it will be strong, I cut the rocker profile out and laminated them together with 3 stringers. I may just skimp on the glass to keep the weight down.
Yea, I new about poly resin but didn't realize about epoxy as you usually mix it as prescribed and therefore has a defined curing time compared to poly resin.
If I had spread the epoxy in a thin puddle it would never had gone off so quickly.
Cheers
Rich
The epoxy that I buy you have to weigh it out rather than work off volume as the weight of the two different chemicals is different - but you would think that they would state the required volume of each as the weight would not change in other words the volumetric ratio of each.
Cheers
Rich
very helpful.
ok so its epoxy resin then.
the resin i used to set the plugs was left over from another project, and if i remember correctly (old timers here) i got some white tinting pigment from the same hardware shop, mixed it into the resin mix and it worked well.
oh yeah it was to repair the underside of a kiteboard, twintip, that had a huge section missing from the bottom lamination.
application of the resin.....
can i use a brush????
the squeege thing has me a bit worried.
i watched a great video on laying the glass, it is a Solares video, but the technique of cutting, pulling the loose threads off, sanding, etc etc, is very easy to follow.
That's a very good vid. Gave me a few tips, like the sticky rack.
Make sure your hands are clean touching the cloth, anything on your hands will show, big time! I have loads more rail wrap than that.
You said EPOXY, but he is using polyester.
My current epoxy is KINETIX, it goes really well. WEST is not clear & i don't like the 5 to 2 ratio.
BRUSH[}:)] For Pete sake, you won't be using a brush. You're not painting, you're glassing, & a squeegee is THE tool.
If it was a minor repair, the wife's credit card is the perfect tool.
cheers
Col
And the reason epoxy is so good is because it has very little shrinkage during the curing stage, so doesnt seperate from what ever your gluing it to like polyester does giving a slightly weaker bond to the reinforcment.
That also means if your in a hurry to help the curing process put a cardboard box over the project once it has gelled and stick a little heater in the end on low to get it done quicker.
Just make sure the heater is not aiming directly at the job so you will have a more even temperature around the job.
50 to 70 deg is no problem or even higher, but check with the brand of resin your using.
Note: If you heat before it's gelled the resin may thin out and run out of the glass and end up on the ground! (that is the error bit in the phrase "trail and error")
In winter if it's to cold and you are doing small jobs and dont need long gel times sit your resin tins in some hot water (about 40 -45 deg) before mixing and it will flow really nice and cure quicker (also a neat little trick if your hand brushing emamal paint and want the brush stokes to flow out and look smick).
I like the Enamel trick, my front door looks crap.
Deffinately need to use a squeegee and not a window cleaning one. You can buy them online specifically for surfboards.
A couple of years ago I bought a book on making your own surfboards and it came with vhs cassette but once I am back home of will dig out the book - shaped my first board from that book, really helpful.
Rich
After watching that vid, I searched for UV cured Epoxy resin.
Has anybody used the Solarez UV-cured Expoxy resin and how does it compare to normal stuff.
Were can I get some in Perth, there is a contact over east:
Surf Hardware Int'l Pty Ltd.
5-7 By The Sea Rd
Mona Vale, NSW 2103, Australia
Ph: +61 2 9997 4744
Fax: +61 2 9999 1537
www.surffcs.com/
www.gorillasurf.com
Not bad price over in the STATES but here they will most probably triple the price at least.
Cheers
Rich