Contact   Imprint   Advertising   Guidelines

What wood for mast core?

Here you can exchange your experience and datas about your home build boards
tomtom
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1693
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2002 1:00 am
Has thanked: 23 times
Been thanked: 218 times

Re: What wood for mast core?

Postby tomtom » Sat May 26, 2018 9:52 am

Why on earth somebody use SOFT wood as mast core. Most racing mast are solid carbon for good reason. Balsa is worst composite core in humid aplication ever. Thats why they invented PVC core. Because balsa rot. Use hardwood or bamboo.

In general
Any wood core will be much lighter than solid carbon or ALU. Soft wood are much worse in humid condition than HW. HW is much stronger in compression and shear than LW.

User avatar
downunder
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2811
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2013 7:16 am
Gear: building my own
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Perth, Australia
Has thanked: 153 times
Been thanked: 160 times

Re: What wood for mast core?

Postby downunder » Sat May 26, 2018 12:53 pm

^comparing the weigt of wood core and solid mast one might be surprised but wood core is not that lighter when done well.
Simply coz the core is so thin to compensate for 2-3mm carbon layers, hence 10mm core will make 12mm thick mast, but 5layers are not near enough (5 layers = 1mm).

I've got both, my diy Pwood and production carbon one.
On the moisture front, surprise surprise, all TT boards are Pwood. Sure, some on the market are not.

The bamboo core mast, if built well, will be about 1.6- 1.8kg. That's rock solid. the Alu mast weight is about 1800 grams.

Paulownia is hard wood, bamboo is grass. Bamboo is heavy almost as alu (again, alu which grade?).

tomtom
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 1693
Joined: Sun Nov 03, 2002 1:00 am
Has thanked: 23 times
Been thanked: 218 times

Re: What wood for mast core?

Postby tomtom » Sat May 26, 2018 10:31 pm

Bamboo composition float, alu is from 2700kg / m3

User avatar
downunder
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 2811
Joined: Mon Jul 01, 2013 7:16 am
Gear: building my own
Brand Affiliation: None
Location: Perth, Australia
Has thanked: 153 times
Been thanked: 160 times

Re: What wood for mast core?

Postby downunder » Sun May 27, 2018 2:17 am

Sure, and?

alu mast is hollow ;)

lightandfrost
Medium Poster
Posts: 68
Joined: Thu Jul 13, 2017 1:48 am
Kiting since: 1999
Weight: N/A
Local Beach: N/A
Favorite Beaches: N/A
Style: onshore waveriding
Gear: N/A
Brand Affiliation: SOKG (Self Organizing Kite Group)
Has thanked: 0
Been thanked: 9 times
Contact:

Re: What wood for mast core?

Postby lightandfrost » Mon May 28, 2018 10:01 am

Light and Frost has made 10 masts to date from 50cm to 90cm and from straight to curved.

We use 3cm plywood and then glass over the plywood shape. The center of the mast provides very little strength. You also do not need to use carbon fiber. We do not like mono structures like carbon fiber(CF) due to impact resonance damage that occurs. If we use CF we prefer to embed it in fiberglass wrap and epoxy mixes like silica powder or micro-ballons.

User avatar
fluidity
Very Frequent Poster
Posts: 657
Joined: Sat Mar 19, 2016 11:20 pm
Kiting since: 2015
Weight: 115kg
Local Beach: Ngati Toa, Plimmerton, Titahi Bay, Waikanae, Petone, Seatoun, Lyall Bay, Eastbourne, Lake Wairarapa
Favorite Beaches: Plimmerton
Style: Wave, jump
Gear: Transitioned from Kiting to Wingsurfing late 2019. Building my own foils from my CAD designs and 3D prints, CNC machine.
Brand Affiliation: Designer of hydrofoils and many other things.
Location: Porirua New Zealand
Has thanked: 46 times
Been thanked: 91 times

Re: What wood for mast core?

Postby fluidity » Sat Jul 14, 2018 8:49 pm

I haven't done one yet but I'd favour a synthetic core like Gurit M foam because it can be both lighter and stronger in compression than paulownia with grain running length ways. And trying to shape end grain paulownia... not going there! Maybe if I'd built a CNC machine but not yet.
And then lots of unidirectional alternating with oversized and tensioned sleeve composites.


Return to “Gear Builders”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 51 guests