I cant see the point of mast tracks, I always screw it in the middle and deal with it, never have any problems. so i have glued the nut straight into the deck with plenty of carbon, a strip of meranti hardwood.., This board is not over engineered.


I didnt want to subscribe to the awful finbox systems and expensive fins which i cut down anyway, so i made some out of marine ply, laminated in carbon and fibreglass.. they are also weedfins because lake illawarra has loads of weed in the shallow bits.

inside vacuum bag under loads of vacuum

barn said...

I cant see the point of mast tracks, I always screw it in the middle and deal with it, never have any problems. so i have glued the nut straight into the deck with plenty of carbon, a strip of meranti hardwood.., This board is not over engineered.

This made my day Barn, HAHA...and so true!

I cant wait to see you sailing this thing

I was out today!!, where were u chris? have u got your joker yet?


was planning on epic paintwork because i fancy myself as an artist but the forecast changed everything, so a la Copperhead Road, no paint except this daft red stripe.. I have used clear acrylic and caster sugar.. because the forecast was closing, it was that or surfboard wax!!


with the suger washed off

padz are high density PVA pool tyles from clark rubber, with a pretty drunk pattern with the router!

barn said...

I was out today!!, where were u chris? have u got your joker yet?

Broke my damn finger last week mountain biking so i'm out for 6 weeks or so. But lukily since i've made the sacrifice the winds have now started arriving. No need to thank me [}:)]

CJW said...

barn said...

I was out today!!, where were u chris? have u got your joker yet?

Broke my damn finger last week mountain biking so i'm out for 6 weeks or so. But lukily since i've made the sacrifice the winds have now started arriving. No need to thank me [}:)]

Okay I'm pack the joker up this weekend and post it first thing monday. Where is the cheapest place to buy bulk bubblewrap?

This is the best thread on this forum!

p.s. how do you do shakas?

it goes fine, as expected, its heavily influenced from the F2 rodeo and tabou 90 and skate.. its 10cm shorter than the rodeo and the rocker line is from the naish hybrid.. there was no reason to think it wouldnent work.. The only thing m worried about is if i had enough resin under the pvc foam, it was all wetted out but the board is really really light.. I will probably snap it but thats a really easy fix.

I forgot to list prices!

because i used no store bought inserts like mast track an finbox the price was pretty low for the board itself, about $400 i reckon on materials actually used IN teh board (lots of carbon)..

but i spent a fair bit more on stuff like resin and carbon and fibreglass which i still have plenty of left for the next board, I got the foam blank (4 boards worth) from a local supplier and the rest from FGI in sydney, they deliver everything next day.. also tools like the vacuum compressor and hotwire cutter and vacuum bagging stuff adds up.

feel free to ask any questions as i am now an expert!

this sums it up for me.O.K. first questions. where do you get the carbon and resin and what are the steps to make those fins since i wouldn't mind making some myself considering how much hey cost.
awsome post otherwise

the fins were easy!, I bought some 6mm marine ply from bunnings, 1200x600x6. And the carbon and epoxy I bought from FGI composites in sydney, the carbon I used was bi weave 200g, but in a longer fin it might be worth playing with the unidirectional stuff. Its all about $45 per meter. I also used some fiberglass 130g. The resin I used for the whole project was FGIs own brand. I bought 5L resin and 1L hardener for $90ish but there were smaller volumes available.

I shaped the fins with a belt sander for the rough stuff, and a hand sanded the rest, making them a little narrower than I needed, Ive shaped a lot of fins so this bit was easy, but on a longer fin a little extra attention to accuracy wouldn't hurt. Then I laminated everything together, after that I sanded them back and filled over the fins again with micro spheres mixed with epoxy which sands really well. (that was $30 for half a kilo! which is fairly excessive amount I now have a life supply)


I also used a vacuum bag to set the fins some plastic, tackey tape, peelply, breather fabric were used, all available from FGI.

I followed the instructions on seabreeze for the vacuum pump from a fridge compressor, I found a pile of fridges at the local revolve, $5 for the motor, and the vac advance and pressure gauge from a wrecker. all under $50 just as the article says.

vacuum bagging affect could be achieved with sandbags or something simmilar. But I already had it for the board, Its a pretty neat piece of equipment, there are videos on Youtube about vacbagging model airplane wings which are worth a look.

hope that helps!

thanks for all of that. might get into making some fins now. Just have to make some time though

That is an original approach. You're not just a pretty face Barn.

It's probably worth doing a bit of cosmetic work on the beast. Something along the lines of industrial chic with graffiti spray? Or were you thinking more slick and gorgeous?
You have some nice coordination going on with your sail.

yes there is 130g fiber glass between the PVC and the foam. Also under the PVC foam there is 200g carbon around the straps and up to the 'mast nut' for extra strength. And also a double layer of glass on the bottom between the straps.

the foam blank was 13kg/m3.. I bought a huge block from a local distributors, It felt heavy so I weighed the block when I got it home with accurate scales and it was spot on.

I cut the blank using a hotwire cutter for the deck and rocker, using two templates. Hotwire cutter was made from guitar string, (the heaviest duty plain string at music shop), an ARC welder for power supply and a 'drop down resistor' made by setting up six 50W down lights in series. The old man worked out the circuit on paper and I just followed instructions, pretty much perfect settings 1st attempt.



hotwire cutter frame $8, guitar string $2.50 and disco box resistor (8 down lights 50W, $11)

vintage arc welder I found in the shed, priceless!

I cut the outline first using AKU shaper to give me the outline, and the rest of shaping was done with a surform, a belt sander, and some gauze stuff from bunnings.

the consumables weren't that expensive, peelply is $3 a meter, vacuum bag film is $5pm for a 90mm wide tube. And breather fabric is $2.50 for 1x1.5m2. Are the fabrics from dressmakers much cheaper? always happy to save more dollars


I am considering finishing the paint work, one day, but I kinda like the carbon finnish tho, it feels like a soviet military prototype.

barn said...

soviet military prototype.

Well you need a stencilled "CCCP" at least don't you?

this whole project is so Ghetto ... love it!

Hey there,

I have a desire to make my own freestyle board as well...
As it would be my first board I got some questions regarding shaping and laminating...

regarding shape of the blank: - thinking of tail rocker about 2-3mm
- nose rocker is a question for me... would arround
15cm be to high?
- viewing full length rocker line... would it mean
earlier planing whether I move lowest point of the
curve more forward?
- thinking of making elypse shape when viewing from
top (opinions?)
Laminating: my Idea was --> blank, 1 layer of 110g/m^2 fiberglass, Airex foam-
3mm thick, 1 layer of 110g fiberglass, 1 layer of 160g
carbon fiber, strengthening nose, rails with kevlar
fiber (of course also reinforcing the mast and
footpad area with kevlar directly on the blank

Now... I am not sure whether the fiberglass under the Airex foam is necessary or not...
Regarding inserts, I can get them all for about 50€ (70$)...just for information, I would like to have carbon fiber on top, and just put transparent protection, so the fabric would be seen through...

I seek your opinions and advice, thank you in advance guys.

BTW... good job barn...

10/10 for research, ingenuity and effort, and another 10/10 for the sailing demo.

IMO more attention to the paintwork/finish would make it even better, even if you do want to keep the soviet prototype theme. eg some stencilled stats, model numbers, radioactivity symbols, 'top secret' etc. (along with the CCCP Notwal suggested)