The blanks that were machined were OK. But I would get a blank with nothing written on it. No length, no rocker designation, nothing. So then I got to measure it up to figure out what it is and try and match it up with other ones that I've cut. By the time I have measured the rocker and thickness and then tried to figure out if it matches up with anything I have mapped previously, I met as well have mapped the damn blank. From a production standpoint, this KILLS me. Sucks up tons of my time. I need a level of repeatability/dependability. That could be easily solved. Then someone gave me a giant cube of the stuff to cut. I'm guessing that's what they are cutting blanks out of. Mother of Allah, there is no freaking way. You can't just put that block on a machine and cut a surfboard out of it. That's like cutting toothpicks out of a redwood. Your loading the loading the crap out of the blade on the inside and outside of the cut. You need to cut it down once, then cut it down again, then cut it down a third time. That takes time. If that is what they were doing, no wonder the blanks cost so much. Considering the time probably involved they were probably losing money even at those prices. The heat and bend thing was a complete failure. I'll spare you the details, but I won't cut anymore of those. At any price. Whether a hot wire type EPS thing would work, I have no idea. Perhaps it would create nasty chemical fumes. Whatever. As long as I don't have to do it. I can suit up and cut the mothers once they are in a reasonable blank mode.Aruka said:Good stuff sharky.
So is that a no on cutting me a new shorty?GWS said:averagejoe said:
I've cut about 20 of them at this point. Maybe 30. I have one in the racks that is a demo for a personal. My son has one sitting there as well. Just haven't gotten around to it yet. There' a few other issues besides the smell/toxicity etc. Which, I did four of them with a dust mask on and I had to shut the shop and go home with a nasty, nasty headache. You need chem filters on a respirator. And long sleeves and/or a jumpsuit so it isn't on your skin. Everything opened up and fans on high. You take those steps and the headaches stopped.
There's been some issues with rockers. I have a hard time getting the same thing twice. Which means every blank has to be mapped. They were machining blocks of foam into blank configuration at first. The last ones I saw they had heated and bent the rocker in. There were some twist issues. Then as I cut them, as material was removed from the blank, you could watch the blank untwist as it cut. Not good. So hopefully they won't be doing that anymore. Twist and spring-back are the possible problems.
The payoff is super light surfboards. And they are amazingly strong. Guys are getting away with single four on stringer-less blanks. And you grab the board and thumb it, (please don't thumb surfboards unless you are a trained professional) and they are amazingly hard. You can put a stringer-less milled blank on the floor deck down and push on the center of it and it behaves like a blank with a stringer in it re the way it flexes. Super interesting stuff. But they have a few issues to work through before it goes big. They need to either figure out a way of hot wiring it, (I have no idea of whether that is possible) or blow the stuff in a mold. Machining blanks out of a block is too time intensive IMO. The heat/bend thing was a total failure IMO.
I think the extra cost may be a little excessive but at the same time if you can get a magic board to last a bit longer it could totally be worth it.
I'm not overly concerned about weight so I wonder if I could get away with double 4oz. top and bottom without screwing with the flex too much...
They must blow that foam in some kind of a rectangular mold. If they can blow it in that, they need to blow it in a mold just like poly. Bottom line, is I need dependability. The stringerless thing is not that much of a problem if the blank isn't twisted and has the same rocker on each side.
I'm not trying to be negative here. They have set up just down the street from me. I think the stuff shows promise, but there are some issues. They should probably hire me for a nice mid six figure salary to iron out the details.
