following on, Ive got a chance to finish one side tmoz and then I’ll be out of UV glue for a few weeks until I can gather reinforcements which is just enough time to do a few other things.
After laying it down yesterday I was a little horrified to notice that some peeled away from the edges a little, just where it got thin but was enough to make it look horrible… planed ahead for this I did… out with the sander, I was hoping to make a kind of diffuser and…
There are a couple of imperfect spots that will require a touch up but at this point I’m very happy with it generally, I feel that there isn’t enough ‘meat’ in it and might still de-laminate and make a mess of everything but here is how it stacks up
The plan is to get the LED’s embedded and sand it back until I have the 3 edges exposed and then lay a layer of fiberglass over the top and wrap down over the edge light to finish at eh base layer of carbon fiber / fiberglass so that the whole thing is then encased as a single unit, stiffen the board, complete waterproofing of the hump and generally hopefully make i strong enough to withstand the coming storm haha…
I still have no idea if this project will work or not but I’m having an immense amount of fun with it and learning all sorts of things that Ive never done before… ridiculous amount of fun, im not sure which part of the hobby I enjoy more, the tinker and learning or the payoff with riding
Are you a 3d printer? Wonder if you could 3d print the positive shape of the leds, wrap with sand paper, and have a sanding jig that could help finish it cleanly. Bulk with be a power tool I imagine.
Naa, no 3dp skills here, some old school moddling but not this kinda stuff… itll be sweet when its all sanded back and wrapped, wont even know its there if its not lit
no real wikki or anything on different glass weaves and uses? the enclosure building thread comes up for anything else… not really the right place so I’ll make the question specific.
there’s a final layer of glass to go over this as mentioned ^^^ and Ive been looking at this 8 Harness Satin FG Cloth (301gsm). I’m going to need something forgiving as I have no skill and this sounds like the right sort of thing. Is there something better to use that will still give decent strength but be easy to shape over the nose? I’ll do a little practicing on my experiment deck… poor thing looks a bit like Buster from Myth Busters now haha… and failing that giving me results I’m ok with, I could do it in 2 hits couldn’t I? lay a strip along the edge, trim and sand and then lay the deck, trim sand, finish off and apply frit… trying to make an attack plan with a contingency.
Got the embedded lights finished off today, was a bit of a relief, i was unsure if they were even going to work, a few out near the nose which is irritating but i never intended a perfect build… theres too much whacky pointless fun happening for that.
Now if i can only find the D100 that i put somewhere a month ago… im assumimg its with the enclosire base coz i cant find that either…
Haha… not really no, it wasnt even dark when i took those. One issue i have (being super picky here) is that the UV glue is opaque as at now because its been sanded which is what i wanted, a diffused light… problem is, as soon as it gets hit with epoxy again it’ll go crystal clear, i was also concerned about it craking up over time so needed a solution to that as well.
Plan is to wrap the edge in some light gsm FG so that i can apply some red pigmented epoxy along the light edge. Then just seal the lot.
I would suggest wetting out that strip of FG paired with a strip of peel ply together on the table, then wet the deck rail, and wait until the resin gets good and tacky before sticking them on. It will make it a lot easier to handle and wrap
Delay issues have been many but the big one that held me up the most has been the battery making, I just couldn’t get happy with the welds I was doing. I’ve replaced the power source so hopefully I can get some better results going forward.
I feel like the delay to make sure I get this part ‘just so’ is a delay for the right reasons and my usual ADHD (or whatever it is) bull at a gate attitude had no place… Haha…
Female sex bolts will be epoxied in prior to the final fibreglass layers so will be invisible fixings at the finished board from the top. The final layers will have to wrap the edge LED lighting and go round to form a 2mm upstand for the seal to seat on.
While recovering from a double cardiac ablation this week I’ve taken to working out how to finish this deck. The edge lights, when I placed the COB lighting into the deck with UV Resin… well it’s clear… it clearly shows the lack of skill I used when placing the lighting, all was fine when I sanded it back, it went opaque… it just goes brilliantly clear again with more epoxy so I need an opaque rounded edge.
Tonight I just had at it being not quite sure if it would work or not… having stocked up on sandpaper gave me the fortitude to have a crack.
For the wiggly bits I decided to go back to UV glue, it’s much better for the tricky bendy bits, I can sort of apply it like welding a bit, you apply a fab on the edge of a icy pole stick and ‘weld’ it with the UV light. Going to be finishing off the ends tonight hopefully. I seem to have some momentum I don’t want to lose.
I won’t bore with more of the same but this photo here shows the layers quite well. Finishing with the UV Resin was definitely the right call. One more fill session, one more sand.
Next is the final glass layer for the bottom which will wrap the edge then the final top layer of glass to wrap the edge n the other direction.
Following that the ultimate test is coming for the deck. Fitting the enclosure and bouncing on it. It’s kinda horrific to think of how long this has been going and it’s still an experiment, I’ve no way of knowing if it’s strong enough till I stand on it and jump up and down a few times haha . Could still go ‘snap’… I don’t think so but it’s still a possibility I can rule out till it’s done.
Shitty humidity and time constraints today but my enclosure was ready to collect. My favourite part of this is the added heat sink so the controller will be on 4mm of heatsink directly.
