oooo nice
Message me on telegram if you are on there. Thanks
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Got the design down for the studs on the Ferrari.
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Next up! The duelling Bro’s!
Prospective buyers must commit to competing in a race that will be specifically (dis-)organised to make sure that the Red Bull will win so that the Mercedes misses out on setting a new world record.
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Looks sick 
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No it won’t 
you should stop doing this only the fibres bring strength. Epoxy won’t help
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Levelling the epoxy to a 500 grit finish like this takes roughly 10 hours. If it wasn’t for the studs, it would probably take less than half an hour.
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Do you think it would save you any total time to do almost all sanding work prior to a final, last pour and stud application?
Maybe your final pour would finish better? I’m no expert.
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I hear ya and I appreciate the suggestion. Bear in mind that the studs are already applied to a perfectly laminated, sealed and levelled base. The coats that go on top of that are pretty much only there to secure the studs.
And there needs to be zero possibility of a stud to coming loose and flaking off, right? You need to be able to trust that those studs are gonna hold you toight …and hey, these decks ain’t just for Christmas. They need to stay looking sweeet for a lifetime.
I’ve tried all sorts of applications - different types of rollers and brushes - different kinds of resins and different kinds of treatment to get the best natural finish. What you see on the glossy half there is pretty much as good as I can get it after a single coat or even numerous coats. I figure that regardless of how good the natural finish will be, it’s inevitably going to want a bit of levelling back before the clearcoat goes on so that job is gonna be more or less the same in the end.
But I dunno. I’d love to see some examples of other natural finishes to compare against. If I can improve my technique or my materials I’m all up for it.
The other thing to mention is that I’ve long given up on this escapade ever becoming a business. I started doing this because I enjoy setting out to make fucking awesome boards. I love farting around and trying new things and seeing the improvements. When I began approaching it prioritising speed and efficiency and business-viability, I started enjoying it a lot less and the results weren’t as satisfying. I work under enough pressure in the daytimes. It’s nice not to have deadlines on everything you do and it’s nice to know that there’s always some satisfying distractions ready waiting for you in the workshop. They’ll be done when they’re done.
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Have you considered custom studs with something like a threaded insert below, which could be installed from the other side and the stud threaded in from above? Might need to be slightly bigger but might dispense with so many subsequent resin layers to lock them in.
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That was amongst the initial ideas, yeah. The thing is, the largest of those studs has a base diameter of only 3mm. Any bigger and it would start to adversely affect your grip. The smallest is 1mm across. I can’t imagine a mechanical solution being any less fiddly if it was practical at all in the first place.
If I go in the direction of fabricating custom components, I think the best approach would be a sanding tool that would somehow avoid the studs themselves and abrade only at the level below/around them while also conforming to the curvature of the deck. You know, like magic! I was thinking maybe along the lines of a short-bristled brush attachment for a delta sander. Something like that. The bristles would conceivably then ‘flow’ around the studs as you move the sander around.
I tried that sort of approach with an Abralon pad. The studs avoid abrasion fairly well cos they pierce the abrasive and sink into the backing foam. The problem is that the pad is fixed into place and can’t move around enough so the texture of the pad just imprints itself into the epoxy.
What about a bed of fine sand, board upturned onto it attached to a vibrating rig assembly?
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Even a small thin pin on the underside of the stud that could be epoxied into a drilled hole in the deck could work. Not even threaded.
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Could, probably, yeah. You’d need a very fine drill bit and a steady hand… or a CNC job ideally… or maybe even just a sharp thumb-tack or panel pin to make the holes.
Thing is, the MOQ on these things for anything non-standard is something stupid like 5000. That’s enough to do like hundreds of boards, assuming it works.
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