Pocket board building

[Qiter]

I reckon go for it. Don't overthink it. Get a piece of wood that is thick and strong enough and cut to size. If you need a bit of extra strength or stiffness, you can throw on a layer of glass or carbon strips, or both. Then drill some holes, and bolt through, with some big washers to spread the load. Or use t-nuts with prongs. A smaller board of around 80 - 85 cm, small enough to get in normal luggage, will be a little tricky to get going, but definitely once you're riding, will be fine. Make sure that overall you have enough bouyancy that the whole setup floats.

Thanks for all the help and advice!
I will just go for the lowest lowtech solution for now and buy a one piece at my holiday location and screw the mast onto it (I am leaving in 2 days..). Once I am back I will make it a building project as suggested by TomW.
Will update on process.
Thanks again!!

[Hpr]

You can even bolt it onto a longboard deck...

[stevez]

Thanks for all the help and advice!
I will just go for the lowest lowtech solution for now and buy a one piece at my holiday location and screw the mast onto it (I am leaving in 2 days..). Once I am back I will make it a building project as suggested by TomW.
Will update on process.
Thanks again!!

The one thing you probably will want/need is a transition plate. Something like this below.
If you don't have something like this to distribute the point force from the front of the base plate over a wider area, it can easily fail there.

[Qiter]

The one thing you probably will want/need is a transition plate. Something like this below.
If you don't have something like this to distribute the point force from the front of the base plate over a wider area, it can easily fail there.

Yes, I will prepare some big washers cut out of hard plastic. That should do..

[TomW]

Cut my balsa blank out. 110*45 cm, 21mm thick. It weighs 1150g unshaped. A PU foam blank is about 900g. My previous balsa build blank was 1500g. So saved 350 g.
Need to think about the lamination. Probably put 3 x 150mm strips 100g uni D carbon each side to add strength. Then 2x 4oz (116g) glass each side with an extra glass 3/4 patch on deck. Then a textured deck, no pad. Hope to be at 2,2 kg.
I've been thinking of milling " recesses " on deck side at nose, but it will probably only save 50-70. Be a pita to glass and sand too.
Could do just one 6 oz layer on bottom, but worried about impact strength, mostly when transporting and bumps and knocks.

[max]

Cut my balsa blank out. 110*45 cm, 21mm thick. It weighs 1150g unshaped. A PU foam blank is about 900g. My previous balsa build blank was 1500g. So saved 350 g.
Need to think about the lamination. Probably put 3 x 150mm strips 100g uni D carbon each side to add strength. Then 2x 4oz (116g) glass each side with an extra glass 3/4 patch on deck. Then a textured deck, no pad. Hope to be at 2,2 kg.
I've been thinking of milling " recesses " on deck side at nose, but it will probably only save 50-70. Be a pita to glass and sand too.
Could do just one 6 oz layer on bottom, but worried about impact strength, mostly when transporting and bumps and knocks.

do you seal the balsa somehow before glassing?

I have not used balsa but I think it is known to suck water so perhaps need to be careful with thin skins.

[TomW]

Yes I seal with epoxy. It sucks a lot.
I could probably save 200-300g weight if I could figure out a way to seal it without it sacking up so much. Any other way would probably lead to delamination...
That said, the balsa gets really hard from this " impregnated epoxy".

[AndersP]

Can't you use a little less epoxy egen your seal it?
I used to lay just a thin coat when i built windsurfing boards back in the days to get them lighter. Did'nt have balsa core though.

[handy]

easy way to do a very light spackle on balsa :
put your blank in cold place, take you fastest curing epoxy, wet out a 80g/m2 peel ply, put that peel ply with a squeeshee on you blank,
place your blank immediatly in the as hot as possible curing oven, take it out when cured, pull off peel ply, done.
that will add max 30gr /m2 per side to your blank

[TomW]

Handy, I think I understand the idea. The peel ply is limiting how fast epoxy can absord.
What I don't understand is why keeping blank cold is important.
Don't have an oven but could build a temporary one out of eps blocks and use a space heater.
I can do a test with a control part...