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Lacey Posted something the other day about liking the feel of his wooden paddles on the OC1.
A while ago I made an extremely light Pauwlonia, Balsa and Cedar SUP paddle for my mate Dan McDonald of DMS Surfboards. The deal was I made it, he glassed it. He has been too busy to do it so I am taking over.
The experiment is: Can you make a Balsa laminated shaft stiff while being stupidly light???
For this I will use Uni Directional Carbon tape glassed onto the back of the shaft with epoxy resin along with some other bits and pieces.
Below are photos of the paddle, I will post more along the way as this one takes place with weights etc etc.
What's the Starting Weight ?
And;
What's the Starting Flex like ? (How does it compare to say a Kialoa shaft - I assume the starting flex is pretty "flexy".
maybe go for a thin carbon strip front and back then use a glass sock over the hole lot to tie it together that way you wouldnt loos the look of the wood
The starting weight would you believe is (see pic below) about 320 Grams. My C4 full carbon which is light as is 500 grams. length is about 6'6. That's pretty good for wood. The flex is not too bad as there is 2 layers of Innegra fabric in between the 9 layers of laminated timber.
The glass will add weight but I am going to reduce the shaft quite a bit as I have done a few since I made this time and learnt a bit more. The real starting weight I would estimate will be about 300 grams. How much weight I add will depend upon neatness and resin content.
The cloth I am glassing the back side of the shaft and power face of the blade with is below also in the pic. It's very strong and the fibreglass matrix it is woven into will also create strength.
Shame you couldn't get yourself some of this to use on it.. 
.. It's the most Hi-Tech carbon fiber money can buy.. It's what RedBull use on their F1 cars.
DJ
I found a mob out of the states that sleave weaves in lots of different combinations. Not sure if I have the link any more but it would make laminating easier and keep weight down. Do you use peel ply?
Nah not bagging the shaft or would be.
If this works at all or is even promising I have access to a great pump for the next one. I thick I will use the pump for laminating the shafts in the next versions, the clamps actually created low spots especially with the balsa in the lamination. I have thought about the bending block inside of the bag and it would be easier than the clamps.
This is just to satisfy curiosity, not to sell. I enjoy paddling and making stuff for myself and my friends, so far much of it has been rough as hessian undies as I am never sure if it will even work so no point spending too much time on aesthetics and more emphasis on weight.
Trying to find ways to make these easier as they do take some time and my wife hates the dust in the garage.
Here's todays instalment.
As mentioned above I reduced the shaft a bit with my trusty hand plane. I love that tool!
Weight was reduced substantially giving me a starting point of 280 grams as per the pic below. Stoked, had a little flex in the shaft though so I hope the carbon works.
Bottom pics are the carbon tape glassed onto the paddle, a bit hard to see but you can still see the wood. I left the tape a little seperated on the blade to reach across and also as I think it looks good. GT stripe in carbon.
I still have the front to glass in 4oz. I mixed 120 rams of resin for this which was way too much, spilt heaps on the floor and had about 50 grams left in the pot. Should be about 340 grams with cloth at this stage. Will weigh again after resin cures.
Looking forward to the next steps, hard bit is done now!
Very nice !! If the resulting product is good, you might even have a marketable product.
I'm guessing Carbon isn't available in Opaque or clear !? Carbon is known to be black....
The squiggle stripes do look good though... Kelly Slater / Al Merrick circa early 90's. Not sure why that fad disappeared... seems to have good structural merit...
.. It's the most Hi-Tech carbon fiber money can buy.. It's what RedBull use on their F1 cars.
.. It's the most Hi-Tech carbon fiber money can buy.. It's what RedBull use on their F1 cars.
Unidirectional fibres would be stronger and stiffer lengthwise but you would need something to stop it splitting lengthwise(fibres 90 deg across or a pair at 45) , and if you are using wet resins versus prepregs (you must or the Styrofoam will melt !) then you need to hold the fibres in place and what you end up with is woven glass fibre. The only lighter way would be lighter carbon fabrics (beware heat) or s-glass ($$$) there is a lot of wasted weight in polyester finishes IMO and the sanded primer look is trying to get the most out of the lightest layup.
ps woods and bamboo etc are uni-directional (strength and stiffness are only improved in the one [most important] direction)
I think the ideal would be bi-axial fabric (45degrees+/-) but it is not available as light as 6 oz a AND it has fairly severe stiching on the surface holding the fibres together. You could use it in a mould (vacuum bagged) which would use less resin and be lighter ,but not on a foam cored board.
PS CMC , i saw the inside of a Danish Struer (Kayak) paddle once and there was a square "Void" on the inside of the shaft to make it lighter and no "glassing" at all. They were the bees knees with Hungarian Liminats till the late 80s when the radically curved "wing" paddles appeared, first in Glass fibre and since then in Carbon fibre.
Todays Instalment:
Yesterday was front side work. Pics as below with front of blade glassed in 4oz. You can see a line around the paddle, I used fin rovings for the edge as they are super strong and help avoid damage to your paddle.
At the very bottom you can see this mornings progression. Trimmed back the edges and sanded the edge of the rovings, glass and carbon back to a tuned approx 1/8" edge around the blade.
So far have flexed the whole paddle and the blade being so thin and light has a great flex that would feel amazing with the return from the carbon. Flexing the shaft alone feels nice and stiff, early results are telling me that the carbon has substantially increased stiffness while not really increasing weight.
Negatives are being impatient with limited time I did not talc my forearms or wear a long sleeve shirt so I will itching all day. Funny thing is I kind of like it, I love the fumes and dust. Even @ 12 I was cleaning shaping bays, fixing dings, wetrubbing and cutting out decals just to be near this stuff. Surfers were not my heroes, surfboard factory guys were....... And still are.
P.S Pics of paddle are pre-filler coat and only pre-sanded. Will put a filler on it day to bring back a nice shine.
Do you need to put a filler on? .. Do you need to bring back the shine?
I'm surprised to see the carbon stipes down the sides where there's less load. (not picking)
DJ
I think a "C-Section" of carbon around the shaft is perfect.... Even an "O-Section" right around would be fine.
Looking good !
Carbon on the sides: As Simondo said this tape is also fibreglass so I thought the added support around the sides would help. I like the idea of another section over the top to completely cover the shaft but you lose the wood look then.
It does have to be filler coated as to get a light lamination you need to remove all excess resin from the lam, this leaves a bumpy surface. It's the lightest, strongest way to do it.
I am still a bit blown away by the weight to be honest, I keep expecting it to feel heavy. I will do a full flex test with weights, flex measurements etc and all vitals so you know what I am working with when complete.
I am excited to be honest, coming out much better than I imagined. How I am going to give this back to Dan?????
