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How I Built A Wakeboard |
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At my high school school, Central Kitsap High, there is a program called Distinguished Scholar. To become a Distinguished Scholar one must take certain classes, maintain good grades, and do a project. For my project I decided to build a wakeboard. I had no experience at applying fiber glass or building wakeboards. In fact, building a wakeboard by hand is very unusual and I have not found anyone who has done it before. However, I did find some resources relating to building surfboards as well as a few informative people with surfboard building experience. Following is the journal of my "Building a Wakeboard" project. If you want to see pictures of me actually wakeboarding, go
here. Journal I consider today to be the first day of building my wakeboard. I decided I should tour an actual wakeboard factory before embarking on my project. Fortunately, almost every water ski and wakeboard company in the country is located on the east side of Puget Sound, so I had my pick of factories to tour. I contacted Hyperlite, the largest board manufacturer, and they helped me set up a date to come down and visit their factory in Redmond. Today I went to the factory and was greeted by Gregg Vukelic, who proceeded to give me a very informative tour of the factory. I won’t go into the details of their board building process since it will be very different from mine, but I learned quite a bit. Obviously I don’t have the resources or equipment to build a board like Hyperlite, so my process will be a little different. However, I did get a pretty good idea of how I am going to go about building my board. Gregg said he would find some foam for me to shape the core of my board with and answer any questions I might have in the process. I also began researching on the Internet as to how to build a wakeboard at home. Wakeboarding is a relatively unknown sport, most people have never heard of it. Therefore, I did not find any resources directly related to constructing a wakeboard at home. However, there are quite a few sites dedicated to handcrafting surfboards, which is a similar process. Hopefully with what I learned today at the factory, the surfboard websites, and my intuition, I will be able to successfully build a wakeboard in my garage over the next few weeks. August 2nd
Today I was surfing Surfing WebPages on the Internet and I accidentally I
stumbled upon a C.A.D. program specifically designed to create models of
surfboards in the computer. I downloaded the full functioning shareware, which
lasts 30 days, and started fiddling with it. (I have received numerous e-mail
requests as to where I obtained this program. Visit: http://www.viser.net/~anthwind/Software___CAD/software___cad.html
The page contains a collection of links to Surfboard C.A.D. programs. I used the
first program in the list.) I have a rough model of a wakeboard right now. My
plan is to demo a board from Kitsap Sports and base my design on it and
construct it in the computer. The program allows me to print so hopefully I wil
be able to add some diagrams to my project. August 16th
After repeated failed attempts to contact Gregg Vukelic, who showed me
around Hyperlite last week, I have decided to find some foam on my own over the
Internet. I found a great online retailer, www.fiberglasssupply.com,
located in Washington. I e-mailed the tech guy there and he was very informative
and helpful. He suggested I buy a surfboard blank (a piece of foam in the rough
shape of a surfboard for surfboard builders.) and cut and sand it and then
layer it with three coats of fiberglass. He sent me a tentative list of
materials I will probably need to build my board. Below is the e-mail he sent
me: Erik, Following are suggested materials for your Wake Board Project. I have provided Item Numbers so you can easily look these up on Web Site to confirm that you want or need these materials and supplies. The books and videos are optional; maybe you can find a friend to borrow these from, if you have not done this type of work before they are very helpful. 1.
Item P08-1064, 1 ea. 6' 2" C Blank in Classic (Heavy Density Foam),
$48.44 You will also require a respirator, safety glasses and gloves. If I can answer further questions please do not hesitate, Doug I plan on ordering everything except the fin equipment and the videos tomorrow morning. This man seems really helpful and has answered many of my questions. He said that his company is the one that actually supplies Hyperlite with the foam to make experimental boards. It looks like I am on the right track. I have made a pretty good tentative model of the board I plan to build with the computer program I mentioned earlier.
I also contacted my neighbor who is an avid surfer and he hooked me up with a friend of his who lives near Island Lake and builds a few surfboards a year. I just contacted him, and he was thinking of building a wakeboard type board as well. He is going on vacation for a few days and he will contact me when he gets back. Hopefully we can get together and he might be able to help me with my board. August 17th I just ordered everything on the e-mail except the fin equipment and the videos. Fiberglasssuply.com says it should arrive in a day or two. Ironically, less than one hour after I ordered my supplies Gregg, from Hyperlite, finally called me. However, he said that he was not able to obtain some foam for me to use. When I mentioned that I had ordered a Surfboard blank, he said that that was perfect and that they frequently use the exact same blank on some of their prototype models. August 22nd My supplies came today, everything was there except the book, so I think I will wait until tomorrow and see if Jon, the friend of my neighbor who builds surfboards, calls. Hopefully he will be able to help me out.
August 23rd I called Jon today, I was hoping we could get together tonight, but he says he will be busy until Sunday. I think I will go ahead and get started on my project. I am going to go to the hardware store this afternoon and buy sand paper so I can get started on shaping the board. I have gotten a lot of tips from the Internet on how I should go about sanding it. This afternoon I cut out the rough shape of my board from the surfboard blank. I also created some sanding blocks. Tomorrow I am going to get started shaping my board. I used a keyhole saw to cut the foam and that worked pretty well. I have a feeling I am going to be doing a lot of sanding though; much of the foam that needs to be removed can not be cut away. August 24th Today I marked out the horizontal profile onto the foam. The board will have a 5cm rocker (rocker: how high the board curves up) at the ends. Right now the average thickness of the board is only about 2.5cm. I hope it will be adequately strong, because most surfboards are actually about 3 inches thick, which is quite a huge difference. I tried to start sanding the foam into its final shape, but the process is slow. The sandpaper gets clogged with foam particles and then does not sand as well. Maybe I will come up with an alternate way to shape the board. August 25th The book that I had ordered finally came today in the mail. It is called Essential Surfing, by George Orbelian. I looked through it this afternoon and it has detailed instructions on how to fiberglass a board, which will come in handy. It also mentioned something about builders using a powered planer to shape their boards. I am hoping that when I meet up with Jon on Sunday, he will let me borrow a planer along with a respirator. August 27th I just returned from Jon’s place. I learned a great deal. He first complimented me on getting so far on my own; he said that I was on the right track. He then showed me his surfboard in progress, which looked really impressive. He showed me all his tools and jigs in his shop. He gave me quite a few ideas, such as how to use lighting to make sure all my curves are even. Just seeing his shop has taught me a lot. He said the book I got, Essential Surfing has, in his opinion, the best instructions on how to glass a board. He suggested I get an electric planer, just a cheap one would do. He also said a respirator is mandatory for glassing, so I guess that goes on my list of things I still need to get. He also talked about decorating the board; I can use any water based paint to paint directly onto the foam. I can even add a cloth pattern and just cover it with resin. Visiting his workshop was invaluable since I had never seen anything like it before. The materials and tools I saw will help me immensely with building my wake board. He then showed me around his den, where he keeps all of his boards that he has built. He even has a few antique boards. He tries to go surfing every other weekend to the coast . He then showed me his small library of surfboard building books and videos. He let me borrow a few videos about board building. They are actually the exact same videos the man from www.fiberglasssupply.com suggested I buy. He said that he would be happy to answer any questions I might have. Meeting him today was very helpful. Thought: When I first decided to build a wakeboard as my DS project back in spring, I had visions of it being a very crude and ugly board hardly comparable to a commercial board. However, after learning more about building surfboards, I am gaining confidence that I may be able to build a very respectable and usable board.
August 28th The rest of my family went to Seattle today, so I had lots of time to work on my wakeboard. This morning I built a stand to hold my wakeboard, like the one Jon had to work on his surfboards. I built it out of scrap wood; my jig is smaller and a little different from Jon’s and fits my needs better. It is about four feet tall and has two points covered in carpet where I can rest the board while I work on it. It is designed to hold the board on its face or on edge. It is much easier to work on this jig than on a normal table. I also covered a brick with carpet, like Jon showed me, to weigh down the board to prevent it from sliding around while it is on the jig. This afternoon I spent two and half solid hours sanding the board. I have abandoned using sand paper since it clogs up too quickly. Jon showed me this rasp type tool with a handle that he uses. I picked one up at Eagle Hardware and used that this afternoon. It is a lot quicker than sand paper, but still relatively slow. In those two and a half hours, I filled a five-gallon bucket a quarter of the way with foam dust. Over all, I shaved down about one centimeter on the entire face of the board; I have about two to three more centimeters to go. August 29th I spent four more hours shaving the foam today. I got the foam to its basic shape. Now I have to shape the rails (Rails: The edge of the board, used to control the board when making turns) and fine tune it and then it will be ready for glassing.
This evening I went to Eagle Hardware and bought two florescent lights for only ten dollars each. I plan on mounting these horizontally about six inches above the plane of the board on both sides. I also picked up a respirator for the fiberglass stage.
August 30th I thought I was just about done sanding, but somehow I ended up sanding about two or three more hours. I guess I should have invested in an electric planer. Now I just have to level it some more and then shape the rails. I installed the lights so I can see subtle waves and curves in the board, so I plan to sand them out using the lights as an aid. September 3rd Today, using the lights and a board with some sandpaper glued to it, I sanded out the subtle waves and curves and other small imperfections. Then using some drywall-sanding screen I sanded in the rails. After
probably 15 hours of sanding I am finally done shaping my board. It looks really good, like a professional wakeboard. I am going to call Jon and ask him to come over to take a look at my board before I begin the process of glassing my board. September 5th Today Jon came over with a video about fiber glassing. He took a look at my board and said it was amazing. He said that it was totally ready to be glassed. So I painted the bottom with tempera paints. The paints do not work too well on foam because it soaks the paint up quickly, so I would need a lot to make a solid color. So instead of painting the top of the board as well, which would add a lot of weight, I am going to decorate it with some thread and ribbon. I am planning on doing the first stage of glassing on the 8th. My progress will be a little slower now that school will be starting.
September 9th Today I glassed the bottom of the board. First, I cleaned it off well, then I laid down three layers of fiberglass. Two layers were the exact size and the top layer was a little bigger so I could fold it under. I set up a heater and a heat lamp since the resin works best at 75 degrees. I put on my respirator, gloves, rain suit, and goggles, and mixed some resin. I mixed approximately 2 quarts of resin with 2 teaspoons of catalyst in a Tupperware bowl. (my mom doesn't know I stole it) I then poured the mixture over the board and used a squeegee to move it around. I had trouble wrapping the excess around the underside of the board since the edge is so sharp; hopefully, I will be able to fix this later. September 10th
Today, after inspecting the bottom of the board, I proceeded to glass the top of the board. The process was exactly the same. This time, however, I think I did a little better when I wrapped the glass around the edges. Hopefully, I avoided making any irreversible mistakes in my glassing process. September 13th Today I filed down any large projections on the board. Then I taped off the edge and put another layer of resin on the top of the board called the “sanding resin.” Earlier I mentioned that the board still had the rough fiberglass texture, I found that the sanding resin covers up that texture, so now the fiberglass is completely clear. The mistakes, which I mentioned earlier will not affect the shape or performance of the board, but they will be noticeable as bubbles in the glass coat. September 14th Today I examined the resin job on the top and it looks impressive. I am excited about going wakeboarding. I turned the board over and prepped the bottom for a layer of sanding coat. Then I applied the resin like I did to the top. After it hardened, I mixed up some paste to fill in a hole on one of the corners. September 17th I sanded the sand-coat with coarse sand paper to get all the bumps down. However, holes formed where the resin was thin so I will need to fill these in. September 18th Today I filled in the holes with some resin-paste that Jon showed me how to make. Now I need to sand it with finer paper. September 22nd Today I sanded the board with fine paper to get it really smooth. I sanded the rails real sharp and got out every little bump. However, a few more holes appeared, so I need to fill them as well. September 31st Today I bought some extended bolts and grinded them down until they were the size I needed. I then drilled four holes in the deck of the board. I placed the bolts in the holes and then filled in the space with resin. These bolts will be used to attach the bindings. October 2nd
Fins on most wakeboards are bolted through the board, and then two pegs on the fin match with two holes on the bottom of the board to prevent it from sliding a round. I drilled all the holes I needed, bigger than what they should be, and then I completely filled the holes with resin. I will then re-drill the holes so the foam is not exposed. October 7th I prepped the board for the gloss coat; I removed any remaining roughness and then cleaned the board with a vacuum and the rubbing alcohol. Then I taped off the edge like I did when I put on the sanding resin. The gloss coat goes on almost exactly like the sanding coat, except it is much thinner. Since it was a cold day the resin took a long time to gel. According to the book it should normally it take 15 minutes, my resin ended up taking about 2 hours. October 8th I repeated the same process that I did yesterday to the bottom of the board. I checked on the board two hours later and the tape had partially fallen off, as a result gloss resin got onto the deck of the board when it should not have. Therefore, the final coat may not be as smooth as it should be.
October 11th I sanded the rails today so they are really smooth. Then I used a chisel to remove some of the extra resin that dripped onto the deck. I then drilled the holes for the fins. It was very difficult because three holes need to be lined up in exact positions. In the nose of the board I successfully drilled all three holes, however, the tail of the board has some mistakes, so I will need to think about what I am going to do with that situation. After removing some of the incongruities I wet sanded the board with 400-grit paper. Then I cleaned up my workspace. I am now pretty much finished with my project. All I have left to do is fine tune the fins, buy some bolts and spacers to mount the bindings and buy some surfboard polish to give the board a very bright and brilliant finish. All in all the project took me a little over two months and the results have surpassed all my expectations. I am very glad I chose to go through with this project. Post Note: As of yet I have not had a chance to test my board. Just as I finished my project, winter settled in here in Washington. As I am typing this there are two-foot white caps as I look out my window at the water. So a test will have to wait until next spring. I can tell that the weight is similar, if not lighter than my old board. There are not any contours in the board because I decided they would be too difficult to glass on my first attempt. Post Post Note: Yep, spring
rolled around and I tested the board. It rode very well, probably better than my
other board. The only problem is that I think I should have done more layers of
fiberglass. I did a few big jumps and after my session I noticed the fiberglass
spidering a little around the bolts. I don't know if this is just cosmetic or if
I continue to use it if it may break. I may have been able to prevent this
problem through better installation of the bolts or more layers of fiberglass.
Either way, I don't plan on riding it much more. I built it more for the sake of
building not to ride.
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