Board #1 is done - again!

I finally had time to fix the crack in the bamboo glass on the deck of board #1. First I consulted with the experts on swaylocks.com, which had different opinions about what could have gone wrong: one felt that polyiso foam was generally unsuitable for surfboards and that I should just trash the board (unthinkable after having put this much work into it!), another thought the deck lamination was too light, and another wrote that bamboo glass can be weak unless it is stretched just the right amount - stretch too little and the lam will be brittle - stretch too much and there'll be too little fiber. In the end I decided to route out a layer of foam around the crack, glued in a block of fresh foam with Gorilla Glue, sanded it level, and laminated over with two patches of bamboo glass.

At this point the ding was fixed, but the glue had left some nasty brown rings in the foam. It occurred to me that this was an excellent chance to add another logo to the board. You can see the result in the picture. Again I printed it on rice paper, and covered it with a 4-ounce e-glass patch.


Then, to make the board bullet-proof and hopefully avoid further cracks in the deck, I laminated a thick (2 layers of 6-ounce S-glass) patch over 2/3rd of the deck. If you click on the photo an view the closeup then you can see a reflection where the patch ends. I forget how much resin this took.

Then I faired out the patch and sanded the whole deck with #36, #60, and #100 grit sandpaper, then hotcoated the deck again (12 ounces of resin). This time I used a real wide brush which made the hotcoating real quick and easy. I few little things went wrong: Unfortunately I didn't have enough fast epoxy hardener left, so I had to use a mix of slow and hard, and it took many hours to cure the hotcoat - way too long. By that time plenty of dust had attached to the surface. I washed off the deck the next day - but the epoxy must have still been slightly tacky - after washing and drying the shine in the hoatcoat was gone. O well, I can do better on the next board... after waxing it won't really make a difference.

The board is a lot heavier now, but feels real solid. Like a tank.

So at this point the board is ready to ride again. The above happened two weeks ago, and the board has been curing away in the basement since then, while I've been travelling for work. I'm writing this from my hotel room, the day before flying back home. I can't wait to try the board real soon!