1st board dilemmas

[Colsched]

I'm about to build my first ply board and having waded through all the info here and elsewhere on the net I'm starting to narrow down my options.

I'm thinking of going down the 3x3mm plywood laminated together with epoxy and then putting a 200gr layer of glass on both the top and bottom to start with route. I plan to build a basic rocker table with a rectangular piece of wood under the stance area and then clamp the tips down and the edges to try and get decent rocker and concave while the whole thing sets. Only then will I cut out the shape (based on a Nobile 666 135x44).

My questions are: would I be better off going for a 2x3mm core and more glass or even a 3mmx6mmx3mm with glass on the top and bottom or will this be too stiff and heavy? Ideally I'd go with a foam core but they seem to be hard to come by around these parts and without a vacuum bag, I don't think I could do this without sandwiching the foam with two pieces of ply.

Also, I'm not sure how the concave process will go, but I'm not too fussed if I don't have one as my current Cabrinha Vari board doesn't have a concave.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Cheers

Colin

[blowhard]

I have put together a few boards and have never used wood ,because of weight.
Fiberglas supply in Bingen Washington can get foam to you quickly
it's very easy to work with
if you vacumn bag it is a very time consuming and expensive process that you can't tell what's going on after it's layed up
I've had good luck and bad with saturation during vacuum bagging.
so until I'm ready to produce boards in multiples where I can regulate the amount of resin needed for each board ,I will stick to hand lay up where I see what going on .
concaves are just more shaping
not much help ,but it's what I do

[bay surfer]

First if your building with wood, foam is not needed and in fact will weaken the board. Clamps will work but you will need alot of them, every 2 or 3 inches, 124 cm=4ft=48in=/3=16 clamps per side. Thats why I use drywall screws quick and dirty cheap. The holes only take a minute to fill with dust and epoxy. You really need to clamp in the middle of the board first using screws then pull down the edges with screws or clamps, this will get rid of the excess epoxy and limit bubble voids. Use a vacuum bag if your laminating glass on the outside.

[crabman]

Hi Colsched, before starting make an acurate template of the board you want to build .Then cut out your pieces flat with some to spare . I always use x 2 4mm pieces of ply and core for the boards ..If you want flex tips ,only take the core to just past the inserts .As the guys here say ,you can make without a vacuum ,but I would use one for consolidation of materials .