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Home made hydrofoil

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SaulOhio
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Home made hydrofoil

Postby SaulOhio » Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:16 pm

I did this with my CNC machine. Made molds out of PVC plastic wood, then made the molds out of carbon.



I have been at this quite a while, and here are some of the things I have learned:

Don't mess around with complicated shapes for the joints. Flat surfaces to flat surfaces work best.
A longer fuselage is more stable. My latest one is about 75cm.
A convex board deck sucks, makes turning hard. Make it flat or concave. The board I have now used to be a windsurfer. I will be building a new one.
Ad an aluminum plate anywhere that you drill mounting holes, even the ones that are not threaded. Screws can pull through carbon composites.
Pressure from screws can compress wood, especially under the pressures of a hydrofoil. A wood core fuselage should have a lot of reinforcement where you have any screws, and no wood at all where it can be compressed by the screws.

BWD
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Re: Home made hydrofoil

Postby BWD » Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:36 pm

I would add, make the aluminum reinforcements out of stainless instead if you use carbon, and/or go in salt water.
But that looks great for a successful home build! Really impressive.
Funny long nose though, I bet a more compact board will make it easier!

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SaulOhio
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Posts: 467
Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2010 1:26 pm
Local Beach: Mentor Headlands
Edgewater
Conneaut harbor
Fairport Harbor
Simms Park
Favorite Beaches: Kite Point in the Outer Banks
Gear: Slingshot Turbines, RPMs and SSTs.
Slingshot Misfit 132, Glide.
Home built hydrofoils.
Ozone R1's, 17M, 13M, 10M, 7M
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 37 times
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Re: Home made hydrofoil

Postby SaulOhio » Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:16 pm

BWD wrote:
Tue Sep 05, 2017 6:36 pm
I would add, make the aluminum reinforcements out of stainless instead if you use carbon, and/or go in salt water.
But that looks great for a successful home build! Really impressive.
Funny long nose though, I bet a more compact board will make it easier!
I will be using the grease pretty libeally when I am in the Outer Banks.

Like I said, I built it from a broken windsurfer. Its really nice and floaty, which makes it really great for learning. If I fall off downwind, I just have to wait a bit for it to come back to me. And its easy to position it to get on. But I do want to build another one. I will still give it some floaty volume. I have tried a friend's Liquid Force Double Agent, which is as thin as many twintip boards, and I don't like it for that reason.

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Re: Home made hydrofoil

Postby BWD » Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:31 pm

Tef-gel is good stuff.
I foil on a paipo. It's a nice feeling but sometimes after a crash I wonder where, and when, it will surface.
And only the front 6" of it stick out of the water! good thing is it doesn't drift too fast.
Even 15-20L of volume would be nice to have, lots of times.
Last edited by BWD on Tue Sep 05, 2017 8:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: Home made hydrofoil

Postby plummet » Tue Sep 05, 2017 7:43 pm

id like to see some close up pictures of the foil.

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Re: Home made hydrofoil

Postby revhed » Tue Sep 05, 2017 8:56 pm

Yes photos of foil please and maybe better posting under hydrofoil builders thread!
R H
Bet you soon find a lower mass thinner board is much better for many reasons, although my first board was a cut sailboard, but that was in 1999!

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SaulOhio
Frequent Poster
Posts: 467
Joined: Sun Dec 19, 2010 1:26 pm
Local Beach: Mentor Headlands
Edgewater
Conneaut harbor
Fairport Harbor
Simms Park
Favorite Beaches: Kite Point in the Outer Banks
Gear: Slingshot Turbines, RPMs and SSTs.
Slingshot Misfit 132, Glide.
Home built hydrofoils.
Ozone R1's, 17M, 13M, 10M, 7M
Brand Affiliation: None
Has thanked: 37 times
Been thanked: 17 times
Contact:

Re: Home made hydrofoil

Postby SaulOhio » Wed Sep 06, 2017 11:44 pm

Here's the foil itself. I am working on a new mast right now. Cutting a mold in the CNC machine for a reinforcement at the base of the mast, one that will allow me to add some extra metal at the bast where its flat.
MyHydrofoil.jpg


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