Due to several requests, why don't we have a thread on how to build a board.
I'm lazy and can't be bothered going into every technical detail, but thought I should at least start it off with the basic steps. I'm sure I've forgotton stuff already so feel free to add to list so we a have resource for those interested.
If you want to know more about any particular process, ask and one of the many knowledgeable people will reply
Steps to Board Building
1. Get your ideas happening first.
2. Consult widely.
3. Buy block of Styrene Foam, Lightest you can buy.
4. Develop Rocker profiles.
5. Develop Plan of Board
6. Attach Rocker Profiles to Foam Block, ensure parallel and symmetrical.
7. Hotwire foam block top and bottom.
8. Place plan of board atop cut foam, and cut away foam, hand saw is sufficient.
9. Place measurements on board, rail lines, centre of board, fin box etc
10. Start shaping/sanding Process (Tools important we used a planer, a speacial file tool, different sandpapers and other things I don't know the name of), and get to finished product.This is a critical process, having vee gauges, and rail profiles helps heaps here. Know how far to go here is very important, experience and looking at how other baords work with rail shapes, and vee bottoms is also important. This is the foundation of your board so getting it right here is critical as every other bit you put on conforms to this shape.
11. Bottom of Board, Prepare epoxy, Cut out Herex Foam or Divinycell, and Carbon Fibre cloth to size. Epoxy Carbon Cloth to bottom, Place cut out Foam on top of epoxied carbon, tape onto board.
12. Prepare Vacuum Bag, and place board in bag, shape bag to bottom.
13. Vacuum for x hours.
14. Top of Board, Carbon Cloth, epoxy to top, Foam cut and shape to top, allway joining to bottom. A heat gun is handy here to bend foam down around rails, and then taping tightly to bottom.
15. Repeat Vacuum Bag process, ensuring bag compresses rails correctly.
16. Epoxy carbon cloth to bottom of board (This creates the foam Sandwich)
17. Cover with Peel Ply, and Soaking cloth Taping both to baord.
18. Repeat Vacuum Process.
19. Reinforcement areas, by adding bits of glass or carbon cloth to high stress areas to your own preference. This is done at each stage. around mast track, fin box and footpad areas.
20. Epoxy Carbon Layer to top. Cover with Peel Ply, and Soaking cloth add peel ply and soaking material.
21. Repeat Vacuum Process.
22. Reinforcement areas, by adding bits of glass or carbon cloth to high stress areas to your own preference. We added an extra bit of herex foam over the footpad and mast base areas.
23. Cut out, Fin Box, Mast Track, and Foot Strap plugs areas. Having kept a transparent plan helps during this process as well as keeping a centreline.
24. Epoxy in Fin Box, Foot Plugs and Mast Track sperately. We didn’t vacuum here we used tape and sand bags. If your fussy like Decrep, he cuts out styrene foam and puts in high density water proof foam in these areas.
24a. If your fussy and clever like Decrep he does a nose job for you using speacial materials, he might want to elaborate on that?
25. Filling all uneven areas is very important now, can’t remember the product (From memory it was Epoxy mixed with Q-Cell).
26. BTW lots of sanding all through these processes.
27. Next is Filler Coat, and wet/dry sanding till desired finish.
28. Then Paint.
29. Tape out all areas of footsraps and pads.
30. Sugar deck, Epoxy deck, add castor sugar.
31. Apply Footpads
32. Screw in Straps.
33. Admire board.
34. Put crack in board with flying fin, so you don’t have to worry about getting your first mark out on the water.
35. Sail board, smile and be happy.
__________________
Hardie (Lemon Man)
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