The mongrel

Discuss shaping and repairing techniques here.

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spork
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The mongrel

Post by spork » Wed Jan 23, 2013 5:41 pm

When you build a couple of wooden boards you inevitably end up with a stack of balsa and paulownia left over. Not to mention resin and glue by the ltr. So with another couple of weeks of holidays I'v decided the throw it all together and build another board ( I know I know). As I aluded to previously the bottom of the mongrel is laminate. 3mm Balsa sheets spread on a layer of 2ozcloth and epoxy. That was glued to the keel/stringer as in the pic.
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Half the cross bracing and add two more stringers inside the rail line
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Balsa strip rails and a lot more rocker than previous boards. 4mm Paulownia deck boards steamed into shape. I'm aiming for a lot less weight, somewhere around the 3kg mark, all the other boards are over 4kg. Simple classic shortboard outline, thruster, roundtail, approx. 6'2" x 2.5" x 19". flat into slight double into v concave in the tail.Oh and i'm going to stain the whole board either Cedar or mahogany. Hence the mongrel is on its way.
When it gets to this level of self important stupidity I lose interest.
Roy Stewart

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spork
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Re: The mongrel

Post by spork » Sun Jan 27, 2013 6:22 pm

Despite my best efforts (I drilled everything!), the blank weighs 2.6kg. Not that heavy, but everything is a trade off. So that means that because I've got a bottom just 3ml thick, it will need 2 layers of 4oz to make it strong. Also the deck is just 4mm thick paulownia, so also requiring 2layers of 4oz or I'm gonna put a heal through it.I'v got the bottom glassed and will do the deck tomorrow. Some observations': If you mix woods, you get different expansion and contraction on the frame. AKA, the bottom is balsa/epoxy/glass. The frame is 3ply/paulownia and there are two different glues ( sikkaflex + tite bond3) and the glued up Paulownia deck. What this means is that when you are shaping this conglomerate you end up with all sorts of weird reactions. For instance, the rails are a combination of balsa and paulownia strips layered over each other. Balsa is a hard wood, paulownia is a soft wood. When I started shaping them it was some of the hottest weather ever, over the last few days its been raining. The humidity has made the blank twist and distort. Combine that with the differing top/bottom combo and you end up with a mongrel of a job!!!! hence the mongrel name. If you remove wood from one place, it inevitably has a reaction in another place, this thing is alive and wiggling around on the shaping stand like an alien being. I'm just wondering if it is going to live or die in the water. WTF, it will look good on the wall..... but like the Frankenstein monster its beginning to take on a life of its own. I just hope I don't need to hook it up to a lightning conductor to get its heart to start beating.
When it gets to this level of self important stupidity I lose interest.
Roy Stewart

gabsouy
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Re: The mongrel

Post by gabsouy » Sun Jan 27, 2013 6:37 pm

how many man hours approx to make the mongrel ?

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Re: The mongrel

Post by spork » Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:55 am

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Behold the mongrel!
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Hmm, good question, I recon maybe 30hrs? I haven't been timing myself, just doing it when I'm in the mood or the surfs crap. The surf has been delivering up until yesterday when the onshore/rain arrived, so three surfs a day with mucking around with the mongrel in between. More interesting titbits: If you use a wood stain on laminated balsa sheets all the bits that didn't glue perfectly will bubble up. Then you have to slit the wood and butter in some more glue. Note to self, don't cut corners! As you can see the board is stained with cedar colour, funny reactions are inevitable with different woods and stray glue coming up lighter and darker. Its sure is looking more like its name and its now, inevitably, become 'The Mongrel Dog', which is what I call the thing every time another problem arises. Then again, like mongrel dogs its growing on me and I look at its flaws with some affection.
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hahaha, panels and patches and glue spots
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It looks a bit distorted in this pic, its not actually that bad!
When it gets to this level of self important stupidity I lose interest.
Roy Stewart

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Re: The mongrel

Post by dUg » Tue Jan 29, 2013 8:51 am

Love the way it's come out Spork, almost looks like a chunk of redgum :).

Sometimes these "afterthought" boards are the best. I dunno... may you tend not to overthink them or something.

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Re: The mongrel

Post by spork » Tue Jan 29, 2013 12:30 pm

Ahh, the trials of the backyard mongrel maker. I set up the heat lamps to take some of the humidity out of the air and WHAM, air bubbles in the laminates. Then the Deck, which differs from the plan by only having one layer of 4oz and a deck patch and what Im calling duckdive stips along the forward rails. The deck distorted along the rail closest to the lamps, probably because it was drying quicker. No problem, just layer in three strips of cloth, except the Bote Cote resin is not clear, it has a honey colour. So a strange discouloration on the rail,hahaha I laughed out loud at the mongrel dog. He just smirked back at me. I've used just 500ml of resin to glass the whole board including filler coats. This was quite a task, but more time consuming that difficult. Thanks to a long curing time of around 2hours I was able to mix just 140ml for each laminate and pull it through to make for well wetted cloth with a minimum of waste. Interestingly I noted that this also meant very few resin drips on the floor, so yeah very efficient. Just the sanding and fin plugs to go. The fin plugs are coming out of a snapped JS that a mate gave me, more recycling! Go the Mongrel Dog.
When it gets to this level of self important stupidity I lose interest.
Roy Stewart

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Re: The mongrel

Post by spork » Mon Feb 04, 2013 4:29 pm

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It weighs just 3.5kg. and feels quite solid in the hands despite the 3-4mm skin and internal frame construction, so success as far as that goes. It is quite lovable in the flesh and all the guys at the local wanted to feel it and hold it. There certainly was a few confused expressions and quizzical looks as it was passed around. Then again it passed the under the arm test from most of em, so I'm keen to get it in the water.
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When it gets to this level of self important stupidity I lose interest.
Roy Stewart

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Re: The mongrel

Post by Cpt.Caveman » Wed Feb 27, 2013 3:58 pm

wingnut2443 wrote:Having now handled this beast for myself, and witnessed the warping and associated design features, I am happy to report that PU/PE will remain my materials of choice. :wink:
That just gives it character!!!
Davros wrote:Ego saved - surfing experience rubbish.

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Re: The mongrel

Post by spork » Thu Oct 16, 2014 2:36 pm

The good old mongrel dog...not. It didn't quite work in the way I expected, for numerous reasons. It fell out of the board rack and karate chopped the back of my wife's Peugeot. Then, a few days later it did the same to my Alfa Romeo, WTF! Anyway, I finaly got it into the water and had a surf on it. So, a light weight flexible twisted wooden surfboard surfs ok, really buoyant, fast accelleration and easy paddling. the general shape was quite good and it was really loos with PG3's in it.
It was a disaster, after a few waves it started taking on water so I paddled in. . I set it on the verandah in the sun to dry out in early March last yr and thats where it stayed. Until now. I was laying on the lounge looking at it staring back at me and I realised that its not a bad shape and I should do something with it. I took it down and lo and behold it was straight! WTF! 18mnths of sitting in the hot sun had settled all those timbers and glues down and it had pulled itself straight again Hahaha. I laughed at the Mongrel dog again. So What to do?
Enter my next project. I'm going to fix up a few blemishes and then vacuum bag some carbon fibre on to the beast! Watch this space.
When it gets to this level of self important stupidity I lose interest.
Roy Stewart

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Re: The mongrel

Post by diggerdickson » Thu Oct 16, 2014 10:23 pm

love it mate
no, Im not a surfer, Im just a garbage man".

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Davros
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Re: The mongrel

Post by Davros » Fri Oct 17, 2014 7:50 am

Your problem mate is to many foreign cars.

Looks sick I better it goes unreal when you fix it. Made one board and I can see all the faults in it and my mates laughed but it goes really well....like really well.

I love this stuff well done.

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Re: The mongrel

Post by spork » Fri Oct 17, 2014 3:59 pm

Aren't all cars foreign? I mean, even Holden is gone and it was GMH (yanks) anyway. Oh yeah, my board are all full of faults, but who cares? I really don't surf well enough to feel the difference if there is a 'dip' in the rail or the "tucked under edge is too far back", or "the fins look too far forward"
or "did you mean to make the nose that wide?" etc. all comments I've had from blokes that probably couldn't even tie their shoelaces, never mind make a surfboard. Ive spent shiteloads of money on surfboards, including Merricks and Bings and MCtavishes etc. all big dollar purchases, but to be honest I have just as much fun on some of my less that perfect creations. And I rekon we backyarders are having just as much enjoyment mucking about and fiddling with surfboards as we are surfing em! keep it up fellas!
When it gets to this level of self important stupidity I lose interest.
Roy Stewart

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Re: The mongrel

Post by spork » Sat Oct 18, 2014 10:53 am

carbon.jpg
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so far so good.
When it gets to this level of self important stupidity I lose interest.
Roy Stewart

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Re: The mongrel

Post by spork » Wed Jan 07, 2015 4:09 pm

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[Hi guys sorry I didn't past this stuff earlier. Here's a couple of pics of the finished 'Carbon Wood' as it's now called. I'v surfed it a few times recently and it is a cracker of a board, fast loose and fun as. And a bonus is that it is virtually indestructible, just the thing for summer crowds. I'm very happy with the look and feel, even though its a bit heavy compared to a modern hps. The Mongrel Dog lives on to surf another day, albeit with a new skin.
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When it gets to this level of self important stupidity I lose interest.
Roy Stewart

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Re: The mongrel

Post by spork » Wed Jan 07, 2015 4:18 pm

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Another pic.
When it gets to this level of self important stupidity I lose interest.
Roy Stewart

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Re: The mongrel

Post by Beanpole » Thu Jan 08, 2015 10:14 am

Nice work spork. Just a couple of questions.
Why did you feel the need to stain the timber?
Im sure you've said somewhere but did you use a kettle and pvc piping to steam the timber?
Funnily enough my brother in law has a pile of left over palownia from a boat he's building. might have a goof around with that in the future myself.
Put your big boy pants on
I mean, tastebuds? WGAF?

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Re: The mongrel

Post by spork » Thu Jan 08, 2015 1:50 pm

Hey beanie, I stained mongrel dog because it looked crap with all the different timbers involved, besides I'm always looking for something different, how many folks have a stained wooden board in their quiver? not many I'm guessing. PVC pipe is no good for the rail strip, it doesn't allow you to target specific areas to curve. I use an old piece of curtain rail tube about 30mm in dia, I shove that over the spout of kettle, that allows you to target the heat over a specific area and lets you use the end of the tube to lever against as the timber softens. To bend the deck I use boiling water and thick beach towels. Put something under the board that is in the area you want to bend and then a towel on the top. pour boiling water on to the towel and place weights (buckets of water are good) on the board, works a treat. Let me know if you want a copy of the timber board manual.
Tonks, pick any one of these babies...my current quiver.
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Ten boards in my quiver, from smallest to largest: 5'9" Channel islands single fin, 5'11" JS dropped swallow quad, 6'1' Carbon wood by me, 6'1" pintail widowmaker by me, made from an old 1971 Gordom and Smith (thanks Marshal Keen) , 6'1" hollow wooden biscuit by me, 6'4" Bing Spork roundtail quad, 6'5" Channel Islands 'Rob machado' single fin, 6'6" Channel Islands 'black Beauty' for big wave fun, 6'10 hollow wood Parrott Fish by me, 8'1" Billy Tollhurst 'Harley Ingelby' high performance mal. Phew, the things you do when you're bored!
Hey Matticus, I havn't had any issues with the black deck around here, the water is still pretty cool. I don't think I'll take it to the Maldives though!
When it gets to this level of self important stupidity I lose interest.
Roy Stewart

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Re: The mongrel

Post by Beanpole » Thu Jan 08, 2015 5:35 pm

Sounds good spork.
Nice quiver.
How do you find the Black Beauty?
I've checked them out a few times along with the M13.

Also what thickness ply are you using?
Marine Ply I guess.
Put your big boy pants on
I mean, tastebuds? WGAF?

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