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Thread: Surf Platform DIY
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06-29-2017, 10:55 AM #1
Surf Platform DIY
I have been wanting to do this for some time and hesitated over the material to use. Every project and upgrade I have done so far has been using aluminum, stainless steel and/or starboard - however, starboard in a sheet large enough for a surf deck was real money, plus a 2 hr one-way drive to get it. Not being sure of the shape, performance, etc I wanted to experiment with a few less $$'s invested.
I started out at the SeaDek website looking at their Moomba templates, screen grabbed one from a recent LSV and imported into SolidWorks. Knowing 2 dimensions on their template allowed for a scaled drawing to trace into a solid model - this eliminated the need to drive 2+ hrs to my nearest dealer to sweet talk them into letting me trace a newer surf deck. The next step was to see how many sheets of plywood I would need, hopefully just one. The results were:
The black pen addition was the estimated shape of the pad I planned to cut and install. (still yet to do...)
I used 11/16" A-C sanded plywood, roughly $26 per sheet. Unfortunately I do not have any 'during' photos because I was anxious to get it together and on the boat for trial runs. I did reference some other members designs during the layout process and ultimately changed my dimensions on the fly since I could not get my SW license to behave at the house - no way to snap on the fly dimensions!!!
Basically, the old platform was 69 1/2" wide. The new deck is 56". I could have easily made it an even 60" and it would stay out of the wave but I was unsure while building it. There is not much reason to need that extra 2" per side, but you have enough material to do it.
I used exterior liquid nails to bond the two sheets together, however, if I had it to do over I would have used TightBond II wood glue - would have made for an easier assembly since it's thinner. The assembly was screwed (stainless screws) every 6" in a square layout. Two layers of liquid epoxy were then rolled on all surfaces to keep it water tight. After the first test, the seam began to separate a bit, not sure if the liquid nails was not done bonding (said 24 hrs was 80% strength, 7 days for full cure) or the moisture made the LN swell? Either way, I injected TightBond II in the small seam and clamped overnight - problem solved.
Here is the assembled result:
...continued on next post...2008 OBV
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