little pluggy thing in Epoxy boards

[dUg]

Yes, I am deluding myself once again that I might get a crack at either of the two epoxy shortboard projects I have had in the pipeline for two years, so I need a couple of those little allen key plugs that you stick in the deck to let the air out when storing / traveling.

Anyone know where I can get a couple? Shaper mate has never done Epoxy so he's no use

And what the hell are they called... so I don't sound like a complete nit asking for one?

[Haz]

Pretty sure it's a vent plug...

Ask speedy where to get them!

[munch]

I think vidal got some from bennets, give em a call - but your best of having a look around for some gortex ones they vent with needing to take them out.

Also I'm pretty sure you don't need them for a closed cell foam like PU but do for open cell like EPS, so you may or may not need them.

[PeepeelaPew]

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[ric_vidal]

dUg, yeah da-Munch is right, got one from Bennetts some time ago, not that they necessarily ‘supply’ them to all and sundry.

No point venting XPS it is closed cell. The XTR (XPS) boards are ‘vented’ with rail punctures but have seen some distortion under dark decals. The stuff does some weird sh*t.

Surftechs aren’t vented unless it is hidden have seen one that delaminated due to an un-repaired ding and hot car. Think the skin is just so tough it can’t distort.

Get onto Sways or the Compsand forum, plenty of info there to fabricate or ask Huie.

Your glasser is not going to like you dUg, if it is first encounter. Stand by for a yellow board real quick.

[PeepeelaPew]

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[pinhead]

You only need to put in a valve for boards with really low EPS density cores. Surftechs and Bics have low density cores but they're completey wrapped in a sandwich of high density foam and glass (which is why they're so rigid) Firewire's FST, Sunovas and JD's construction method all have wooden rails, so the sandwich wrap is interrupted, this is why they have a nice natural flexy feel to them. These cores are about 12 kg/m3 in density.

If you leave one of these boards board in a car on a hot day or unpressurised cargo space on a plane. There's a (slim) chance the pressure will cause a delam along the rails.

PU foam is about 28 - 33 kg/m3. The EPS foam used in non-sandwich EPS boards is about 24 - 28 kg m3. Foam at this density usually isn't vented .

XPS is extruded polystyrene. It's usually used in the 24 kg m3 - 28 kg m3 range. It's light and tough and has a nice feel to it as well, but has two fatal flaws - it contains tiny amounts of another 'slippery' plastic like polypropylene, which serves to prevent the liquid foam from sticking to the extruder, and it doesn't have good shear strength in one direction. So what can happen is after time the cells will start to rupture and the released gas when expanded by heat will cause delams - because the foam has polypropylene in it resin doesn't stick so well. There are two techs out there to get around this problem - one is perforating the lam with tiny holes to allow gas to escape - XTR surfboards. The other is to use a roving gun to shoot glass roving into the foam to create a better mechanical bond for the lam Bufo's hydroflex tech.

[munch]

:? pinhead posted as I was writing

the main reason you need them in eps, imho is because the foam is blown with steam and hence you end up with a little liquid water in the board, when it heats up/vacuums out that turns to into a gas and pop.

The xps (the ps is for polystyrene guard) is blown differently, not sure how, but I'm pretty sure it's closed cell. But there may be materials that gas off similar to water, but since it's closed it'll only be a localized expansion. Maybe the gasing off breaks the cell walls and you end up with something similar to eps in the end anyways ...

The stuff that tuflites use as a core, is a water proofed eps, no idea how they do it but mixing the polystyrene beads with a water proof glue before blowing it Anyway it basically a closed cell foam, so I'd guess that's why they don't need the vents.

[dUg]

Thanks for the info guys. Cores are EPS ( yup... Epoxy so I am already waking up in the dead of night again asking, why? why? ) and one will be non-vac compsand. If my test works, it'll also feature a freaky new take on parabolic rail construction, but I'm getting waaaaay ahead of myself as usual. One blank has been in my shed for over 12 SA summers... I reckon it's probably outgassed all it's gonna .

I had a look on the Shapers website, nada there . I should probably stop lurking on the compsand forum and ask them. Local factory here has done epoxy boards in the past, so perhaps I'll hit them up. Even if they don't have 'em they may be able to point me in the right direction.

[PeepeelaPew]

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[ric_vidal]

Should i worry about that delam Ric or not :?

F*cked if I know Guard

All damage is damage and leads to something else eventually. Nip it in the bud when you can.