Do any of you super smart engineer types know how Bondo would work in place of marine epoxy? I am having a hard time getting marine epoxy locally but there is a marine grade bondo which i could get fairly easily and cheaply. I however don't know if it would do the trick for i know little about bondo (all i know is that it is used in car/boat repair). Any input would be greatly appreciated.
I would say no. Bondo is meant to be a filler and would make for a very heavy and not so strong ski. You want a fairly thin epoxy to soak into the fiberglass.
There are many places to get epoxy. West marine and some woodworking stores (rockler, woodcraft) will have epoxy. West systems and system three epoxy are pretty widely distributed. You can order West systems online through west marine.
try this place too:
http://www.jamestowndistributors.com/to;ID;,Epoxy...Adhesives
I didn't think so but thought it was worth a try
Thanks for the info
hey monkeybutt. i like your login. anyway, i think Kelvin is right. but being the Curious George that i am, you could try the Bondo and see what happens. if anything, you can definitely say that it doesn't work, but it might cost you two front teeth...
Is all UHMW either extruded or sintered in its construction? Or is that an extra step that is taken in order to allow the plastic to bond well with wax? I ask because I can pick up some UHMWPE pretty easily in my town but have no idea if it is extruded or sintered.
Also, how thick does one typically buy their base and topsheet plastic to be? I read somewhere that neversummer snowboards use ~1/8" plastic for their base however i noticed that snowboardmaterials.com has substantially thinner base materials. As for topsheets thickness I have no idea.
And by the way - great site guys - you are really doing a great service here for ski enthusiasts!
1/8" base is super thick! The midsection of most snowboards are 1/8. The edges would have to be massive to hold the base.
The base material is usually 1-1.2mm thick. This is fairly standard and the edges are made to fit this. If you used other material, you would have to get special edges. Also UHMW is very heavy and a snowboard made of 1/8" would probably weigh 30lbs.
Most common uhmw is extruded and the sintered is specialized for the ski/snowboard industry. Extruded will work, but sintering creates tiny pores in the plastic, which allows the wax to soak in and make a fast base.
-kelvin
