Building a Surfboard Blank Mold

[@ericjorgensen8028]

There's a picture - somewhere on the internet - of someone standing on a pile of Clark foam concrete surfboard blank molds after the old factory was closed. Like they were all dumped in a pile. End of an era I bet Grubby Clark would love your efforts here. Nice work

[@NeverYombAgain]

Hi friend, your work is extremely ingenious, I started making my own foil after discovering your videos, for those who don't want to bother with grease to hold the cellophane you can simply spray with the water on the surface works wonderfully, I'm impatiently waiting for the next version of the foil or other project, good luck from Brittany

[@zzzhacker]

Love it! I build Windsurfboards for myself and my boys, but never thought of creating my own mold. You just planted a seed 🙂

[@HANDIY]

happy to hear it, if you make boards regularly and you have space for the mold, it is definitely worth it.

[@moazmohammed9381]

I have seen pretty much every video you posted. I must say you are absolutely talented. I have quite experience with composite molding and I would love to give you some advice. - Instead of using core Cement to produce the mold you could use other method which will give you best surface finish. It's the same steps you performed to mold out from original board. 1) instead of pouring the cement directly to the board, use a release agent (PVA) on the original board and make sure to apply several coats "3 is the best" and wait 15min between each coat. 2) Hand lay gelcoat (basically, it's a mixture of polyester resin and calcium carbonate, its thick creamy high viscosity mixture) directly on the surface of the original board apply two coats make sure it is thick enough "that would get you a superior surface finish". (the curing time is little bit faster than epoxy and so much cheaper). 3) After confirming the gelcoat is hard, apply 6-layers of fiber glass with polyester resin "Because the gelcoat itself is so brittle". 4) apply cement if you want in case you used expanded foam to produce the product, because the mold would be much lighter without it "you do not want inconsistent cross-section". you could use this mold to produce fiberglass carbon fiber, expanded foam, but before applying anything you have to apply 2~3 coats of release agent. the product wouldn't need any sanding or finishing and you could add color pigments to the epoxy.

[@BrunoFreire-r6e]

Sou do Brasil e vou seguir sua dica para fazer uma jetsurf

[@robne6712]

how fiberglass boats are made. the mold is sprayed w release then everything is laid out in reverse into a mold. you can spray carbon and glass strand and its similar to how race sailboats are made. building up to the bagged foam core and using the foam curing slow heat to set the rest. you can make a core bag out of uline uncut bags. use a heat bagger to make the shape. The concrete's weight and the ability to use tubing to heat the concrete like a floor can make a great blank or foam base for sculpture. depends on the detail you need.. its what we did to make props for the film industry before silicone got made easy.. great vid man good luck!

[@natedyer3530]

Awesome video if I was looking at making a 12 foot paddle board foam would you run ply down mid was considering using your idea but just make a rectangular bit of foam with wood casing

[@TheChupacabra]

I’ve come back and watched this video 3 times. I just don’t see how it doesn’t have 300k views. This process uses scrap wood, $15 in mortar and reinforcing mesh, and now you can crank out blanks for $20 dollars a piece. This is a game changer for any surfer with some know-how. I want to try a 4 lb or even 8 lb foam. Any thoughts on using a denser stronger foam with a lighter glassing schedule?

[@gavinmckhann4862]

feel free to try it but from what I understand an incredibly light foam with a stronger glass is where things seem to be heading.

[@HANDIY]

If you go above 4lbs density it will be pretty heavy.

[@kallakrastev769]

The expantion depending from the moisture. Spray some water inside the mold. Good job, and great idea! Bravo!

[@HANDIY]

Interesting, thanks for the tip! What would happen if i add moisture?

[@adrianzuniga5690]

@@HANDIYI found some information relevant to this claim: There’s a study made by Justin Fink for Fine Home Building Magazine. He used a spray bottle to add moisture to spray foam and measured its effect. In a dry environment 1 gram of spray foam produced 21 cubic centimeters. In a moist environment, the same amount of foam produced 40 cubic centimeters. The foam in which moisture was applied also set firmer, cured faster, and yielded almost twice the volume with fewer voids.

[@creastic]

Do you think polyurethane is good for surf, someone tell me it desagregatebwith humidity

[@jankastrup9482]

Hi, thank you for the great video. I was wondering how you calculated how much foam you need? Maybe you can help me out

[@HANDIY]

You can figure it out if you know the volume of the mold and the density of the foam. For example the board i used to make the mold was 28 liters, so just about 1 cubic foot. The foam i used was 3 pounds per cubic foot. So 3 pounds of liquid mix should fill the mold in my case. But then I'll add extra to pressurize the mold, makes the blanks more dense and even.

[@НиколайФёдоров-ж6я]

IT's a great! definetly i'm impressed! Please answer how many times the PPU expand? in my country there are several variants. one is 10 times, other is 17 times. which one will be better? Good luck you!

[@a4i.z3n]

well you know how many litres the board you made the mould from. then divide by 10 or 17 and you will know how many millilitres of foam you would need and how much it will weight. I guess 10x is more dense and stronger than 17

[@Felipenerdss]

Quantos ml de expansivo você usou???

[@frankmelenthe189]

What a Great edit and tutorial! Thanks!

[@murraybruce3802]

What do you think of first applying carbon fiber cloth and epoxy (or fiberglass and polyester resin) to both sides of the mold first and then filling it with foam? The next step would be a strip of cloth and resin to connect the two halves. Thanks for the video!

[@HANDIY]

Yea that would be a classic pop out board construction, my mold isn't perfect enough for such construction but with the right mold it could work, that's how some mass produced boards are made.

[@murraybruce3802]

@@HANDIY So interesting! Thanks. How can I learn more about building a better mold suitable for that technique?

[@HANDIY]

@@murraybruce3802 its very hard to find good info on surfboard molds, but my best quess would be to first make a fiberglass mold of the surfboard, that way you have a strong, smooth, perfect finish inside. if the mold is thick enough it might be able to handle the foam pressure, if not then i would intergrate the fiberglass mold into a concrete setup, to make sure the pressure does not deform the mold. That would be my approach.

[@TheChupacabra]

You should be very proud of this device. And all your friends should be happy about the new boards they are getting

[@Chop757]

Ohhh man my Girlfriend is going to be so mad when I do this 😂😮😆🙌🏼 Thank You for the Video!!!

[@stephenboddy7556]

Pure efficient genius, this video will eventually change the lives of so many grommets around the world for good, congratulations. 7:02

[@stephenboddy7556]

Oh, it needs a stringer! 7:02

[@independentmind1977]

I can think of other things I can apply the mold creation process to. I didn’t know liquid foam was a thing, I assumed everyone was still starting with a solid foam block and shaping.

[@lucasandulescu4210]

well i’m pretty sure all solid foam blocks are just what he did in a different mold

[@thomasaudrendekerdrel6788]

@@lucasandulescu4210 I from the surfing industry and boat industry. What he is doing is exactly how we create blank (i mean surf blank) so everything came from liquide mix as he did. :) they just doing biger to give some room to the shaper to create the final "shape"! (sorry for my english i'm french ^^)

[@HN-Shapes]

​@@thomasaudrendekerdrel6788 Hello Thomas, est ce que tu aurais la composition des différents éléments pour créer un bon blank? Merci beaucoup

[@adamfiala4083]

What did you mix to create the foam? Ever thought about making a 2 part fiberglass mold for the blank? Awesome video thanks for sharing.

[@HANDIY]

I use 2 part Expandable polyurethane foam, 3lbs density seems to be the best. Indeed Fiberglass mold are also an option. I've though about making the mold out of fiberglass, but the high pressures inside the mold when the foam expands require a very strong casing for the fiberglass mold. It would be lighter but harder to build.

[@Neumatikos]

@@HANDIY. How about fiberglass mold reinforced with concrete exo skin??? lol. Seriously 😅

[@HANDIY]

@@Neumatikos that would be optimal. you could probably make "pop out" boards with such a mold.

[@rokrok2063]

hello! this is a great video! I will try too! What are the two materials you applied after the concrete had hardened? A clear liquid applied with a brush and a yellow cream applied with a towel.

[@HANDIY]

Nice! The clear liquid was a layer of epoxy but it wasn't really necessary, the second thing was Crisco Butter as a release agent in case the foam goes through the release wax paper, also not necessary but its a way to make sure you never get your mold stuck closed since that foam is very sticky. Best of luck on your build!

[@rokrok2063]

@@HANDIY i will try !thankyou very much!

[@el_khanman]

This is awesome, will you do another video where you glass and finish the board? Also, do you think the foam is going to be strong enough without a stringer?

[@HANDIY]

Sure i'll make a surfboard building video soon. For the stringer issue, ive been using carbon tape reinforcements, it seems to holds up on a stringerless kitesurf board I built. Its also possible to cut the blank in half and glue on a stringer. Cheers

[@coreyf0307]

So can you explain what products you are using to prep the mold please I'm so interested in making white water sups and this could really help the journey

[@HANDIY]

in the video i added a layer of epoxy, but it wasn't necessary and actually ended up peeling off. So all you really need to do before pouring the foam is to cover and tape the inside of the mold with wax cooking paper.

[@coreyf0307]

What brand of foam are you using?

[@Neumatikos]

@@coreyf0307. I looked up us composites

[@BG-fm7zj]

I bet you could do this using foam instead of concrete and then glass over it. Would weigh a little less when u were done! Nice work- much easier than shaping!

[@HANDIY]

I've though about it but in this case the compression strength of concrete and its weight is an advantage for handling the extremely high pressures happening when molding the board, also is a lot cheaper and easier to work with. Cheers

[@independentmind1977]

@@HANDIY I would also say the longevity of the mold wouldn’t be as long. I dream one day of moving to a warm climate where I can make these. Until then I’ll continue making didgeridoos. There’s only so many hobbies a man can have 😊

[@kumaraprintingdptkumara6305]

Super 😮😮

[@philipperenauldonpr]

C'est Super Ça ! Qu'est ce que vous faites après ? Vous le stratifiez ou vous allez direct sur l'eau en espérant que ça tienne ? Plus J'ai suivi avec attention la construction du petit kiteboat. Que devient-il ? Une autre vidéo bientôt ?

[@HANDIY]

Oui Strat, avec carbon pour remplacer le stringer en bois. J'ai toujour le bateaux je navigue avec de temp en temp.

[@turanhayati1]

Thank you su much

[@wadeshore]

Nice 👍🏻

[@SammyHelsper]

Can you redo these videos a and add commentary???

[@stevenr8606]

🤣😂🤣🤣 building a surfboard from a mold.

[@Neumatikos]

lol. That’s how they’re all made