I’ve never built my own board, but seems like getting a good hatch seal is one of the more challenging things to get right. I think I’ve seen a few builds that used a pour in place approach with silicone to get a nice wide and level seal.
For reference, this Fliteboard actually has a suction effect at the end of a ride and I have to give it a bit of a pull with the other hand against the board to get it open.
It appears that Lift sells an EPDM-based seal with 3M VHB on the back. I think I will go with this first as it’s the easiest option. If it doesn’t work, then I’ll try a Moldstar 30-based one. I don’t have a Lift board in hand, but I will try to source the dimensions of the seal so I can keep moving forward. The key measurements are the width and height of the seal. The thickness of the hatch top and the depth of the seal seat below the hatch top. With that, I can get the compression ratio and set the depth of the seal seat in my design, which will have a double-sided 6k carbon hatch with a 3/8" divinicell core.
It looks like I will need to do some reinforcement along the bottom of the battery compartment. I will likely sculpt a fillet around the bottom of the battery compartment during assembly, as there is a significant butt join there that needs some attention when looking at the section analysis.
Just really need the hinges to arrive so I can get those modeled in and set the rest of this. Starting to wish I lived in a more marine-friendly area. Shipping times are killing me.
The start of school is rapidly approaching. I’m hoping to get this done before going out on orientation trips, so stay tuned. It’s been slow going due to a rather unfortunate back injury lately, but the show is about to start back up. I need to make some small alterations. I couldn’t get Divnicell at a reasonable cost shipped, so I’m going with some Edura 207 marine board, but it is a bit thicker. Never used it before, so… this could be fun.
Hey, how is this coming along? Thanks
