I need links to footstrap inserts. I need to buy them on line and fairly soon.

Making my firts board and want to do a good job so any advice would be great.

larry

I use either t-nuts or plain nuts and place them according to my favourite position on my production board

With t nuts make in a foam board make a stepped hole from the bottom of the board so that the head of the nut is 1/8th or less in from the bottom of the board. Hold the nut in place with a bolt covered with flash tape (or something similar that wont stick to resin) and hold the bolt in place (90 to the board surface) with spare foam or wooden block from the top of the board. Make sure you put your resin & glass filler in first. I do this step when putting glass on the bottom of the board and I vacuum bag the bottom and do the inserts in one step.

Using plain nuts make a hole, not all the way through, from the top of the board which is 1/4" larger than the nut. Again cover the bolt and hold in place at 90 to the board surface with some foam. I cut a 4" square of peel ply and make a little hole in the center. I put the nut on the bolt, then push the head of the bolt through the peel ply hole in to the foam. Then 3/4 fill up the hole in the board with resin & glass fibres and insert the assembly and let dry

Ok I think I uderstand what you are doing here but are you concerned that you would screw the bolt too deep and throught he bottem of the board?? I was thinking about using a nut that has a cap and epoxy them in as you described. I don't really understand why you use peel ply? Any photos would help.

Thanks again
L

The purpose of the peel ply, also known as the release fabric, is to wet out the epoxy resin from the glass through to the breather fabric. It is usually a dacron fabric that does not bond with the resin. After vacuum bagging you just 'peel' away with breather and peel ply together. The sole purpose of vacuum bagging is to make a light board by getting as much excess resin out of the glass.

I have thought about the cap nut but have not found one that fits standard strap screws and is small enough for my board thickness. Keep in mind you have to bury the nut in the board otherwise it will come straight out. I just make sure to be careful when I screwing the bolts in that I dont go through the board but yes, you are right it could be better. However I'm in the middle of a design evolution so I'm not concerned with quality and dont want to put $10 of stainless hardware (cap nuts) in to a board that might not get ridden more than a couple of sessions.

If you do use the method I use, dont forget to pour wax in to the inserts when you do the next stage of glassing, otherwise you'll fill the nut in and its impossible to clear out.

The insert described by Chassan above seem to be ideal.

Have fun and if you have anymore questions I'll gladly try to help

Oh yeah, This happened to me on my first board

I have just got some stainless steel snowboarding inserts, haven't put them in a board yet, will do that this weekend. They come fitted with a plastic cap so you can't get resin into the thread during construction.

They look like these ones:

http://www.alpinecarving.com/ins.html

I got mine from:

http://www.snowboardmaterials.com/pages/materials2.htm

They posted them quickly to Australia and they were very cheap, US$0.40

I'll let you know how they go.
Cheers
Gav

A guy I know just started using the snowboard inserts, stainless steel and only 7mm tall so they should fit in just about any board; they look like the best solution.

I also have gotten brass inserts, similar to what's inside the chinook 3-post inserts available from fiberglasssupply.com but without the clunky plastic and also the bottom is capped so you do not have to worry about the screws being too long.

With the chinook inserts they are 7/8" tall so you have to grind them down just to get them to fit in a 3/4" thick board, then the bottom is no longer capped so they are not so good.

The brass inserts are from SW Anderson Company http://www.swaco.com The product is called "Dodge Ultramold". Fill them with a bit of silicone selant prior to laminating and it comes out real easy later (use a drill bit to scoop it out).

the inserts on http://www.snowboardmaterials.com/pages/materials2.htm are PERFECT

thanks!!!

I have found some brilliant inserts on http://www.b3windsurf.com their web is not done yet but send a mail and ask for the new catalogue with their 2004 products. I used to put magnet inside the inserts and seal it with candle wax prior to laminate.