Split board pressed

So I have finally pressed my split board.

I don’t have that many pictures of the build process as I was a little busy.

I made a new adjustable mold setup kinda like boardcrafter.com  I have 6 ribs in it and a layer of board and another of 3 mm polycarbonate.   I did a bunch of tests and is SEEMS to be flat.  Flat enough for this snowboard HACK that is.

I had some major drama’s with cores… I thought it would be cool to have the cores cnc’d for shape and thickness. The guy who did it said he was worried that once he cuts them out, he will have no place for retention.  I suggested that he profile THEN cut out.   He said it was a good idea and he would do it that way.  When I collected them they were completely stuffed..  Holes all the way through, thickness variations of over 2mm…   It seems that he decided to cut them out first and then HOLD THEM DONE WITH HIS HANDS.   I left in disgust and used my router jig to get the job done on the new cores I made. What a complete waste of time and money.  The cores I made were made from bamboo.  I did something a little weird and I hope it doesn’t come back to bite me.  I use 5mm thick bamboo sheet.  My cores are 7mm at their thickest so I laminated them together…  I have read numerous times people saying this isn’t a good idea.  I tested it..  Did lots of flexing and playing.  It SEEMS good, I guess we will find out though.  I did rought them up and compress them within an inch of their lives so hoping it will be ok.

NO CORE PICS!

 

So, I have some pics of the base below.  As you can see, the base shape is kinda different. I saw these cool french split boards on the internet and thought I might try to emulate that.  They are set back and have ski-ish tips and tails on each of the split piece.   I hope it works!  Here’s to being different for difference sake hey! Edges are bent and attached. I did full wrap nose but no wrap tails…  I would like to say that this was a carefully thought about feature I wanted a lighter tail and a stronger nose.  In truth, I snapped one of the 4 edges I had (my only 4) whilst bending it and wasn’t going to order a whole new set from the opposite side of the world.  I shortened and glued t-nuts on for guides.  4 of the 6 came off in the mount up.  Ohh well.

I cleaned these before building the board.  They look dirty.

 

As per usual, not nearly enough pictures of the vac process were taken.  the are all below.

My layers are

Base

VDS

Fibreglass

Core

Fibreglass

Carbon

Veneer top sheet.

It was pretty chilly (for Melbourne, Australia on the day I was making this so I came up with a good idea. I borrowed one of those gas turbine heaters and located it in front of my mold. I then used a board I had to make a lid.  I had it so It was maybe 40 degree’s in the mold (coffin) and left it like that for the whole time it was pressing.  I was working night shift that evening so I had it under vacuum for just under 8 hours.

 

 

I have taken the board out of the bag and had a look.  Base looks good.  The gap between the boards looks uniform from what I can tell.  I have to wait till I cut it in half though.  The proof of the boarding is in the cutting or something.   I did make a bit of a blunder… I used a layer of vacuum bag flocking to give me a good vacuum for the full length of the board.  Last board I made had a protective coat on the top sheet.  This veneer did not.  Some how, I forgot to put anything between the flocking and the top sheet. What does this mean?  My board is flocked!  Its kinda furry all over.  I have briefly played with it and the belt sander will take it off I think, no biggie.

THINGS LEFT

Cut out

Drill retention holes

Mount split gear (using Voile).

Tune and base grind

skim coat or polyurethane the top sheet.

Linseed oil bamboo side walls.

 

 

 

 

old boards

Hi Guys,
I finished off my last board and was a little bit slack on updating.
I ended up getting a great friend to draw the artwork which is magic in my eyes.

HEre are some piccies.
http://imgur.com/a/1lmH1#0

Back to the future…

Ok so… I mentioned building a split board in the past… I started on it without thinking all that much about how and why I wanted a split board. It’s just a normal board cut in half yeah?? Yeah?
Maybe not…
So this time I have put some thought into it and have redesigned my board shape, molds and profiles. I am kinda excited about it but it’s going to be a bit of work.
So the board I am making this time is going to be bigger in the nose and smaller in the tail. Its going to have about a 9.5ish metre radius on the sidecut and it’s going to be and normal camber with an early rise/longer nose.
So thats it. All I have done at the moment is draw stuff up in Google sketch up (all mold related) and design my board in Snocad.

This is it by the way.

As far as hardware goes I have a Voile set of mounts and will be getting the KArakourum or prowder clips and buckles.. not sure which.

The goal is to have this done within the next few months but we will see I guess.

slackpants

Well I have been slack updating this. What’s happened lately? I have got two core blocks router trenched and epoxy poured. On the weekend I will run them through a sander and get the nice and flat.  Then I can router bridge them up. Excited? Yeah.   I have pretty much worked  out the splitty layout also. Gonna be cool and following my punk rawk upbringing. Pics to come, on a train at the moment.

smooth on, epoxy crystals and timber laughs

Split board core routered for polyurethane sidewall pour

I have been busy the last few weeks since my last update. First job  was to decrystalize my epoxy. It had worked itself into a tizzy and formed a large block. I had thought it was contaminated and was going to chuck it out but luckily I read online about it and after a bath in hot water it was back in a liquid state.

I have ordered and received my polyurethane. I went with pmc780. I read a whole bunch of info on the various brands, mixes and types and this one seems good. The main reason I chose it was because the guy who is building the coolest boards (my opinion) uses it.

I now have 3 cores. 1 is a normal board, my first attempt at routing the trench for the polyurethane. Its OK at best. The second is better and it will be my first split board. The third I’ll be a stock board and mainly will be a backup in case I shag the other one.  I found the process quite enjoyable. I am not accomplished with the router though and did end up cutting my template a little which I was pissed off about. Will fix this up with some  poly I think.

When I was buying my timber I went to a second hand floorboard recyclers in Thomas town. The guy was an old fella that was using all of his tried and true material on me. I was saying that I needed some boards at least 180 in length and he was telling me that was really short. A look came over his face and he said “do you work in the knitting industry?”

I answered “no” feeling a little confused.  He then said “you must, only old ladies measure in centimetres”.  I found this pretty amusing because my girlfriend and I do actually have a small knitted toy side business (www.theunnormalz.com)… Maybe he is right. I didn’t tell my old mate about this, I don’t think he would appreciate someone who can crochet AND is the owner of a penis…

Anyway, timber from them is 5 bucks a metre for 180mm wide boards so he can call me whatever the hell he wants. I am going to see if I can get a better deal next time.

REsin Crystalisation and the art of boiling water

I had made a poor assumption.  My Fibreglassing resin had become a large solid object that resembled a salt lick.  Its previous form, a liquid that flowed like oil, was long gone.  My poor assumption was that I had fucked it up somehow. Put the hardener lid on the wrong bottle and somehow it had magically screwed the metaphorical pooch.   After reading a single line on of text on skibuilders it got me thinking (googling). I can’t actually find the line now but it was something like “I microwave my resin to get rid of the crystals.”  A quick google search found me here

http://www.entropyresins.com/epoxy-crystallization-explained

A few minutes later found me in the kitchen boiling water.  I popped my resin in a bucket and poured hot water over it.  I now have a smooth flowing liquid again and a spare $100 bucks to spend on other things.  YEAH!

Good day for me.

So the ordering has begun

Ordered my PMC 790 today.  For those playing at home, thats Liquid polyurethane. 

Got it from a mob in Perth called Rowe Trading. They are the only stockists in oz so it was them or nobody…

It’s got a lower shore strength than other ones people are using but Dtrain from Skibuilders is rocking it so, fuck it, it must be good.  

Getting some additional hard woods on the weekend so I can make a blended core. 

 

The polyurethane is to pour my side walls. I haven’t done this before and I am super excited/terrified doing it.  HA

 

1000 small steps to success or possible failure

I am going to list what I want to achieve in this building process. What I think I can do and some stretch goals.

GOALS

By sometime in the not to distant future, lets say sometime this winter, I will have completed at least 2 (two) fully functioning snowboards that will contain new technologies that I have not previously played with. This will include and not be limited to:

• Sublimated graphics on at least 2
• Polyurethane “poured” side walls
• Different timber technologies to before.

This will involve learning how to do the above and building any equipment such as pressure chambers etc.

My stretch goals for this winter will be that one of these boards will be a split board. For those who are not “in the know” about Whacky things like this, a Split board is a snowboard that can be split in half and used to skin or hike and then be joined back together so you can ride it like that proverbial snow pony.

So yeah, thats it for now.

Night

First post..

Well.. This is interesting… I am popping this stuff on here so I can keep a track of a little project I have been tinkering with. I have entered into the niche world of Home Snowboard manufacture. It’s a small world but it’s stuffed full of some very clever folks. I am not gonna lie, I have been carefully taking notes and writing evil plans to steal the ideas from the clever chaps that post on http://www.skibuilders.com. The coolest part is that it’s not even stealing. The freely and willingly share their brainy ideas with the rest of the community. It’s pretty amazing really.

The first, and MOST important step has been accomplished.. Think up a fucking cool blog name… Boards of Prey…  I might even go with some owl graphics on one of my sticks.
The next, slightly less important step. Make a list of what you plan to accomplish and how should appear on here soon. After that you might even get to see some pictures (SFW) of my man cave and what I have done so far.