G'day gang, hoping someone out there might be able to give me some advice,
i have a lovely new bamboo epoxy board (see avatar)
took it out for its maiden voyage a few days ago & while fully stoked after the session managed to lose my bearings & wound up in over shallow reef on my way into shore. I caught the left outside fin on the reef & pulled it out & backwards. The fin itself didn't break but the momentum has sliced 35mm cut in the board. It's dislodged the rear fin mount in the board & I guess done some unseeable damage inside,,
my question is can I repair this myself with some runny fibreglass resin to re locate the plug or are there bigger problems I need to consider?
I'd prefer not to have an ugly white repair on the bamboo.
Cheers chaps.
????

yes you can repair yourself. I would check out the Boardlady website has a lot of good info on repairs.
and products you can use on epoxy boards.
I don't think fibreglass resin is what you want.

If your handy , you should be able to fix it yourself.
Most importantly the board must be completely dry inside.
You can buy two part clear laminating epoxy resin , i would use this to fill the slice and glue the box back in.
Take out any loose foam and make sure the fin box goes in and out easily.
Masking tape closely around the hole.
Mask a LOT , this is going to get messy and u dont want any glue getting on the board.
Put the fin in the box and mask properly so u dont get any resin in the slot or on the fin. ( you keep the fin in the box to make sure the fin box is straight when glueing ).
Re check to make sure no resin will go into the fin box.
Make sure board is parralell with a level before starting.
Fill hole halfway with resin.
Holding fin , slowly push in box and make sure resin is overflowing up all sides of the box.
Look down the board from the front and make sure the fin is straight , use masking tape to hold into position.
There will be a lot of overflow , better more than not enough.
Dont go anywhere !
When the resin starts to gel ( way before it gets hard ) remove all the masking tape , there should be almost no resin on the board.
This will be easy to sand back with 600 wet and dry.
You may need to top up with resin a little if the resin sunk down back into the board when hardening. ( dont forget to mask ).
Done , good luck !

Further - this time of year epoxy can get hot when curing and melt your core.
don't have a big void around the plug or you will get heat problems due to the volume of epoxy.
If you just can't avoid the void:
Consider buying a super slow hardener (but might not be clear enough) or doing it in the evening with ice on board for a while beforehand

Avoid the void. Good advice for life there.

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Mark _australia said..
Further - this time of year epoxy can get hot when curing and melt your core.
don't have a big void around the plug or you will get heat problems due to the volume of epoxy.
If you just can't avoid the void:
Consider buying a super slow hardener (but might not be clear enough) or doing it in the evening with ice on board for a while beforehand

If a ding is 20mm or deeper, it is a good idea to the repair the ding in two stages.This will reduce the heat created during the curing stage and avoid the foam being affected by the heat.

Yes a slower way to fix the void but safer. Some epoxies get up to almost 90c and slower epoxies, some still hit 75-80c when the chemical reaction happens, this is mainly when there is a big amount in one area, so sometimes less is more!

Ive made Balsa sandwich boards years ago. That balsa needs to be dried out 110%! If you seal in any moisture in the wood it will give you heaps of grief later. Any water getting into the wood spreads far.

Select to expand quote

sanded said..

Mark _australia said..
Further - this time of year epoxy can get hot when curing and melt your core.
don't have a big void around the plug or you will get heat problems due to the volume of epoxy.
If you just can't avoid the void:
Consider buying a super slow hardener (but might not be clear enough) or doing it in the evening with ice on board for a while beforehand

If a ding is 20mm or deeper, it is a good idea to the repair the ding in two stages.This will reduce the heat created during the curing stage and avoid the foam being affected by the heat.

Yes a slower way to fix the void but safer. Some epoxies get up to almost 90c and slower epoxies, some still hit 75-80c when the chemical reaction happens, this is mainly when there is a big amount in one area, so sometimes less is more!

What temps does your Surfset flex resin generate?

Flex onset is about 50c mid point 54c

Pro onset is about 61c mid point 67c similar to West/Atl

It depends on how much you put into the void, we recommend any hole deeper than 20mm do 2 mixes to fill the hole first one coats the area and then the second can fill the hole as the area has been coated by the first mix so less chance of melting the foam.