Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

Custom made wakestyle light wind board - blog

Here you can exchange your experience and datas about your home build boards
User avatar
Larse
Frequent Poster
Posts: 482
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2007 7:30 pm
Local Beach: Lynæs , DK
http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Favorite Beaches: Poppelvej, DK
http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Style: Wakestyle/freestyle
Gear: LF Nirvana, Envy, LF DLX and LF LFX
Brand Affiliation: Liquid Force and http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Location: Denmark, Frederiksværk
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Custom made wakestyle light wind board - blog

Postby Larse » Wed May 11, 2011 9:51 am

I know there are quite a few board builders on this forum, so I thought this might be interesting for some of you. And maybe I could get some feedback, so I can learn even more and get the next board perfect :)

This is a little blog/guide on, how I made a wakestyle board for light wind. My intention was to build a board with good wakestyle performance (great pop and smooth landings) and I wanted it to perform great in light wind. It should be way better in light wind than any standard freestyle kiteboard out there. I didn't want it to be a door. I've ridden big doors for a couple of years and I'm just getting to old to waste my time just riding fourth and back without doing any fun unhooked moves. So I wanted build a board, that I feel is missing in the market right now. Only ultra light wind performance is focus, but those boards can't really do unhooked trix or land any way close to smooth. My board is between a standard freestyle board and a light wind door. With wakestyle in focus...

I got the technical knowledge for building a board like that from being a sailor my whole life. I've always been fascinated by quick sail boats and speed boats. So I learned a thing or two about shapes from that regarding water flow and the dynamics of water. And of course I have ridden and studied many kiteboards of different kinds.

Before I started building the board, I studied a lot of youtube videos and asked different people around the world about small details. And I put it all together in this board. I actually found the videos on making wakeboards better than most of the kiteboard movies...

Well, here is the result...
Image


Facts:

Lightwind wakestyle board made of carbon and with wood core (sandwich)

Width: 43,5cm (36cm in the tips)

Length: 138cm

Core: wood/carbon sandwich

Rails: Rails made of epoxy

Flex: Very hard - too hard, we used too much carbon

Rocker: 2,5cm 3 stage; 10cm flat in the middle and 25cm almost flat in the tips for early planning

Concave: Double 1mm in the middle for comfort

Fins: 2cm G10

Triple accelerator channels: 3 channels to increase the flow/speed of the water at the tips making the board plane better in low speed

Tips: Double concave with double channels. Tips are flat and wide for early planning, and the channels will give soft landings and better upwind

Weight without bindings: Too heavy; 4,2kg. We used too much carbon. Next board will be foam core and with less carbon/glass

Time: It took 7 days to make. But we lost a day, because we tried to make the core out of 1,5mm wood and it failed.



What did I use
  • 6m carbon
    2x4mm wood for the core
    12m beams for the rocker table
    2x6mm wood for rocker table
    about 2,5 liter epoxy
    1x2m masonite wood for the models
    lots of tools and machines (it's cool to a whole ship yard at your hands :o) but a well equipped tool shed at home will do just fine)
    and a retired, experienced and really good boat builder (my dad)
The last thing is not necessary, but it's cool to have a great boat builder to help. His techniques, efficiency and thoroughness impressed me very much, even though I knew very well, that he is a really skilled craftsman. It's also not necessary to have a ship yard, but it definitely helps ;)



First impression on the water

Overall I succeeded in bringing out the character that I wanted for the board. It has really good wakestyle characteristics. It functions good for unhooked trix and landings are ok smooth. Smooth enough, anyway. It doesn't perform like my Liquid Force DLX, but it's fun to ride, and that was my goal. Have fun in lighter winds. It's all about compromise, when it comes to performance. Take the best from wakestyle boards and combine them with all the light wind features, that I could think of.

The board has really good pop and landings are pretty smooth. The next board will have more concave (1,5mm) for optimized landings for a light wind board compared to what's possible. It functions like a normal freestyle board (goes better up wind though) in higher winds, when you're edging it. But as soon as the wind drops, you can sheet out the bar and flatten the board. Then it will keep planing, even though riding slow, and shoot up wind. Bare a little of wind to gain speed and do your unhooked moves. Afterwards you can easily go upwind again. When others are struggling to keep up wind, I can have fun on this board and doesn't need to think about going up wind. Fantastic :)

The only downside is, that sprays directly up in my face. 1cm of the tip often gets in the water and sends water shooting at the boot, which then sends it directly up in my face. Next board will be 44cm wide and 33cm in the tips, so it keeps a big flat area at the tips, but has a more rounded outline. I'm also thinking about a asymmetric outline, but I'm not sure on anything yet. Just an idea...



Making the rocker table

This is the most important thing. A perfect rocker table is the key to a great board, because it controls one of the key features about the board. The rocker. So it pays of to do this perfect.


Image
First you need to find the curvature of the rocker. Here I went for early planing and a fast board. That's why it's only 2,5cm and has a flatter piece in the middle and the last 25cm of the tips.


Image
Here is the drawing of the model. For it to be accurate we duplicated one half, so we new it was exactly the same.


Image
The detail oriented craftsman makes it perfect by hand... :)


Image
Here is the model, which becomes the rocker curve.


Image
My dad made all the beams exactly identical with this machine. Thoroughness... :)


Image
A band saw is used to cut the rocker curve out roughly...


Image
Then we milled (not sure if it is the right word, cut...)out the exact curvature of the rocker to make all the beams 100% alike. Perfect :)


Image
One of the most important things is to keep track of the middle at all times. All beams, wood and other stuff always has the middle drawn out, so we could place everything just right.


Image
The middle is marked and the distance to the edge is perfectly aligned.


Image
Fine tuning the distance between every beam. Nothing is left for coincidence.


Image
Clamps were used to hold the beams in place, while the plywood were screwed in to place with a lot of screws.


Image
Screws are filled out, so the rocker table is completely smooth.


Image
Next we made the top of the rocker table. The "core" was put in between, so nothing would give and become less accurate. We also took in consideration that the curve of the top had to be off by the thickness of the board to be 100% accurate. So we cut of 9mm of the top beams curvature.


Image
The top is done. Now we have the opportunity to put the core under pressure. It took 6-7 hours to build the rocker table.



Building the core

The core is obvious very important. And it is 100% depended on the rocker table. A perfect table gives the perfect shape to the core.
Image
The core is 2x4mm plywood with a layer of carbon between for extra strength and stiffness. It's made by 2 layers, so that it can be glued together with epoxy to keep the shape of the rocker.


Image
Cabon sandwich :)


Image
Here the core is under a couple of 100kg of pressure from the clamps.


Image
We added over 100kg of stones an let the epoxy harden over night.


Image
Done :) Strong and flexible



Making models and making the outline perfect

The idea of ​​the board's outline was to give it early planing, good turning properties and good edge grip for a great pop. This means wide, but curved. And of course it should also have an advanced tip :)


Image
For the outline I actually used the rocker curve and increased the curve progressively towards the tip. Again, we only took one half and mirrored it on the other side to make it 100% identical.


Image
The first model is cut out...


Image
First model is made perfect and transferred to a new model. Here it was flipped to make both sides identical.


Image
The last bit is perfected by hand to make the curve precise.

Image
The width is set to 43,5cm and the outline is set by the width of each tip. 36cm... And all along we kept a 100% focus on the middle of every part!


Image
The advanced tip is taken directly from the Liquid Force DLX wakestyle board. It's also the same channels we copy from the tips later on.


Image[/img]
Here is the final outline marked with the tip channels and the middle of course...


Image
All distances for holes to the inserts and fins are measured by ankles and radius. This is the easiest way and the most precise way to do it.


Image
The core is cut out...


Image
Here you can see the difference of the outline between my board and the LF DLX.



Making the rails


We chose to cast the rails (kind of liquid rail) instead of letting the carbon overlap to make a rail. It looks more pro with a liquid rail and you can make the edge sharper. That gives the best direct feeling of the water and thereby also more control, I think.
Image
The actual finish of the outline is not made by the core. We took the left over piece of wood to make the cast. We roughly cut out 2cm of the core all the way around and made it pointy, so that the epoxy rail would get a better grip and become stronger.

The edge of the cast got some "slip wax" and was taped all over. This was actually pretty smart. All we had to do to get the board out, was to sand it down till the tape was gone, and the board would pop right out :)


Image
Here you can see it more clearly...


Image
The rail was filled with some support from my little mouse :o) She was really in to it and came out to check on us a lot. It actually took 2 days to make the rails, because we had to let one side harden for a day and then fill some small holes on the other side. And harden for another day. It felt like a waste of time, but that was just the way it was :?


Image
Sanding it down until the tape was gone and the sucker could pop right out. Simple and effective :)


Image
Here is the final result. It has to be said, that we filled the holes for the inserts and the fins at the same time. And they have an over sized diameter, so it's surrounded by epoxy in the end...


Shaping the board


All the rough work was done and it was time for the detail work. The fun part :o) Those details that would give the board the characteristics that I was going for :o)
Image
Here everything was drawn on to the board. All made by angles and radius. All the distances was taken from the LF DLX. I love the wide stance and I new by certainty, that the channels would work.


Image
The channels were sanded in with a belt sander. We tilted it and progressed slowly to make the channels exactly the same.


Image
Here are the channels and the double concave in the tips.


Image
The double concave in the middle was shaved out with a custom made iron, so it had the right curve. Flatter in the middle and more curve at the end of the concaves.


Image
Here the 3 accelerator channels are made in the middle of the board. 3mm deep. The theory behind this is, that the water is pressed in to the channels without loosing speed, when the board is planning. The speed is constant, because the water doesn't hit any changes in the shape yet. The channels are fading out towards the tip, which will accelerate the water towards the tip, giving easier and earlier planning and up drift.


Image
Here is the design. 1mm double concave fading in to a double concave and double channels at the tip. And the 3 accelerator channels is very clear in this picture.



Putting in the inserts


Image
Outline of the insert plug is drawn and cut out.


Image
They are glued in with epoxy, so there aren't any air and so that the water can't come in contact with the wood. Same story with the holes for the fins.


Image
The holes are drilled with a 5mm drill. To make these holes 100% accurate, we drew a straight line along the whole board. The holes were off by 0,5mm. This must have happened when we transfered the model to the core, hmm :(



Carbon layers

I chose carbon because of the stupid reason, that it is stronger than glass, but I didn't care about the price, until I had to pay up. Afterwards I found out that some types of glass are almost as strong and can flex more without breaking. And I could have saved a lot of money by choosing glass. And I mean a lot!


Image
First the vacuum bag is placed, then a layer for sucking up excess epoxy. Then a plypeel is added, so it will come of the carbon again. Then it is socked in epoxy and 2 layers of carbon is added. Each layer socked in epoxy before the core is placed on it.


Image
The core is in place and we're adding epoxy before more carbon is added.


Image
A cross of carbon will prevent diagonal flex... :)


Image
2 layers of carbon is added just out to the inserts to make it strong and stiff in the middle and gives a controlled flex at the tips. In my book a board shouldn't have any flex in the middle.


Image
In the end 2 layers of carbon is added on top. All in all we used too much carbon and the board was a bit too stiff and too heavy. The next board (start building in 14 days) will have a foam sandwich core and made of glass, with a single layer of carbon on top. Light, strong, stiff and cheap :)


Image
In the end we add another layer of plypeel and a layer to suck up the excess epoxy again. Then the vacuum bag is sealed with gaffa tape.


Image
3 powerful industrial vacuum cleaners suck the air out of the vacuum bag. They were powerful, but actually I would have liked it to be more powerful. My uncle is getting a vacuum pump from his work for the next board :)

Here we made a stupid mistake. You can see that the vacuum cleaners is placed on top of the board. That showed on the carbon at the end :(


Image
The board is born and ready for the last finish. At this point I got pretty disappointed. I thought it would be glass clear, when we took of the plypeel, but as you can see, it's not very pretty to look at. I thought it would be clear, because that's what I understood from the dealer of the carbon and from watching some movies on youtube. Later I talked to a board shaper from Liquid Force, Anders Borg, who told me, that polyester and a clear coat is the way to go. That would give the carbon that cool 3D look, I was hoping for. So I learned that for next time...


Image
The excess carbon was cut off and the edge was sanded down until it stood out sharp and clear.

Image
A little simple graphics were added...


Image
The fins are G10, which I cut down to 2cm and painted white...


Image
And this is the final outcome along with my old Synergy boots from LF. It could have been a lot prettier, but I was happy all together. It was our first attempt at building a board and we learned a lot. Next board will be perfect and one of a kind :)


Image


We got some really great experience out of this and there is no doubt in my mind, that the next board will be perfect! And a lot cheaper...

There are probably other ways to do it, but what we did worked well and we learned from it. And it was actually fun :)

User avatar
zob
Frequent Poster
Posts: 476
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:43 pm
Local Beach: Grado Pineta (IT), Fossalon (IT)
Style: Freeride, strapless hooked-in
Gear: FS S3 19m2 DLX, S3 CE 12m2 DLX & S4 8m2 DLX
Homemade Surf & Snow Boards
MBS Pro90
Location: Iv.G.-Slovenia
Has thanked: 21 times
Been thanked: 3 times
Contact:

Re: Custom made wakestyle light wind board - blog

Postby zob » Wed May 11, 2011 11:41 am

If you'll go for foam core, you can not reduce the number of carbon layers that much. Different core material, different lay-up setup!

User avatar
zob
Frequent Poster
Posts: 476
Joined: Tue Feb 24, 2009 1:43 pm
Local Beach: Grado Pineta (IT), Fossalon (IT)
Style: Freeride, strapless hooked-in
Gear: FS S3 19m2 DLX, S3 CE 12m2 DLX & S4 8m2 DLX
Homemade Surf & Snow Boards
MBS Pro90
Location: Iv.G.-Slovenia
Has thanked: 21 times
Been thanked: 3 times
Contact:

Re: Custom made wakestyle light wind board - blog

Postby zob » Wed May 11, 2011 11:56 am

How much fingers does your skilled craftsman still have? :D

Don't know what's with this 1 mm concave and 3 mm channels!? 1 mm is very close to 0!

You realy used alot of material. 2,5 kg of epoxy? I have this for 5 boards or so.

I don't quite understand what went wrong with carbon lay-up to turn up unclear, because I don't have this problem. From one picture it looks like your epoxy mix is milky. It should be clear, or are those ballons?

BR,
Zob

User avatar
Larse
Frequent Poster
Posts: 482
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2007 7:30 pm
Local Beach: Lynæs , DK
http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Favorite Beaches: Poppelvej, DK
http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Style: Wakestyle/freestyle
Gear: LF Nirvana, Envy, LF DLX and LF LFX
Brand Affiliation: Liquid Force and http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Location: Denmark, Frederiksværk
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Re: Custom made wakestyle light wind board - blog

Postby Larse » Wed May 11, 2011 3:05 pm

zob wrote:If you'll go for foam core, you can not reduce the number of carbon layers that much. Different core material, different lay-up setup!
I know, but the foam core would be lighter than the wood core, right? 4,2kg for a board is too much, I think...

User avatar
Larse
Frequent Poster
Posts: 482
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2007 7:30 pm
Local Beach: Lynæs , DK
http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Favorite Beaches: Poppelvej, DK
http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Style: Wakestyle/freestyle
Gear: LF Nirvana, Envy, LF DLX and LF LFX
Brand Affiliation: Liquid Force and http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Location: Denmark, Frederiksværk
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Re: Custom made wakestyle light wind board - blog

Postby Larse » Wed May 11, 2011 3:16 pm

zob wrote:How much fingers does your skilled craftsman still have? :D
He has all 10 fingers, so he must be good ;)
zob wrote:Don't know what's with this 1 mm concave and 3 mm channels!? 1 mm is very close to 0!

You realy used alot of material. 2,5 kg of epoxy? I have this for 5 boards or so.

I don't quite understand what went wrong with carbon lay-up to turn up unclear, because I don't have this problem. From one picture it looks like your epoxy mix is milky. It should be clear, or are those ballons?

BR,
Zob
I measured the concave of my DLX (just by looking) and it was not even 2mm, I think. So I didn't wanted to make it too deep. But I guess I can go deeper. 1,5-2,0mm? What do you think?

2,5 liter is set very high. We had left overs and the rail took quite a lot also. Come to think about it, I bought 2x1,4 liters and had almost one left. So 2,5 is probably pretty exaggerated... Closer to 1,5 liter probably. If I had a stronger vacuum, I think it would have sucked up more excess epoxy, because there wasn't that much left over in the outside layer of the vacuum bag.

The epoxy used for the carbon was clear, but for the rails we used a filler to make it milky/white.
The carbon looks like the surface of the plypeel. It's rough and filled "holes" (not really holes, but you know....) were the carbon is braided. I too thought it would be glassy, so I was pretty disappointed. But I was told afterwards by a board shaper, that this was normal...?
Last edited by Larse on Thu May 12, 2011 2:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.

BWD
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 3848
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2003 3:37 am
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 81 times

Re: Custom made wakestyle light wind board - blog

Postby BWD » Wed May 11, 2011 4:48 pm

That is a cool board you made!
Reminds me a little of my goals for the cedar strip board I posted about here.
I stayed with continuous rocker and more of it though -pop and landings good but upwind not as good when it's light.
About the surface of your board, probably you know this but:peel ply allows the excess resin to come out of the cloth under pressure; and also creates a rough surface (not shiny) as you peel it off so you can laminate more onto it without sanding.
If the resin you used is clear, once you sand and buff it it will look clear again, but the usual thing is to add a "hot coat" over it, which should also make it clear I think.....
And the trick to get a smooth surface without more work is to use plastic film instead of peel ply, with the trade off that you will have a heavier board because all the resin you put in the cloth stays in it. Or use a top sheet PBT or whatever (also heavy...)
But the bottom line is, your board is cool!

duartemv
Rare Poster
Posts: 18
Joined: Mon Jun 15, 2009 6:45 pm
Local Beach: Portugal
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Custom made wakestyle light wind board - blog

Postby duartemv » Thu May 12, 2011 12:10 pm

Really nice work!!

And the fact that you have such a workshop and craftsmanship available is awesome!!

I have to do all my work in the balcony of my apartment! :)

mattma
Rare Poster
Posts: 32
Joined: Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:44 am
Local Beach: Long Reef in Sydney Australia
Favorite Beaches: Old Bar on Central Coast NSW. The most perfect freestyle lagoon with worldclass waves over the dunes!!
Style: Freestyle
Gear: 9m Fuel and 12 m RPM. 132x41 CrazyFly Raptor+ homebuilt board
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0

Re: Custom made wakestyle light wind board - blog

Postby mattma » Thu May 12, 2011 2:38 pm

Great looking board and brilliant that you documented it so closely so we could see the detail of your construction. Its great to hear about what worked and what didn't so we can use what you've learned

Cheers
Matt

User avatar
Larse
Frequent Poster
Posts: 482
Joined: Thu Oct 18, 2007 7:30 pm
Local Beach: Lynæs , DK
http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Favorite Beaches: Poppelvej, DK
http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Style: Wakestyle/freestyle
Gear: LF Nirvana, Envy, LF DLX and LF LFX
Brand Affiliation: Liquid Force and http://www.KiteboardingExercises.com
Location: Denmark, Frederiksværk
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 0
Contact:

Re: Custom made wakestyle light wind board - blog

Postby Larse » Thu May 12, 2011 2:50 pm

BWD wrote: If the resin you used is clear, once you sand and buff it it will look clear again, but the usual thing is to add a "hot coat" over it, which should also make it clear I think.....
And the trick to get a smooth surface without more work is to use plastic film instead of peel ply, with the trade off that you will have a heavier board because all the resin you put in the cloth stays in it. Or use a top sheet PBT or whatever (also heavy...)
But the bottom line is, your board is cool!
You lost me there :) What's a hot coat? What is PBT?



And thanks for the comments everyone :thumb:

BWD
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 3848
Joined: Thu Jun 05, 2003 3:37 am
Has thanked: 2 times
Been thanked: 81 times

Re: Custom made wakestyle light wind board - blog

Postby BWD » Thu May 12, 2011 3:38 pm

"Hot coat" means a final thin layer of resin over the fill coat that goes on after the lamination.
The term "hot coat" is from polyester resin used for surfboards, which you can make "hot" by adding more catalyst so it cures really quickly, an advantage to not catch a lot of dust among other things. Hot coat or other final coats of resin might also have more wax or surfacing additives to get a good finish.
Polyester resin cures to a harder surface than epoxy, and some board builders use polyester as a final hot coat over top of epoxy laminations to get a good finish with less sanding and polishing. This might be what your board builder friend meant. This is a cosmetic choice though, and has some risk because polyester is more brittle than epoxy and may crack over time or flake and chip a little with impact.

PBT is a tough plastic sheet that some manufacurers use to get a smooth, shiny scratch resistant surface on their boards. The company "brokite" has a website with videos of how it is used. It goes between the cloth and the vacuum bag.
The disadvantage for DIY is PBT is one more fairly expensive material to add to your project, and it often makes the board heavier, since you can't get all the excess resin out through peelply/breather.
You have to use just the right amount of resin, or the lamination may be dry or else too heavy and weaker.


Return to “Gear Builders”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 128 guests