Deck Mold: glass work

We added the layers of glass to the gel coated mold.
After the resin cured to the touch, we moved the whole shebang out to the mid-day sun.
UV light really speeds up the hard curing of resin.
We plan on stripping the mold off the deck plug tonight.

Curing with Mr. Sun.  The edge of the mold will get cut and sanded so it has a nice edge.

This photo shows the two half molds together.
The board will float in this trim, but 3 or 4 inches lower.

Deck plug: ready to mold

After many passes of fairing and sanding the deck plug is ready to mold.
This process was about 10 times faster than the hull plug.  The two reasons for this are the hull is a bit more complicated and secondly, the clock is ticking.  Summer is almost here.  We have got to get this thing done.

The photo shows the plug waxed and coated in PVA.  In the morning, we will spray on the gelcoat and in the evening we will start adding glass to build up the mold.

We expect to start building boards next week.

This photo shows the deck plug on top of the hull mold.  You can get an idea of the board's profile from this angle.
It has a slight rocker and a piercing bow.  It will make a great touring board.

SUP deck plug taking shape...

We have built up the plug for the deck of our new SUP.  We used foam an now Bondo.
It is getting close to the shape we are after.  There will be more sanding and fairing tomorrow, then we will start the gel coat layers.  Like on the hull plug, the gel coat will give us a surface we can bring up to a gloss.

Sea State 12 foot SUP: deck plug forming

We polished the mold and trimmed the edge of the mold.  But before casting parts we decided to start making the mold for the deck of this SUP.

To do this, we are building up the shape we want in rigid foam and spray foam.  This gets disk sanded to shape.  After we get the shape roughed in, we will cover the foam with glass cloth and epoxy.  We will gradually work the shape into a moldable plug.  Then we will create the mold and will have all we need to begin producing parts.

Here is today's work:

The deck plug being formed inside of the hull mold.
The flange is clearly visible and will provide space to form the deck mold flange.

Tools of the trade.  The pioneers would not be impressed.

A radius edge piece provides a fair line.

Fabricating the stern deck

Our Paddle Board kit is progressing.  Now that the hull mold is finished, we are working on the deck structures.  The bow deck plug is ready for molding.  We wanted to do the molds for both the bow and stern in one go, so the next step was to get the stern deck plug ready.

We used a similar method, but instead of foam, we used a thin ply and fairing material only.

This part is not intended to be as thick.

Today we will polish the gelcoat finish and prep for molding.