Hey All,
I am looking at my first board build. I've got a few ideas for shape and I think I will be focusing on a higher wind/smaller skimboard as the production skimmer I own works well for light wind.
I want to make a thin board while maintaining stiffness and have a decent single concave. I'm looking at taking 3 sheets of 3/16th plywood and laying the first on a basic rocker table. I will coat/impregnate it with a generous amount of epoxy resin then place a sheet of precut glass cloth and then the next piece over top. Repeat this process with the 3rd piece and then weight it down to put rocker/concave into it.
I am planning on using the same cloth and epoxy to do one layer on the top and bottom of the board to seal it afterwards. I am hoping that if I precut the board shape and cut the cloth about 1/8” larger than the shape I will have enough resin “squish” out and harden that I will be able to use this to shape the rail out of. Hopefully I will be able to get a very hard rail and less chance of a waterlogged board.
Anyone have any comments/criticism on my proposed method? I am a total beginner to both wood working and shaping so any advice would be welcome. I am hoping the extra epoxy held by the glass cloth will give the board extra stiffness while keeping it thin, however I am worried how well the resin will bond the wood to the cloth.
I was at the hardware store today and was looking at resin and could only find the BONDO brand stuff in reasonable amounts and I believe it is a poly resin not epoxy, which is bad...maybe? Can you guys point me in the right direction for epoxy resin in terms of what to look for a a rough estimate of the amount I will need? I'll overshoot a bit to avoid running out at a critical time!
Thanks,
Olas