From the fact that there’s a version two of this, you might infer something didn’t work too well with the first one. You would be right. In essence, I learned that you shouldn’t make kite boards out of underfloor insulation. Because they snap.
On the plus side, we have a nicely reviewed design. But to add to the challenge, a couple of weeks before making this, I goosed my ankle falling off a climbing wall. So, while we’ve got some design improvements, I have to make the whole thing balancing on one leg.
This time round, I decided to get sturdier with the composite layup. This meant I needed a core material that is better at letting the resin seep through, to join the two skins of the sandwich more effectively. I’ve been playing around with vacuum pressing cork-resin matrixes recently, and it works real nice as a substrate that’s not too spongy, but still absorbs the goop well.
The other design flaw that needed a tickle was with the threaded inserts. My old method (3D printed bosses, with a standard hex nut) kinda sucked. One of the nuts holding down the handle pulled out. Not a major drama but irksome nonetheless. This time round I got hold of some flanged, barbed, push fit brass inserts. And oh mama, these are an upgrade for sure! They are a tad spenny in comparison, but I chatted to some fellas working for tappex at a trade show, and was given a bag for free! I still used 3D printed blocks, but this time round they were given a bigger footprint and a tighter tolerance at the hole. To secure them properly, I used a soldering iron to melt everything in place.
The 3D printed rails worked well before, so well that I used it again! This time though, I mixed up some ABS offcuts and acetone into a slurry, this was then used to create a fully penetrating join between the ABS rail segments.
Remember that this is being done on a dining room table. I live in a shared house, so I’ll avoid pumping the building full of polyester resin styrene fumes where possible. This implies that I’ll be using epoxy again. But an extra layer of glass on both sides for a little more stiffness.
Last time around, my henry hoover had to do a lot of heavy lifting when it came to pulling a vacuum. As an early Christmas present to myself, I got a dodgy Chinese Vacuum pump from eBay. This project gets to be it’s first big outing.
This thing cracked off the mould real easy, but right now it ain’t a sight for sore eyes. A spray of paint helps it along*.
Callum McCullough 