Making a longboard

Want a functional board or a work of art? What's the priority? You could use boat resin and pigment or paint the board. The waves really don't give a damn about cosmetics.

My experience:

- Surfboard resin and boat resin are different colors. The gel time is the same.

- I am not sure about UV resistance for boat resin - although I assume it is not there, but I think that might only be in the surfboard sanding resin and gloss coat resin.

- For my boards I have used surfboard laminating resin, then sanding resin, then gloss coat resin on the bottom. If you get boat resin, you will need be careful about this.

- Consider, too, that some boat resin is epoxy and not polyester. Epoxy will be more expensive, stronger, lighter, and way harder to sand.

<snip>

One link Doc posted was:
http://www.fiberglast.com/Default.htm Maybe they can tell you which resin

Then there are:
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=F... lass+technical+information&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=& as_qdr=all&as_occt=any&as_dt= i&as_sitesearch=&safe=off
http://www.google.com/search?as_q=&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=C... foam+blanks&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_qdr=all&as_occt=any& as_dt=i&as_sitesearch =&safe=off

and if this guy gets his shaping room cam working in time, you can watch a shaper at work
http://www.eriesurfboards.com/erie/shaping_cam.html

Surfboard manufacturing is a dirty, toxic job. If you go through with it, get a good respirator and eye protection. And keep that damned MEKP (catalyst) and resin off your skin.

BTWeaver (11 months working on fiberglass boats)

sniperoo

Havard,

What size/shape are you planning to make? I'm ordering two blanks tomorrow 10'1' Yater and a 7'4' Rusty/Hamon. I'm not handling the resin, my buddy is taking care of things on that end, but I did notice browsing through one of the web sites that there was a large fee tacked on for handling hazardous material.

keep us informed,

I was thinking 3 to 5 blanks(since shipping price is the same for one to five blanks). *One or two longboards( 9'8' or something, something like this http://www.brucejones.com/modernlongboard.htm) *One or two funboards(7'something, something like this http://www.brucejones.com/hybrid.htm) *One fish/pig/smallwave shortboard( want to make an upscaled version of a friends smallwave board, it's 5'6' with alot of area)

Pri 1 is the longboard tho', I really need one for small summer days.

All keep you all informed.

Duuude ! With all the shapers all over the world (and really good used boards on E-bay) ,why do you need to go thru the hassle of making a board? I can tell you it was an interesting experience when I tried it ( as I did learn to fix my own dings),but depending on your experience, which you did claim you're a novice,I learned that the pros know a lot more about shaping then I do. Plus you learn real fast about things like closed cell foam vs open cell,and also what the word delamination means.Just get a used board and enjoy the waves .If you really want to learn to shape ,move to Hawaii and study under the masters.Its always best to learn from the best. They've made all the mistakes so you don't have to. The few boards I did make never really had the feel of a professionally made board.

However, Reichhold owns a plant and manufactures 'unsaturated polyesters' in Fredrikstad.

Try getting in touch with

Reichhold AS P.O. Box 2061 Ranvik Brygge 5/7 N-3202 Sandefjord Tel. + 47 33 44 86 00 Fax + 47 33 44 86 01

and see what they can get ahold of.

Don't thank me, thank Tony Boesen. I looked through his Materials/Tools page ( http://www.viser.net/~anthwind/Material_Info/material_info.html ) and figured Reichhold might be worth checking out.

I found them there too. I which I could get through on the phone or they would answer my email some day soon.

Well, it's still only Tuesday......... failing that, try

Customer Support - marketing dept.:

Customer Support - technical dept.:

Doc...off to fix a few boards........

A new longboard would run $600 here easily, the best I can get right now is $300(for a bic...) Ordering is atleast $100 just for the shipping of a board. Then I have to pay taxes for the board. However, this is not a price issue.

I'm not really looking for a professional result. I honestly believe I could make a board that would work in typical summer conditions by copying another longboard. Besides, I need something to do when there are no surf.