althouh will need a vent in the board in hot climates
the templates are screw or double sided tape to the foam block
i use a solvent free spray adhesive called ados
once you stick the template on, it wont budge at all
get the wire cooking,it should cut a side in about 5 minutes
a bit of ventilation will help.
i leave the nose and tail about 20mm thick and shape the last part of the foil in, by hand after the stringers are on.
now i use 60kg PCM density airex foam for my perimeter stringers and it works great and shapes well .dvynicell or corecell will also work.
i buy a 15mm thick sheet and cut between 30mm to 40mm wide, straight strips the length of a sheet(a sheet is usually 8ft by 4 ft)
lay out your rail on some paper like here and then you can get width/height measurements before you cut your strip of pvc
its is unecessary to cut the rocker into the strips, as you can bend the foam easily
it can be warmed with a heatgun and bent over around a simple jig and clamped for a few minutes
this is less wasteful then cutting a curved strip as in berts thread
also with this little drawing you can work out your rail band cuts
i overlap both skins over the stringers
it is faster and has no adverse effects to performance
also the board is more waterproof
airex pvc is waterproof, unlike balsa which goes soggy and greatly weakens the board
the best thing about putting on the stringers first and overlapping the skins
is that you can bag on both skins in one go
once you cut the blank
you trace the outline with your half template and mark your center line.
use a gauge or ruler and mark in the thickness of your rail
you need to have and idea of your rail radius before you decide on the width and thickness of your stringer
i find 15mm thick to be perfect
so you measure in from your outline 15mm and put marks with a fine tip felt pen every 4 inches or so
then you get your outline template and use it to redraw the outline on the points
i then use a japanese pull saw to cut the outline
i find the outline needs very little work to tidy up, as the japanese saw cuts it very fast and accurately
faster then jigsaw and sanding block
so you cut the outline
true up with a sanding block if neccesary
then you glue on the tail block first
that way when you clamp on the stringers, they have a strong material at the tail to glue on to
the stringers are glued on with a fast setting epoxy and held in place with masking tape
its best to let some overlap on the bottom of the board a mm or so
after the rails are glued on you check the outline with the template and check its all good
then run over the bottom with a sanding block and true up the stringers with the bottom.
then you lay out the fins and route in the high density inserts.
high density inserts greatly increase strength and isolate the plug from the core.
just lay out your shapers marks like a finished board
and use a router template to route some holes for your inserts
i make my inserts out of the same material as the stringer but it is 20 mm thick
if you allow for skin thickness ,then your total is 23mm this allows about 3 mm at the base of your FCS tm. plugs.
other fin systems may require deaper inserts.
i find that plug systems to be superior in this construction.
i have been testing boards for 3 years and have never had a failure.
there are other alternatives to FCS tm. like RAPTOR tm., 4WFS. tm and some copies like the euro plug
i personally prefer probox for an adjustable box system. also because it is uncapped.
and the fcs fusion box for a capped box
although in my opinion capping is uneccesary
a plug system is the lightest and easiest system to repair, and if damaged it wont damage the rest of the board as capped systems like FUTURES tm. do
this whole process takes me around 40 minute to an hour at the most
and what you have is a rough blank
in production you would make a few hundred at once
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