Anyone in US interested in HD foam box mounts?

Build, Repair & Mod
#1

Hey guys, I hate the price of current HD foam box mounts. Meaning the inserts that you mount boxes in in your board blank.

I’ve found a source for 6, 8, and 12 lb PVC foam that seems really nice and is less expensive than Divinycel but I can only buy it in 48”x96” sheets which is more than I need in my life lol.

I can get boxes CNC’d. Anyone interested in US-made foam inserts? Let me know, otherwise I’m just going to buy from the usual suspects.

Also I’m thinking Futures and Chinook options should be available. I’ve used both. What do you guys like?

Pro shapers are welcome too. Let’s see if this is worth doing.

#2

There’s also

#3

Yes I know about those. But there are a couple of issues. First, no Chinook boxes which are way stronger. Now that our crew is jumping and generally progressing we need to be careful about boxes. (Note this is for surfing and winging of course.)

Second, I’d want to use real Futures boxes and I wonder if those fit into those inserts.

Has anyone here used these with official Futures boxes? Maybe I’ll order one of these and see.

I guess I should start tagging posts as about surf vs efoils for things like this. You’d likely never break a box efoiling whereas it has been sadly common on the surf side of things. If you’re going to the trouble to make a board, make it last.

And finally, normally I’d never bother with this, but here in SoCal there are a few hundred foilers and several who make our own boards. So projects like this are easier to pull off as they don’t require shipping and such. We can just meet and hand off at the beach. Though If other folks need them we could likely ship inexpensively too.

Maybe I’ll see what these Ali express boxes look like with futures in them.

#4

Efoils need strong boxes too. The takuma boards ripped loads out. I’ve hit a bank at 38kph and got very lucky I didn’t rip anything apart.

It would be interesting to see how these fin boxes compare to futures strength wise.
The pu foam probably won’t be near the 100kg density range though. Probably more like 40kg…

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#5

Jezza, that’s a good point. And for the yanks here.

100Kg density = 6 lbs per sq. foot

40Kg density = ~2 lbs per sq. foot

I was actually going to test 8lb or 128 kg/m3 for mine.

Maybe I’ll buy one or two of these and do a destructive test compared to a real box.

#6

I’ve heard mixed reviews on those Ali boxes. Sounds to me like low density foam and cheap quality plastic tracks. “You get what you pay for” … “a too good to be true deal usually is just that”.

Dcell (or equivalent PVC foam) is great to have around. Very strong for box installs and also for board building for rock hard decks and max stiffness. That is how those bomb-proof windsurf boards are built. But up here in Canada it is prohibitively expensive, especially for shipping. 8 or 12 pound PU pour foam is an easier, robust, relatively inexpensive alternative.

Tracks…big fan of the Chinook as the best you can get, fibreglass strands embedded in the plastic. Futures Strongbox next best, cheaper and more widely available. I have seen some threads lately with people posting photos of the plastic flange breaking that holds the T nuts in … thin plastic not good enough.

Surfcowboy: if you buy one of those sheets and cut it into 6x12" squares, I bet you could sell enough of them to recoup your investment. Shipping to Canada and int’l is $$$, but in USA it probably works.

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#7

Thx for the encouragement. Yeah, having Chinooks would be nice. Most boxes are aimed at Futures.

I have Chinooks in my prone board and they are bomber. Dwight from foil surf machines doesn’t sand them at all so they are bulletproof (probably literally lol.)

And yeah, in the end, a couple hundred bucks for foam is like 2-4 real boxes so you’re right. I just need to order it and sell pieces to the LAFC homies.