A little about me. I’m 24 and from New Zealand with a background of large yacht crewing and currently boat building which will be a big bonus when working with materials, I’m located in the top of the South Island (Marlborough) so have a huge playground to get out and see/ride from a different perspective. I do see there are a few Kiwis on here so post below and I’ll be in touch.
My objective is to build a board based of @CharlieukFree boards (uk) - Foils & Boards - FOIL.zone I like this design and I think it will be the perfect platform for me. So Charlie I will be in touch soon. I plan on shaping my foam and taking a mould so i can take some full carbon /kevlar plugs to create a light strong and aggressive platform that will have plenty of room for the goodies inside.
I haven’t done too much research on the electronics yet as the board build is a more critical stage in my opinion.
Has anyone had a go at building a board from a mould or will this be a first?
How light is too light?
I’ll have some more to add to this tonight but thought I better get the ball rolling.
Hi Southernkiwico!
I know some companies are doing molds which I think is a great idea, though if its a one-off board, it may be more work for just one board.
I’m doing a custom carbon board as well and have installed PVC blocks in the foam where all major parts attached to the board (handles, Electrical box straps, and foil mast. This adds a lot of strength where you need it, these efoils not lightweight.
Been a few weeks since i’ve considered posting, however i’ve now completed my initial research in what i’m building along with most of the design.
The specs and ideas for it are as follows:
Board - Will be a moulded carbon board based off the lift e-foil board.
With foam bulkheads and longitudinals which is 6mm thick with a few layers of carbon boat cloth that’ll be vacuumed, this will also give me a platform to create a sole for all internals components to sit on.
Foil will either come from alibaba or locally sourced, haven’t quite found something i want yet as i’m wanting an aggressive foil
Battery - I plan on testing with lipos prior to building a lithium ion battery that’ll be housed in a carbon box.
Charger - IC1200 Battery Charger This is the same charger that the Lift e-foil uses.
ESC - Swordfish Pro 300A
Motor - SSS 56104 500KV (10mm shaft)
Gearbox - Chinese GHP42-01 with a ratio of 3.78:1 and a 10mm shaft
Water cooling - this will be provided by a standard water pickup
Motor housing
I haven’t decided exactly which route I am going to take but i do plan to have a carbon housing with carbon foil connection, all motor and gearbox mount will be machined alloy.
Prop and duct
no idea what i’m doing here so will need some help with what direction i take (please note i do not have a 3D printer)
My Build will be as follows:
Finalise Design and build the board and also build moulds along the way…
Fit foil
Build and test the motor unit
Attach motor unit and finalise everything
THE FINAL TEST
Let me know what you think and if you have any questions or advice please dont hesitate to leave a comment
I’ve read those high-tech Olympic Lasers and the kind use only 3mm off stiff foam/cork core with carbon, but I because the shape will have some curvature 7mm foam with polyester could be good enough with maybe 300gram/ -+45* roving. Maybe even use some flexible core such as CoreMats and the like, tho they may soak up a lot of resin
Yeap your right there. They use a 3mm foam with a crush loading of 80kg per cm2, I’ll be using a similar foam.
Not cheap but worth the extra money.
Just ordered a 6mm sheet and a 12mm for my core in my hatch and rails. However most of the foam will be used in the mould to build it up to the desired shape. Here’s an update on the mould prior to foam installation
Core mat is great but like you say it sucks up a lot of resin! I actually played up a piece today 800mm x 800mm and that soaked up a healthy 1.8L of polyester. So not a great product for board building.
Not a commonly used term at all. Just easier for people to understand than getting various questions of what H75 means
Core mats are extremely strong and if used properly along side a vacuum system you can actually get a huge portion of that resin content removed. I’d be interested to see how they use them in Kayaks
