Monday, April 29, 2013

New SUP for sale

This morning we finished our latest Sea State SUP.

The deck hatch near the nose of the board allows you to store your keys and phone while you are out on the water.

It's nice and glossy.

Sold.

We will finish another board this weekend.
We will post photos.






Saturday, April 27, 2013

Sup Supplies

Today we drove up to Illinois to visit our friend John L.  He has a load of dried wood for sale and we need a lot for making SUP decks.
The goal this week is to rip the wood and build 10 decks.
We have that many Sea State hulls ready to go.
We already have enough Cedar , Cherry and Walnut for the accent strips.  Today we bought 10 foot lengths of Tulip Poplar.
It is a nice light blond color and light in weight too.
The planks are roughly 1.5 inches thick by 9 inches wide.

We ended up with 14 boards and this will yield enough strips for approximately 12 SUP decks.

It was fun to get back up to Elsah.  It is flooding again.  The water is right up to the edge of The Great River Road but so far it is still passable.
Here some photos...






Thursday, April 25, 2013

Assembling boards: Sea State 10.5

We are in full production of the 10 and a half foot Sea State hybrid board.
We just started using colors.  All the boards up until now were white gel-coated fiberglass with the wood deck but we got an order that included a yellow board and a maroon board.  They are fun and will look good with the wood deck.
Here are some photos of the assembly...
Yellow Gel-coat sprayed in the mold

The glassed wood strip deck is bonded into place.  After it sets up, we use a router to trim the edge.

The first yellow hull before the deck is added.

The hull showing stringers.

Bonding another deck.

A set of molded parts prior to bonding onto a white board.  The edge gets trimmed and then the part is glassed into place.


Tuesday, April 9, 2013

KSHE Rocks !

...and so does this Laser we picked up at an estate sale !




We pulled it out of the weeds, pumped some "Slime" into the tires and got it home.  Not sure of the year yet, but everything is there.  The sail, rudder and dagger board were stored inside.
We can't wait to get it in shape and try her out.


Monday, April 8, 2013

Shaft Machine: in production

We have the shaft machine dialed in and are producing carbon fiber shafts.
They are wound on a mandril and have an ID of 1 inch.  The wall varies from 1/16 to 3/32nds depending on the stiffness we are looking for.
They are very light and have a glossy or semi gloss finish.
Here are some images of the machine and the process...




Carbon Fiber Tow

Break Time!  We took off a couple of hours and went out on Creve Coeur lake with Ingo and Tiny.