Election Posters Surfboard

I got the idea, while looking up for a way to make a cheap heat exchanged system. The idea is quite simple, take some of those plastic election poster that plague the countryside, overlap them so the grooves are at a perpendicular angle on each layer and voila... a simple heat exchanger:
http://www.autoconstruction.info/La-fabrication-d-un-recuperateur.html?artpage=4

When I tried this, I realized that by overlapping the layers that way, you get a structure strong enough to support my body weight, yet very light. Straight away I thought... Surfboard!!

We're not talking performance board here, but sth you can bring out on crappy days or lend to one of your visiting friends. Beats using a soft board or buying a bic.

So it's quite simple really. First you need to take a few of these. I took some of the wind fallen ones first, then waited until the election was over and asked one of the people who were taking them down. They're all 4ft long, not that it matters too much as we'll glue them together anyway. Fibreglass and resing will then provide structural strenght.

Note that it works just as good with the YES side of the campain... these were the first I got.


Then the next step is to glue them together.
One layer must have the holes in the board facing one way and the other layer at a 90 degree angle.
A simple utility knife will cut them no bother.



I use some spray glue for this. Ask your local hardware store for what glue to use.
You want the boards to really stick together as you'll need to saw and plan the block into shape after.
Here's the glue I used. I like it because it's easy to apply, you don't need a brush or a big tube, it doesn't leave a mess and pretty much sticks in seconds.




I continued to glue the panels together until I had a 8ft long with 6 layers "surf blank". In this first try, I left out some of the panels near the far ends of the blank in order to make it easier to creat the rocker. In hindsight it's much easier to make it all one block and then plan the rocker later.


Next is the cut.
I took one of my board and drew the outline onto the blank from it.
I thought I'd use a handsaw for this but it proved messy. A jigsaw seems to make less of a mess, if any at all.


You can leave the tail for last but I was so anxious to see the full shape of the board that I cut the tail anyway. You want to watch out from then on. Those tails a fragile so they need to be handled with care.


Next I started shaping the board. I initially though a sander would a lot more gentle on that corriboard material. However it turns out a planer is definitely best.

The cuts are sharper and don't leave a mess. I forgot to take shots of this stage, so here's a few pics of what it looks like after the first bottom glassing.

Since I wanted to paint over it, my next step was to find a way for the paint to stick onto the material and do a few tests

I had some leftover of resin bought at the local hardware store and an old bed sheet.
I thought I could use that at the bottom of the board to act as a canvas for paint.


This wasn't such a good idea at the end as I didn't have enough resing and the bed sheet is nowhere near strong enough for this.
The whole thing looks ugly and started delaminating as soon as it dried. Here's a few photos for posterity :)



I like the idea of using old bed sheets for this but it simply doesn't work. I will strip the whole lot and glass it properly next.