Build A Surfboard Episode 3: Laminating and Vacuum Bagging

Learn to make a surfboard from the famous Johnny "V" Voxlund in Haiku Maui.
Continues the saga begun at
Build a Surfboard and
Episode 2: Sanding

Johnny invited me over to explain his bagging setup and watch him pull the board out of the bag. It was too hectic for spectators when he bagged the board due to a severe windstorm.

There's a lot going on in this photo.
He used UV cure resin so he had to make it dark.
He set up a tarp tent over the front of his shop to keep out sunlight. High winds made the tarp flap, making work very stressful. If the tarp blew away the board would be ruined by sunlight in mere seconds.

Step 1 All in the Bag

This board has a woven bamboo flame job on the deck.
It's structural as well as decorative. It makes the deck stiffer and prevents heel dings in the deck.
At the moment the vacuum is still sucking air out of the bag around the board. That compresses the whole board and clamps the bamboo matting down tight.

How did it all get in there?

Before putting the board Johnny worked on it outside in the dark tent.
He catalyzed some normal polyester resin and spread it on the underside of the bamboo matting. Now the clock starts ticking. That resin will set up in 1 hour.
Then he laid the glass over the top of that and squeegeed in the UV cure resin.
Now the board is vulnerable to sunlight.

Comments

[ImmortalSoFar]

When I worked in a plastic bag factory, that's how the customers filled bread bags. The bags are on wickets, the fan blows open the top one and then a piston pushes in the bread, breaking off the top bag and allowing the fan to inflate the next one.