the skins

using a pvc skin is easiest
you get the outline template and place it on top of the sheet of foam
draw a line with a pencil and cut the sheet out with a stanely knife or razor
if you want to use wood, its easiest to use hobby type balsa sheets that are 100mm wide and about 1000mm long
you want to use a nice thick skin for the best results
3mm thick is perfect or 1/8
id advize against using balsa wood on the deck or if you do it needs at least 6oz of glass but prefereably more
the reason why is that it break down very easily if water gets into it
other woods like paulownia are more suitable

so lets put together a balsa sheet
you needa nice big flat table to work on btw
i roll out some brown paper first (to keep resin off the table)
then i arrange my sheets and tape them together
we are taping the OUTSIDE of the skin remember
so tape and join them up. you can use this little miter box design for doing diagonals

once you have taped them together you draw the outline and trim them to shape with a razor
flip the balsa skin over and seal the untaped side with a slurry of epoxy and micro balloons.
i use around 70 grams of resin and squegee it onto the sheet.
the mix pushes into the joints and glues the sheet together and also prevents any resin bleeding through when you glass the inside.
i cut my skins 1mm over size
they should look like this

the whole operation takes 10 to 15 minutes
okay so skins are done, so you put them aside until you are ready to bag them onto the blank

you use a 2oz micro fiber for the inside glass
do the bottom skin first
put the skin on the table (covered in brown paper) and roll out your glass
trim the glass to the skin size with a razor or scissors
mix up some slow cure epoxy (you want about 1/2hr pot life,infusion resins are good)
i use 150 grams for a shortboard on a sealed balsa skin (but ive used far less,maybe 70 grams)
i perfer to mix a bit more these days and paint any leftovers on the rails and fin inserts.
wet out the cloth with squegee
flip the skin onto the bottom of your blank and place this on the rocker table
NOTE. your rocker table, blank and skins need witness marks to line up the skins with the core whilst bagging
these must be very visible in black pen

then we layup the deck skin same way and flip that onto the deck
then we tape it all down and in allignment
slide the whole lot into the bag and seal it up with mastic as shown by hunty
you need some shade cloth or material as a breather to stop the bag from sucking up the vaccum hose
however you dont need breathers all through the bag as the eps rocker table acts as a breather
turn on the pump
have your vaccum switch set to about 7 or 8 HG vaccum
you may hear a bit of hissing from small leaks
these can be sealed with more mastic
if you find small hole in the bag,mark them with a permenent marker so you can find them next time
thats it
walk away for 24 to 36 hours and your laughing
you can get away with about 6 to 8 hours in the bag