Let the kite boards begin - izrada novih kite board dasaka

I just sourced Paulownia 1500x600x15mm, Bamboo 3 pieces by 1800x420x5mm and Marine plywood 2 sheets by 1560x480x3mm.

Yeah, let the board games begin!!!

My plan is to build lightest board as possible and with initial calcs Marine ply is the lightest but Bamboo is not to far by 200 grams only.
Yeah, let the board games begin!!!

My plan is to build the lightest board as possible and with initial calcs Marine ply is the lightest but Bamboo is not to far by 200 grams only.

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Upravo nabavih nekoliko dasaka: Paulownia 1500x600x15mm, Bambus 3 komada 1800x420x5mm and Marine sperploca 2 komada 1560x480x3mm.

Dakle natjecanje za najlaksu dasku upravo pocinje!!!

Plan mi je sto laksu i cvrscu dasku te sa probnim racunom Marine sperploca je najlaksa, no bambus je tezi samo 200 grama. Paulownija drvo bi svakako bilo vrlo vrlo lagano da je recimo 5mm debljine. No nije, vec 15 mm i previse je posla da bih je napravio tanjom.

 To be continued...

Fins inserts - kite board peraje

Made a perspex mold for epoxy fins inserts. Filled with epoxy with some orange powder pigment.
Notice that orange inserts are smaller than a hole. This is after I drilled 3mm more into the perspex to achieve "step down" - basically a straight hole and than counter sink with 45degrees.
I think this will make better contact with the board since wood will be drilled on the same principle.

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Kako bih ugradio kite board peraje odlucio sam napraviti kalup za drzace peraja. Kalup izradjujem u pleksiglasu koji cu ispuniti epoksijem sa narandjastim pigmentom. Primjetite da su obojeni drzaci manji nego sto je rupa u pleksiglasu. To je nakon sto sam odlucio produbiti pleksi za 3mm tako da dobijem "prijelaz" - sa "obicne" rupe na konus pod kutem od 45 stupnjeva. Tesko je objasniti. No mislim da cu tako dobiti bolji kontakt sa drvetom posto ce i daska biti izbusena po istom principu. Nakon toga samo ubacim "drzace" za perajice uz malo ljepila i gotovo!

The perspex is drilled with counter sink on quite slow speed with this attachment for better positioning:

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Pleksiglas je busen sa "konusnim" svrdlom sa malom brzinim okretanja busilice i drzacem za precizno busenje:

It must be on a slow speed since will burn perspex easily on a higher speed. No way to use plunge router for this. At least not without speed control. So my idea of precured rails will not work:(

One thing, powder pigment and epoxy will not give good results when applying on board! I do not know why is that since I've mixed it for 5 or more minutes but pigment wasn't really dissolved leaving many visible marks on my test run. Will stick with other pigments, not powder based.

The idea of precured fins inserts is just to speed up the things!


P.S.
Precision tool. Wouldn't do it without one! 

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Busilica mora biti na sporijem okretanju inace se pleksiglas moze rastopiti. Ideja mi je bila koristiti router, no prebrzo se okrece model koji ja imam.

Jedna stvar, pigment u prahu i epoksi ne daje dobar rezultat kada je upotrebljen na dasci. Naime, pigment se nije dobro rastopio iako sam mjesao vise od 5 min epoksi. Nakon primjene, vidljive su grudice pigmenta na probnom uzorku. Dakle, bolje je koristiti tekuci pigment.

Ideja izrade drzaca perajica u kalupu je samo da se stvari ubrzaju!

P.S.

Bez preciznog drzaca ne bih radio ovo!

Vacuum quick release - vakumski ventil

What to say after a while? :) Well, for a start, the kite surfing season just finished for me. Managed to learn some new tricks, not much though. It was an unusual season with only 20 or so sessions on the water:( Also managed to break my hand made board. Sort of. It didn't really break. It's just a tiny crack from a side to side under my foot and needs fixing. This happened after a Jump. And this Jump was not for heart fainted. At a middle of it, I was thinking that will flew over the trees. Not at, or trough, but over 15-20m tall trees:( In a split second decided to land before the trees, to avoid becoming a something like Christmas tree decoration:) Landed dead flat and the board snapped. Of course, it snapped because the bottom of the board was not fiber glassed. Didn't have a time to do so, holidays coming etc. Now we will concentrate how to, hopefully, fix it! But first, I need a better vacuum connector, or a quick release. Coz, I'll glue some Bamboo veneer to my board in a vacuum bag.

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 Sto da se kaze nakon toliko vremena? :) Za pocetak, kite surfing sezona je zavrsila za mene. Protekle sezone naucio sam par trikova, nista posebno. Sezona je bila losa, uspio sam biti svega 20-tak puta na vodi:( No, uspio sam slomiti moju dasku. Ne skroz. Nije slomljena do kraja. Nekako je samo lagano napukla sa jedne strane na drugu tocno ispod vezova i potrebno ju je popraviti. Desilo se to nakon sto sam skocio. No, to je bio skok za pamcenje. Usred skoka, mislio sam da cu jednostavno preletjeti obliznja stabla. Ne zabiti se u njih ili sletjeti na iste, nego preletjeti preko 15-20m visokih stabala. U djelicu sekunde odlucio sam sletjeti prije nego postadoh Bozicna dekoracija:) Sletih sa totalno rvnom daskom i u tom je trenu napukla. Naravno, napukla je jer nisam stavio fiberglass na doljnju povrsinu daske. Nije jednostavno bilo vremena, problizavali se praznici i to je to. Sada cu se koncentrirati na popravak, nadam se uspjesno! No prvo, potreban mi je bolji vakumski ventil za vakumsku vrecu. Jer cemo lijepiti bambus furnir na dasku u vakumskoj vreci.

The above are the parts from my "enhanced" vacuum connector. The main part is Check valve! Last but not the least some Perspex with a hole to connect Check valve and some channels at the bottom for air evacuation. How does it work? I always try things before "production" usage:)

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 Na gornjoj slici su svi porebni dijelovi za moj "redizajniran" vakumski ventil ili konektor. Najvazniji dio je "jednosmjeran" ventil, ne znam Hrvatski naziv, sorry. Drugi isto tako vazan dio je komad plexiglasa sa rupom za ventil i par kanala na dnu plastike za evakuiranje zraka. I kako to sve radi? Uvijek probam stvari prije "pravog" koristenja:)

The above photo says everything! After 2 hr, vacuum was still holding. The slightly raised  area around stainless steel nut is Blue Tak to keep everything air tight!
All of the above for this:

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Gornja slika sve govori! Dva sata nakon sto je vrecica vakumirana, vakum jos drzi. Malo uzdignuta povrsina oko matice od nehrdj. zeljeza je "plastelin" tj. ljepljiva masa koja drzi sve "zabrtvljeno"!
A sve to da bih dobio ovo:

On the side left with a piece of lace is the vacuum connector, vacuum holding for 10 hours! Stay tuned...

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Na slici lijevo je vakumski konektor spojen sa spagom, vakum drzi 10 sati! Nastavljamo...