Flotoma Snowboards

[nistler]

Got some good news guys, Just profiled half the new core and its looking great so far. I looked at what was wrong with my last profiler and tried to fix them for the one I just used. These were; Flat 'bars' (long strips of wood router slides over), better router depth, better adhesion between core and bottom of profiler, etc... I looked at the last core profiler (I just used 2 2x4's next to each other) and one of the 2x4s was really straight but the other one was horribly warped and twisted. I took the straight one and cut it in half to make a shorter, flatter profiler. To fix the router depth, I just used another router. The original one was a plunge router and I couldn't keep it accurate depth wise. I switched to a fixed base router that adjusts by first spinning a little dial then unscrewing the base and moving it vertically. This not only helped keep it accurate but it also had depth guide numbers on the dial so I could accurately cut things like 1/8" or 3/64" or whatever. I havent really fixed the adhesion problem though. I tried to double sided carpet tape and it worked good until I tried to take off the profiled core. It was way too sticky and I was afriad I was going to split the 2mm thick part. Luckily I didn't but I did split the glue joint about a foot. Im gluing that back together tonight so that should be ok.

Epoxy came yesterday also. Weather dropped really fast and it went from like 60º one week to like 30º this week and it even snowed like 1/64" yesterday, even got school canceled because of it. Funny story (not really funny, I feel really bad) becuase our school invited 53 princinpals from all over the country to come visist our school and go to our mass. Apparently we have a really high attendence to our school masses and they are really good. They wanted to see it but the one day it "snows" is the day they were coming. So bascially they all came but had to leave without even visiting because we didnt have school that day. Going back on topic, Im thinking it will be too cold to just cure the epoxy without any heat. I wasnt planning on using heat, but I might have to. I have a heat blanket used for sleeping and stuff, could I just lay that over the layup to just keep it at around room temperature?

Tommorrow Im hoping to finish profilng, drill the inserts and get the glued in at the least. If that all goes well, Ill cut out the base and attach edges. Im aiming to layup Sunday at the earliest, I mainly just want to limit how long I have the core laying aroudn because It could easily snap.

[twizzstyle]

If your epoxy is room-temp cure, then yeah any old heat blanket will be fine, you just want to keep it warm. An exact temp isn't crucial. If you got a heat-cure epoxy, you need a much more serious heat blanket. If the epoxy is cold it will take FOREVER to cure.

Cold epoxy also has a harder time mixing and wetting out your materials. Keep your epoxy inside the house if you're working in a cold shop/garage/basement to keep it warm, or you can put the jugs in buckets of hot water. Just remember that the warmer the epoxy, the shorter the working time!

[nistler]

I successfully profiled the core. I was really close to going through becaue I didnt tape down the middle so it was higher then the sides, resulting in the middle being cut thinner then the sides. I was cutting it at 3mm and once I passed over the middle, I saw a small hole. I changed the depth higher and that fixed the problem. I put a liittle epoxy over it to just help keep it strong before pressing. I also drilled holes, grinded insters and epoxied them in. The 7mm inserts actually fit perfectly in the 6.5mm wood. They are perfecty flat, but I also put a set of inserts on the 5mm section so I just filed them down and superglued the epoxy caps back on.

Now Im attaching the edges and having a hard time bending the edges to fit my sort of squared off tips and tail. I'll probably put a torch to the ends to help make them more bendable tomorrow.