hi
ive just got a slick and want to make a carbon mini boom.
couple of questions guys that have made them.
what thickness tube works well for grip? Was thinking 25mm round with a bike innertube to cover it.
what wall thickness tube? 1mm ok or to flexible? Going to try and make head out of HD foam and glass as don't have a 3D printer.
thanks

I have made a few, these are the shafts I use, covered with fishing rod grip.

www.ebay.com.au/itm/132977333838?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-154756-20017-0&ssspo=n71LZK_yQ0i&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=kwc-fe9vQrW&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

Nothing fancy in my case but does the job. I couldn't find anything cheap enough here in the US to justify a DIY carbon boom (versus the Duotone's $200 usd 330gm version), without having to splice some 25mm x 23mm x 1000mm tubes I got off Amazon ($50 usd for two 1000mm tubes) . Wasn't too keen on the used rectangular hockey stick shaft option.

Another $27 usd for enough Chinook windsurf boom grip to do 2 booms. A short wood dowel section to splice the tubes together, some misc teak lying around the shop for end caps, some West GFlex epoxy to glue and seal, and some contact cement for the boom grip. Figure about 27mm final diam with the boom grip. Don't think I'd want anything larger than that. Final weight 300 grams. Couple hours to make.

I built a DIY carbon boom while I was waiting for the Platinum booms to become available. I used a ~25mm OD tube with ~28mm OD tube couplings to be able to fit into the OEM Duotone front and rear ends. My tubes were very thin walled about 1mm, but high quality tubes from a company that is involved in manufacturing parts for various sports in which we all participate.

25mm OD is nice... there will be a Platinum SLS mini-boom from Duotone this fall which is similar dimensions.

I think my final weight with trapezoidal inside grip was around 260g.... I added shrink wrap fishing rod grip, but it is heavy... around 70g, but the result is I get nice soft inside grip on the boom that is easy on the fingers and an egg shape grip to the boom that I enjoy.

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sunsetsailboards said..
I built a DIY carbon boom while I was waiting for the Platinum booms to become available. I used a ~25mm OD tube with ~28mm OD tube couplings to be able to fit into the OEM Duotone front and rear ends. My tubes were very thin walled about 1mm, but high quality tubes from a company that is involved in manufacturing parts for various sports in which we all participate.

25mm OD is nice... there will be a Platinum SLS mini-boom from Duotone this fall which is similar dimensions.

I think my final weight with trapezoidal inside grip was around 260g.... I added shrink wrap fishing rod grip, but it is heavy... around 70g, but the result is I get nice soft inside grip on the boom that is easy on the fingers and an egg shape grip to the boom that I enjoy.

can you post a pic? I put in a pre-order for the SLS reduced diameter but am curious to see what you've built. I'm not a very handy person so I think I'll wait but am getting concerned that gloves will cause a lot of forearm fatigue on the current platinum boom given it's thickness. It really seems unneccesarily thick!

I have made about a half dozen booms from used ice hockey sticks. If you are in a region where street or ice hockey is played, you might be able to find used ones really cheap or even discarded ones in trash bins (like I did). The weight is pretty similar to the Platinum boom and can be a lot lighter if you don't add a rubber grip (the sticks have a grip coating, but they do get a little bit slippery when wet). I made a Youtube video on it and I'm selling the files for 3D-printing the front & back piece for $10. I haven't sold any, so I guess there's no interest or people just aren't aware of it.

My first prototype custom booms used a round profile aluminum tube, but they were heavy. I couldn't find any really good/inexpensive sources for sufficiently long carbon tubes, so the idea of using broken ice hockey sticks was a total game changer for me. I have about 100 sessions on my booms (no breakages except for two back ends that I foolishly hot-glued instead of using epoxy) and others have also used the booms and like them.

But, given the regionality of hockey sports, I also released the 3D print files for round profiles. No sales of that either. I hope you don't see this as blatant commercial promotion on my part...it's difficult to tell where that starts. I guess my point is that 3D printed end pieces are entirely viable and work well and the tough part is obtaining a lightweight, durable and stiff tube that is long enough for the boom and that doesn't cost almost as much as a factory-made boom from Duotone.

You can find my 3D printable file here (and Youtube video links on the product pages): www.myminifactory.com/users/jmunkki

I think it's a great idea and I collected three hockey sticks. I use two to make fake booms for loop handle wings. I need to figure out access to a 3d printer and then I will buy your file. My hockey sticks are even named cool. One says jetspeed, which sounds fast and the other is a good old super tack. Which is funny because I mostly have sloppy jibes.

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Seastudent said..
I think it's a great idea and I collected three hockey sticks. I use two to make fake booms for loop handle wings. I need to figure out access to a 3d printer and then I will buy your file. My hockey sticks are even named cool. One says jetspeed, which sounds fast and the other is a good old super tack. Which is funny because I mostly have sloppy jibes.

That's great! I have made booms from CCM Jetspeeds and Supertacks.

Around here, public libraries have 3D printers. Back when I was starting out and didn't have my own printer, they were charging 50 cents or something like that per print and you had a maximum printer reservation time of 3 or 4 hours, so you had to be able to print the part in that time. The boom end pieces are small enough print in a couple of hours (and the back piece isn't really all that important), so any public makerspace will probably work. I spent a couple of weeks making reservations at the library before I caved in and bought my first 3D printer (I still have it and use it for flexible materials and as a backup printer).

I showed a gyrokey print to a friend on the beach recently and he said something about needing an expensive printer to make one. I told him you can get a suitable printer for about ?100. He looked a bit shocked. 3D printers are actually simpler than most ink jet printers and for small prints, a really low end printer can work just fine too. Hobbyking seems to have a low end "EasyThreed X1" printer on sale for ?67 right now (Australian plug version is closer to ?100). The print volume is on the small side, but it's large enough for all the winging-related stuff I have designed.

A few years back, I bought the Fabrikator Mini printer with an even smaller print volume (80x80x80mm^3) and while it was really slow, I found it produced really strong prints and the print quality was just fine. The dirt cheap models usually don't have heated beds, part cooling fans or displays (although it was pretty easy to add a display to the Fabrikator Mini). My second cheapest printer was a Creality Ender 3. That one was semi-built kit, so it took a couple of hours to build, but it was a fantastic printer for around ?160.

With the original slick wings I used a SUP paddle shaft complete with T-grip. I cut to length and on the other end I made a small cylindrical plug and hot-glued that in to make it water tight. The T-grip handle fits in the front leading edge pocket and stays put. Just need to make sure the overall boom is long enough so it doesn't slip out the back end, which has been a problem even with the duotone official booms.