I have stringy wings as my second foil. Really enjoying them, cut through the water with no drag, and quite maneuverable.
My friend who inherited my old carafino is a handy guy and decided he wanted to try DIYing some wings. In looking into options, we realized that the flat G10 wings look to be reasonably straightforward to copy. Cut out shape from a sheet of G10, then lots of grinding and sanding until happy with the shape. A winter project!
I have a couple of sheets, making a copy first. But I am now interested in trying to copy something along the lines of zeeko spitfire, with my fuselage reversed. I figure that would be a fun experiment, may save me a large credit card bill from a late night impulse purchase.
Curious how many others are DIY'ing G10 wings -- I have seen a few posters mention it. Any tips/tricks? Or lessons learned to help me avoid problems?
A few things I have learned early on in this project:
-- regular jigsaw blades won't cut G10! Grinds off the cutting teeth super quick. A carbide blade worked great. But even better: cutting wheel on a dremel. Cuts easy and fast and more precise than a full size angle grinder. That cuts it too, but way too fast and uncontrolled for my liking.
-- seems to sand ok, lower grit takes it off fairly quick. I have tried an orbital palm sander, just borrowed a belt sander which I suspect will be quite aggressive.
-- a rasp looks to be ideal to remove the material before the sanding fine tuning. Takes it off quick.
-- dremel shaping tool seems to work well for detail work too, both the hard stone one and the metal burrs.
-- I got G10 from Professional Plastics in USA....3/8" thick (10mm), 24" width, will cut length to suit. A lot cheaper from China, but have to buy a lot bigger quantity. 12"x24" was enough to make front and rear wing set.