This project started 2 years ago. My son needed an idea for a school project. The subject was free and he decided to write about the best thing in his life. Surfing. This project was divided into a theoretical and a practical part. For the practical part I could convince him to set an almost unthinkable goal and work on that together for almost 2 years. Here begins the story of “DUTCHWOOD” We started to search for large balsa wood planks. Because that did not work the project became even more interesting. The lightest wood that grows in the Netherlands is poplar. January 2012 We found someone who had cut down a whole forest and we could take what wanted. But it took four men to move these strains. Some M'giver skills and 2 hours later the load was on the road. This saw cuts it into planks February 2012 We moved the load back home to let it dry. piled with slats in between to ventilate. Whatch this timelaps movie---------- we left it five months drying, occasionally with a fan in there. July 2012 The plan to let it dry with straps was successful. The shelves remained pretty flat. We have a shelf weighed before and after the drying, the difference was 24 kg to 9.5 kg! Next step, planing the shelfs. a friendly local contractor let us use the thicknesser see this little movie---------- September 2012 After some delay ( son went to Portugal for an surftrip ) The shaping started. We made an 3D cad drawing in Rhino 3D of the complete board. We sliced the drawing to make the ribs. These ribs where cut out on my CNC machine. short video--------- an other video close up ---------- All the ribs glued together to form the rough shape of the hollow surfboard. After a few days planing and sanding To finalize the board we laminated it with a thin layer of glass and epoxy. The final finish was very finely sanded almost shiny.
Ben niet zo in de surfboards. Maar wat is het voordeel om een board van balsahout te maken? Vind het trouwens wel een heel mooi project, van boom tot surfplank,
