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| The fitted decks |
The paddle board board building class is getting to the fun parts: deck fixtures and prep for the top glass.
On Tuesday we trimmed the deck panels to fit the hulls. Next we sanded with a vacuum sander. It was then time to decide on the placement of the deck fixtures: tie downs and the hull access port.
Because this board is hollow, there is the space for a deck access port which allows you to store the phone, camera, clif bar etc. inside the hull. The leash cups/tie downs allow for a waterproof pack to be secured on the deck for a trip.
After the locations were picked out, we used a forstner bit to cut holes for the leash cups and a jig saw to cut a hole for the port.
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| Drilling a hole for the tie down |
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| Hull interior showing stringers |
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| Deck thickness is 1/4 of an inch. These strips are walnut and bass wood. |
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| Tie down before epoxy |
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| Hull access port showing lid and knock out. |
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| Beveling the underside of the deck for a good fit. |
This week we added a layer of fiberglass fabric to the top sides of the decks. The underside of the decks had been glassed in a previous session. On the underside we used a 6.5 oz plain weave cloth. This is nice and strong but needs a fair amount of resin to fill the weave. We did not need to fill the weave to a glossy finish because this is a hidden surface. On the top sides we were looking for a glossy finish. To keep things light and to see the wood as well as possible, we chose the lightest fabric in our supply chest. It is a .55 oz cloth that is super light, like gossamer. It wets out easily and is pliable enough to wrap around the deck edge. This way the entire wood strip deck is encased in a glass / epoxy matrix.
For this application, we are using an epoxy made by Resin Research. It is a super clear UV inhibited epoxy formulated for the surfboard industry. We like it a lot.
