Creating the Cosmic Glider

Northern_Shores

Miki Dora status
Mar 30, 2009
4,487
4,403
113
Today was the day I thought it would be the most difficult, but it was not! I made the bottom convex. I was very lucky, because after I was done with the convex, I saw that the nose area was perfectly concave for that sweet noseriding lift. The transition from concave to convex was also nice and smooth. The tail curve is wild, as it has the same 2cm of belly as the middle, but the tail is much narrower, making the curve under the tail like the bottom of a sailboat.
The stringer on the bottom is off center, so I had to make a new middle line and use it for reference. This is a dark science and not for the common ERbb'er to understand. Here is a picture of the bottom towards the tail. Notice the increasing angle. A more conservative approach would be to reduce the belly in the tail to maintain the same angle as on the middle.
tail belly.jpg

Here is the midsection with the nose concave in the horizon.

midsection.jpg
The nose concave:
nose concave.jpg

I was a bit too eager today, so I just rawdogged it, leaving it in a rough shape. Gotta spackle it before glassing.
rawdogging it.jpg


Tomorrow I will do the 50/50 rails with no hard edges, sand and spackle. I must also make the fin with a template from Blendingcurves.
 
Last edited:

Northern_Shores

Miki Dora status
Mar 30, 2009
4,487
4,403
113
Today I did the rails. Also bought a 10L bucket of spackle for $18 :). Spackled it up after the rough going yesterday.
But now, right before bedtime, I regretted the rails I did, and deviced a plan for new ones. The thick line is for the new rails. I will mow the deck an additional 2cm 17,5cm from the middle, bringing me down to the border between the two sheets of 5cm insulation. Currently my rails are 5cm thick, but my new ones will be 3cm thick. The thin blue lines are the current profile of the board (I have not drawn the current rail curve, just the straight lines that I had before curving the rails). On the bottom you see the 2cm belly.

Too thick rails will make it too difficult for the water to wrap around them to get that grip needed for the much anticipated noseriding. The red and white flameboard has thick rails, and when the waves are more than knee high I can only go straight because it sits too high on the water. I don't need another hellrider, I want some control :)
blueprint.jpg
 

GWS_2

Miki Dora status
Aug 3, 2019
4,141
4,391
113
I'm assuming there is no place for you to buy a real blank right?

The stringer lean on that thing is epic.

As defined by the stringer, you have a different center at every depth. Of course, maybe that will be "the magic." The vertically asymmetrical stringer placement may just be revolutionary. :p The Vertically Asymmetrical Stringer (V.A.S) will set Kitty Dungeon Surfboards apart from the pack yah?
 

Northern_Shores

Miki Dora status
Mar 30, 2009
4,487
4,403
113
We had a dog that was an athletic pisser just like that!

I have by now realised that being a longboard shapesman is alot of work. If I do one lam every day and then paint it, I will be ready for sea-trials this next weekend. Two weeks of dusty, shitious work.

So this evening it was the first gluing. Thought I had about 5 meters of cloth in the corner. Turned out it was barely 2 meters.
Enough for the bottom with some patchwork! My Coil 6`1" got a crack in the rail and took in water. Drilled some holes so it can dry out.
patchwork glassing.jpg

I did a dry-as-a-nun lamination, because I can't really see how much of part B epoxy I have left. Gotta be enough for the deck :)

I also made the fin. Probably the nicest thing about this whole project. I made it from a windsurfing fin. A little shorter and some more lean-back to it.
lage finne.jpgplywood fin.jpgfinne glass.jpg

Tomorrow I will buy a bit of fibreglass at the boat store and do the deck. After the deck, it's time to get the fin attached, then paint it :)

Here are my Adio shaping shoes :cool:
shape shoes adio.jpg
 
Last edited:

Northern_Shores

Miki Dora status
Mar 30, 2009
4,487
4,403
113
Yeah, the epoxy doesn't really sink into the foam. BUT, this board is just about covered in spackle, creating a covalent XPS-chalk-epoxy bond, known to have a bond strength of 250kJ/kmol!
 
  • Haha
Reactions: Havoc and jkb

GDaddy

Duke status
Jan 17, 2006
29,238
2,056
113
Carlsbad
Closed cell structure of the foam itself, which unfortunately will also be a problem for spackle. XPS users usually sand to a rough finish (like 60 or 100 Grit) and actually *add* texture to the deck to increase the surface area and the bonding. I don't know if Javier is still doing it or not, but he used to drag a wax comb at opposing 45* on the deck to leave a grid for more texture. Bufo is or was drilling 3/4" deep holes into the deck for the resin to soak into as a means of increasing the surface area. He was calling it 3-D glassing.

You live in a northern latitude so you're probably not getting a lot of hot weather during the summer - that's good. You don't want that board to ever get hot enough to melt the wax on your deck because at the hotter temps the foam itself starts to outgas and it will literally blow bubbles under your lamination to cause de-lams. Also, don't paint the blank, or if you do then stick to the really light colors that won't cook the foam when it's sunny/hot.

You'll be fine if you keep your board from getting too hot, but don't plan on taking it with you during your next holiday to Bali or Morocco.