Learning Fin Construction Part IV: Sand, Sandin' Away

In case you missed the last bit, it's here: Part III: Hey! Cut it Out!
So we're back at finishing up our first fin. At this point, we had added a bit of fiberglass to build the base up some to make sure we would have it a little thicker than the fin box so it could be "whittled" down to spec.
We hand sanded the surface of the fin somewhat, but my husband wanted to put a little vertical angle in the base part that goes into the fin box so the fit would mimic the dimensions we had taken of the professionally made fin. For this, we used the wet tile saw again.
I cut across the bottom horizontally to remove excess fiberglass overhang so there would be a level bottom for the vertical pass.
For the record...I thought the angle was so minimal I wanted to hand sand it down, but my precise better half wanted to try this.....
The jig my husband created was from factory cut wood and a couple of wall brackets. The angle was created by inserting two washers under each screw to "kick out" the wood surface the fin would lay upon.

Let's give it a go!

Ok, so it worked alright, but there was some bounce in the fin off the wood even with clamping it down, so the diamond blade chopped a little into the base, but nothing that was a big deal. It was worth it in the name of science!
The front and back fin box holes to hold in the fin had been drilled, and the pin and bolt and screw fit these drill holes successfully.
After that, we were back to sanding again. From before, we had some low spots and slight bubbling in the epoxy that I wanted to sand out. I used sandpaper from 50-120 grit to fine out the surface imperfections as much as possible, plus fine tune the fin base to make sure it would fit correctly into the box. I did do some of the sanding on the base with a power sander with an 80 grit band just to make that go a bit faster.

Imperfections needing sanding out

More sanding! Not done yet!

After much hand sanding and eyeballing (I'm not as precise) I was happy with the fit, so we got ready to throw another layer of epoxy on.
This time, I was going to paint another layer on, but I did switch resin and hardener brands. I used an "extra slow" hardener that claimed a working time of 3-4 hours, but we still wanted to resolve the issue of bubbles in the epoxy. To remedy this, we dediced to create a vacuum chamber to put the epoxy mix into to draw out bubbles.
This chamber was made from PVC plumbing fittings (with a clean out top as a lid, and a toilet flange as a base!) and two ports were drilled into the PVC for the vacuum pump, and one for a relief valve so the mix could be removed quickly without waiting on the vacuum to decay.

PVC Chamber

Chamber hooked up under vacuum

Inside the chamber (small mix cup shown inside for reference)

This time, we mixed the extra slow cure and immediately placed it into the vaccum chamber under vacuum for 3 minutes at 25 mmHg. I removed the cup to check it after this time and it was still very cloudy with numerous very microscopic bubbles, but still not warm, so it was returned to the chamber for 5 minutes and 30 seconds. It was then removed, and here's what it looked like:

Side view- slight layer of foam

View from top- bubbles are only on surface

At this point, the cup felt a little warm, so I left it out sitting for 1 more minute. I then proceeded to paint the fin with a coat. The mix went on without bubbling evident, so I was happy. we also fixed a little notch that was over cut from some some time ago with some fiberglass chop (cut up bits of fiberglass mixed into the remainder of the epoxy). The fin was then hung up to dry on a line from the ceiling. The full cure time reported is 24 hours. Here is a picture from about 16 hours into the dry time- the black tape is electrical tape to prevent the epoxy from dripping onto the base part. Other than the evident line that was left from the original attempt at infusion bagging with epoxy that kicked too fast, I'm happy with the result:

Yay!

Now, after it dries, we will throw on a gloss coat and hopefully take it for a ride (well, the husband will have to- I'm still on the injury list). Too bad the good waves already happened this weekend, but we're not into zoos anyway!
So for the next infusion bagging attempt, we're going to use the vacuum chamber to eliminate some of the bubbling in the epoxy. More to come, I'm sure.....

Wetsuit Neoprene Projects From the Bottom Up: Beach Wallet

I was talking with a very experienced surfer who has been surfing 50+ years, and he was helping me to understand neoprene better. He told me how when wetsuits were first used, it usually took 2 people to help you get into one, and a good deal of talc. Yikes. That's a die-hard-super-mega-core surfer, to me- it has to be worth it to me to put on a spring suit, I'm just that lazy and I don't like chilly water.
He told me that a wetsuit really isn't meant to serve it's purpose beyond 5 years, and the neoprene they've got now- while stretchier and much less frustrating to put on, thank goodness- doesn't last beyond a season if used frequently. Sure, you can try to sell or give away an old suit to someone who may have nothing to use to block the cold, but if one is ripped up or just plain not going to do anyone any good, I'm on a quest to do SOMETHING with it as a crafter.
Here is that suit I mentioned from an earlier post about neoprene:

That's some OLD neoprene!

It picked this up a a boat show for a couple of bucks as an extra back up wetsuit several years ago (and it was old then), but I think I would sprain myself trying to get into it now. The neoprene is quite stiff, and I just haven't used it. Plus, I found there are several holes in it, so it's just not worth salvaging, but may be fun to make a few things with.
I DID wash this in the washing machine on warm with high efficiency detergent, but hung it up to dry- remember, I'm not going to be using this anymore as a wetsuit, so it's OK.
I thought a first project with this suit could be a wallet that could get a little nasty with salty hands, maybe not be too obvious to prying eyes, and could hold some stash cash for grub after the session.
I started by chopping the legs off below the knees, since this suit has some heavy pads in the knee area I want to keep intact. Neoprene won't fray since the fabric and neoprene are heat sealed together, so I didn't need to worry about it coming apart.
After cutting the bottom legs off, I cut them both open along the inner flatlocked seam of the leg, so there would be continuous neoprene with no seam to worry about. There were two colors, blue on the inside, black on the outside, so I could choose either color.

Leg cut open at seam

To make the wallet, I determined I needed to cut 2 pieces of neoprene 7.5" by 3.75" to make a pocket, sewn on 3 sides, big enough to leave enough room to put bills in flat, and maybe an ID. I also needed a piece to serve as a tab for closure. You can make this whatever size or shape you need, as long as it will keep the pocket folded closed. My tab is about 1.5" wide by 3.75" long. I used a rotary cutter on the neoprene, since it mows right through the material. Good scissors can work as well, just make sure that you don't cut the thickness at an angle, make the cut- top to bottom- as straight as possible, or you'll have weird edges.

Rotary cutter, mat, and Plexiglas measuring square, scraps off to the side

All 3 pieces cut out

For my closure, I used Velcro from the top of the wetsuit. The hooked half needed some cleaning up with an old toothbrush, but I was able to cut a 1/2" piece of the hooked half of the Velcro, and a larger square of the looped half. Cutting the looped half larger allows you to adjust the closure depending on the thickness of the contents.

I cleaned up this Velcro- ewww!

I started off by sewing the hooked piece of Velcro to an end of the tab. I then sewed (or you can glue with waterproof glue) the other end of the tab to ONE of the 7.5" by 3.75" pieces- don't sew the pocket together yet! On the other end of the large piece, I sewed (or you can glue- sewing is more durable) the looped Velcro to the other end of the same large piece.
What did I use to sew the neoprene? On a machine, you can buy spools of nylon thread, but since I was hand sewing this completely, I used 4 LB Fireline. If you fish, you may know this as fishing line- to a crafter, like me, I use it for sewing and beadwork since it's very tough. You can reuse old fishing line, or new line in your tackle box. For a needle, I used a heavier embroidery sharp hand sewing needle. You can use backstitching, stab stitch, or whipstitch to attach the Velcro.

Fireline nylon thread (fishing line) and Velcro being sewn onto tab

Once the tab and Velcro were attached, I could begin sewing the two big pocket pieces together. To keep the pieces from shifting around, I used my handy stapler! Staples are great to use for neoprene pinning, just test it out on a scrap piece before doing it on your cut pieces. If you are working with thicker foam (>2 mm), you may need a deep stapler or use binder clips around the edge.

Getting ready to sew the pocket together

Remember to only sew on three sides- the two short sides, and one long side. Since I wanted a black wallet, I made sure the blue sides of the pocket were facing each other, and the black sides were facing away. You can use a basic whipstitch to sew the pockets together, but I used a blanket stitch (click to go to a how-to) since the foam was thick put together.
Here's the finished wallet:

Wallet open with my life savings inside

Wallet closed- let's keep it that way.

Enjoy your squishy-stiff neoprene beach wallet!
Next project? We'll see.....

Lei off the Junk Mail, OK?

Even though we're on the No Junk Mail lists, some of it inevitably gets through. Even in addition to that, we're still given paper receipts, flyers on our cars, and paper memos at the office.
We recycle our paper, but sometimes, it may be fun to use it for a craft for the kids or for decorating instead of buying yet ANOTHER thing to pretty up a room in a surfing motif, or buying expensive party favors. Plus, it will keep kids and adults entertained for a good while, and you can say it's eco-friendly. BONUS!
FYI: This craft is not recommended for very young children, since it requires the use of scissors and a yarn needle.
First, I dug through my recycling stash to find the most colorful (or an all white paper lei would be neat!) paper. Try not to let the kids use past tax forms, personal medical records, etc, of course.
I cut the paper into squares that were approximately the same size. It doesn't matter how big or small the squares are, it depends on the size flower you want.

Junk Mail cut into squares

Next, remember those snowflakes you cut out in school? Fold the squares 3 times until they look like a little cone, with the center of the paper at the bottom (don't cut this part) and the edges outward. Cut the edges in whatever pattern you want.

Folded and cut around the edges

Another finished example after cutting

Now, here's a bit o' fun- take the flowers and ball up the paper a little. This will help give each one some dimension. Also, try to pinch the center of the flower in one direction like this:

Forming a flower

When you put these on your lei, just remember to keep them facing in the same direction.
After I have lots of flowers made, I'm going to cut up some straws (used straws are MOST "eco", just wash 'em) to make little spacers to go between each flower. These will all be strung onto a long piece of yarn (or twine, hemp, elastic for kids, etc.)

Made up flowers and cut up straws ready to string

You will poke a hole in the middle of each flower, slide it on, slide on a spacer, then slide on another flower, and so forth.

Stringing process

Here's mine in progress:

Aloha in Progress

You can make these as long as you want, if you have enough used straws, junk mail, and stringing material. I would think this would be pretty neat as a Hawaiian themed Christmas Tree/Hanukkah Bush/Festivus Pole decoration. Or it's great if you don't want to shell out a fortune on decorations at your Luau Party only to see someone sporting them drunk and naked (take it home- it's all yours!).
Here's one of our tikis sporting the lei alone and paired with other silk ones:

Tiki Crown

He's the Duke of Tiki Land

Enjoy the perpetual Luau!

Leashes...I NEED my Leashes!

Ok, as you may have guessed by now, I love to organize. But, I must confess, the hardest thing to keep neat are leashes. They are about as easy to keep organized as a stack of fitted bed sheets.
I never keep my leashes wrapped around my boards, since I tend to use different leashes on the same board quite often. However, when I'm finished surfing, I can never get the leash into something resembling an organized coil to put away, and if I do, it comes apart into the pile anyway, and ends up like this:

What a mess!

Now I know some people may have one leash, some may have many more, and can distinguish them by color, brand, etc. I can't. I just have too many other things I'm forced to remember. And it gets really frustrating when I'm trying to determine the leash I need. NOW.
So, instead of trying to guess at which one is which, I'm going to label mine using some plastic duct type tape from the hardware store (or your garage). Electrical tape works well too.
I used two colors for mine: blue and yellow. Blue is for my "shortboard" leash (7 footer), and the yellow tape is for the longboard leashes. Now, I also have two longboard leashes that I can use for my SUP's. Those I marked with yellow tape with a narrow cut of blue in the center. I have the tape wrapped around the leash just below the swivel where the leash attached to the board. I kind of like thinking of it as marking them like a resistor- you can get really creative with banding if you want, but I want to keep this simplified!

Tape wrapped around each leash base for marking

Closer view

In addition, I may want to know a little more detail about the leash, so I put a little marking on each one with a sharpie, indicating the foot length, and even my "knee" leash:

Good to know...

At least now, I can pull out the right leash- now if it's tangled like a ball of Christmas lights, that's my own fault.
This labeling is not only useful for leashes, but I find that it's helpful for labeling things like sunscreen as well. Sunscreen loses a lot of effectiveness after 6 months- 1 year of opening, so I mark my bottles with a label to tell me how long I've had it, so I know when it's time to chuck it.

Which one of these needs to go??? Hmmm......

Hope this helps out! Enjoy!

RastaTiki

Just felt a little Jamaican... introducing RastaTiki! I don't know why there is such a strong link with surfing and Rasta still, as those "times" have long passed in the surfing culture as a whole, but the colors are fun, and it was a blast to crochet this weekend!

Actual beanie on tiki- NOT photoshopped- looks good!

I made the cap in a size medium, with about a 6" crown, but increasing some down the sides for a more comfortable fit (this fits humans AND tikis).
RastaTiki likes his "stoke" with an s only, and he likes keeping it stylish!
Email me if you are interested in the beanie hat pattern with the rim and bonus room for the 'dreads. I used double crochet for the main part of the cap, and the rim is single crochet. You will need to know how to increase and decrease as well for the pattern, but overall, it's pretty simple, just some color changes.
Rock on, TikiMan!

SUP Paddle Blade Cover

I started out prone paddleboarding, then added SUP (Stand Up Paddleboarding) to my ocean fun. The funny thing is, here in Florida, what started out as a curiosity has now gained the same divided "love it, hate it" feeling first seen in Hawaii, where the sport first took off years ago.
Well, regardless of what camp you're in, you probably know a SUPer or are one yourself, and know how expensive the sport can be even now after prices have dropped A LOT from just a few years ago. Just like everything, though, there's always accessories you can get.
One of the very personal, pricey items is the SUP paddle. You will probably keep the same paddle for years- even if you change boards- so it's something to take care of.
There are lots of full sized paddle bags you can buy for travel, and that's great if you want to buy one (or make one, coming soon, ahem....). But if you're like me, you just load up the board on the car or truck, throw your paddle in and go.
I really wanted to protect the blade of the paddle, which gets the most abuse. Granted, this doesn't help while paddling, but it does help the blade from being cracked, scratched or nicked on short trips by bike or car to paddle or surf. And it's much cheaper than what they have in the stores.
I thought of this little project after doing the fin cover project back in July. Basically, I'm using the same craft foam that you can buy at most craft shops or box stores, but in bigger sheets. I used 11.8" by 17.7" (30 cm by 45 cm) size foam sheets. I laid my paddle down, curve side down, on the foam and used a pencil to trace around the blade while keeping my pencil straight up, fairly perpendicular to the foam. When I traced down each blade edge, though, I didn't curve in with the bottom of the blade, instead I made a straight line down.

Blade curve side down, ready to trace

Tracing the paddle blade

I did this on both sides of the blade, giving me a pencil shape on the foam that was curved towards the top of the blade, then had two parallel lines coming straight down to the bottom of the foam sheet.
To sew this, I'm only sewing each side- NOT the top and bottom- so I can slip the cover over the long handle of the paddle. This can be stitched on a machine or by hand, but if using a machine, use a stitch length of 4.5, and a roller foot or teflon foot on the foam for ease in sewing. Tiny stitching can rip through the foam easily. Keep your stitch line about 1/4" OUTSIDE the pencil line to allow for the paddle blade thickness.
Once my sewing is complete, I'm going to cut in a continuous motion with regular scissors about 1/4" outside the stitching line to finish the seam. Try to slip the cover over the handle of your blade- mine has a hand grip, so I had to cut a little off the top of the cover to provide room for the cover to slip over.

Had to cut some off to allow it to slip over the top handle grip

Cover now slips over the top of the handle

The bottom of the cover should completely cover the bottom edge of the blade. Check to see if it's a good fit- the cover should be snug at the top of the blade, not loose, but if you are worried about the cover slipping up, you can make a foam tab on the bottom and glue a piece of velcro to secure- just keep all velcro on the outside of the cover, not the inside, or you'll get scratching of the blade.
Here's my completed cover- my paddle has a yellow logo on it, so I made a yellow cover to quickly identify it from my husband's. But....I'll admit, it does look like the end of a broom.

Good fit, true sweeper!

So, since I saw this image posted by a Team NO SUPer that made me laugh out loud (one of the funniest images I've seen- and horrifying!) on the 2nd Light forum:

Team NO SUP Propaganda....

Soooooo, I had to represent for the SUP homies out there with some inspirational, supa cool Sharpie art on my paddle cover:

WORD.

Yeah, see that? See that? Yeah, I got the final word, yeah....

P.S. Um, FYI for our new SUP homies- please take the paddle cover off before using. And don't wear it as a hat. Thanks.

Experimenting with Epoxy

So while I'm taking a short break from the vacuum bagging fin project, I decided to play around with just the epoxy resin itself a bit to gain more experience working with it for future fin and board projects.
Please take all precautions with working with epoxy- I used nitrile gloves and safety goggles and made sure I had a protected working area.
I used a little silicone pinch bowl, kind of like you'd use for salt and seasoning serving, but it works great for molding epoxy since it can take heat. Obviously, I'm not using this for anything else, so it's bright green, like my other silicone tools I don't use with food (kind of a nice tip to use).
I measured out a small amount of mix, 2 parts resin, 1 part hardener, (just like in the glassing project), and I even added one drop of green food coloring into this mix just to see what would happen. I also got together some small shells and sand to sprinkle inside.

Little silicone bowl for mold, shells, food dye, measuring cup and stir stick

I decided to watch the time from the start of mixing the resin and the hardener, since this was supposed to have a slow kick time, and unfortunately, we didn't have that happen during the fin vacuum bagging.
As I mixed the epoxy with my wooden stick, I noticed that the food coloring dye seemed to seep right into the wooden stick! But, as I kept mixing, I noticed the dye leaving the stick into the mix and turning a pleasant, light shade of green. I poured the mix into the silicone bowl, added the shells and sand in, and kept mixing with the wooden stick right in the silicone bowl.
The mix seemed to have some viscosity, but not quite as much as honey. I kept stirring, one, to ensure a good mix, and two, to try to keep the little shells and sand "floating" in the mix. I stirred for quite a while, but the epoxy never kicked gradually enough to hold the sand and shells off the bottom of the bowl so I kept mixing to make them suspend, then BOOM! It kicked all at once and I was barely able to get the wooden stick out before it started to rapidly harden.

Wow! That kicked fast!

The color of the resin as it cured, turned out a nice Coke bottle green- in fact, the bottom of the measuring cup that still had some epoxy looked like a pretty nice color.

Some green epoxy curing in the measuring cup

I know it takes at least a full 24 hours for this epoxy to cure, but I wanted to do a little check of the outcome of the color this morning. Unfortunately, my sand and shells settled right to the bottom, so I won't be working at Twombly's Resin Creations anytime soon, but I was most interested in the color. Here are some pictures I took:

As you can see, the green came out pretty strong, and a nice color with only 1 drop of food coloring. Outside of the sand settling, and the uneven top surface (I said I barely got the mixing stick out, and I wasn't kidding), I think it looks kinda cool. The bottom- that is not blocked by sand- looks cloudy, but I wonder if sanding and or a gloss coat would help that. I've been told by expert glassers that cloudiness is a challenge when working with epoxy resin.

For this experiment so far, here's the data:

Amount Mixed: 4 fl. oz.
Kick Time for "Slow Cure": 12 minutes
Ambient Temperature (Garage): 84 degrees F, measured by in garage thermometer
Humidity: 90%, as reported by the Weather Channel at 8:30 PM

Amount of green food dye added to mix: 1 drop

Now, I'd like to see how the color holds up to the bright sun. I'll update on this post if I find any changes.

UPDATE 8/18/11: At the 40 hour mark after the start of the experiment, most of the epoxy has cured, but just a little bit on the top that was over the silicone bowl lip still feels a bit sticky to the touch and has not fully cured. I have left the epoxy in the midday sun to see if will cure any better and observe and color change.

Wax Comb on the Go

Wax combs are great and useful, especially when you're short on wax and need to rough up the wax surface a bit to give some traction on your board. The annoying thing is, they're kind of a pain to remember sometimes, and they're a bit big to be comfortable in my boardie pocket when I'm sitting on the board.
I decided- for fun- just to whip up a simple, small wax comb that could be used on a key chain or hooked inside a board short key loop.
I used polymer modeling clay that hardens by way of a home oven. There are many polymer clays like this in craft stores, and many I've used over the years. For this type of project and use, I tend to be partial to FIMO brand over others like Sculpey. FIMO tends to become harder and more durable after baking, which is good for this type of use- the drawback is that FIMO can be hard to work into shapes, so I've used FIMO soft, which is easier to get started like Sculpey is.
I gathered some tools, which included a green silicone baking sheet (great to use with clay as a modeling surface, keeps the sides flat, and can go directly into the oven), a plastic cutting knife (you can use a pen knife but NOT on the silicone sheet), a straw, and a pattern of the size I want the comb to be made from cardstock- I ended up cutting the one in the picture smaller for the key chain size comb.

Tools for making the wax comb

I ended up using two colors of clay for a bit of trippiness- blue and white. I mixed these together by rolling them into cylinders and twisting, then balling the whole mass together and heating the clay up with my hands to make in easier to work with. I didn't want to overwork the colors together or I'd end up with light blue clay instead of distinct blue and white swirls.
I flattened the mass out by hand, flipping it over to press it against the smooth surface of the silicone until it was about 1/4" thick. Don't roll out the clay too thin or the finished comb may end up a bit more brittle, and could possibly break. I even used the straw as a mini rolling pin which worked very well.

Using the straw as a rolling pin

Once I got the size big enough, I laid the template over the clay and used the plastic knife to cut the rectangle out.

Cutting out the rectangle shape

From there, I began to sawtooth cut one of the long edges for the comb part. This where you can get creative, having as many or as few teeth as you want. Just remember that the teeth need to be distinct so that you can cut through the wax on your board, and the teeth may need a little shaping with the knife tool to give them a pointed shape before baking, but you can clean up things after baking by sanding.

Pre baked comb- needs a little more shaping on sides and teeth before heading into the oven

I also gave the little comb an attachment hole by using the straw hole to poke through the clay.
This clay required baking at 230 degrees for 30 minutes in the home oven, but your clay may be different, so please note the instructions!
After letting the clay cool sufficiently, I sanded each edge using my wheel sander, but 80 grit garnet sandpaper also works great to smooth out the edges. I even sanded a sharp bevel into the top edge to use as a wax scraper so there would be two uses for the comb. I also used the sheet sandpaper to fine sharpen each tooth to better define in between, and get rid of some of the excess clay.

Key chain comb next to full sized comb

This makes a handy little tool to have on a key chain or in a pocket. It's actually nicer on your board than the hard plastic, and doesn't leave scratches in the glass like the hard plastic combs or wet sand can. but still works just as well (tested and approved!). Plus, it's just more comfortable to surf with in a pocket. Be creative with colors, or go simple and solid.
Enjoy!