In order to give the board strength without adding to much weight, a composite stringer will be constructed. The stringer was cut out of 3/4" extruded polystyrene. Two cutouts were epoxied together to give the stringer a 1.5" width and sanded down to just under the thickness of the board foam. I could not get a long enough piece of fiberglass cloth from Lowes so it will have to be constructed in parts. Unless I spend some money, which I do not have, on a roll of fiberglass. I guess I'll have to eventually.
To glass the foam;
- Cut the desired amount of fiberglass
- Mixed an estimated amount of two part epoxy
- Layed the fiberglass on the foam
- Massaged the epoxy into the cloth (using latex gloves)
- Squeezed out the extra epoxy (using latex gloves)
- Laid wax paper on the epoxy/fiberglass surface (epoxy does not stick to wax paper)
- Finally used text books to apply pressure to the composite in order to get a smooth surface and good bond between the foam and fiberglass.
Finally putting those textbooks to some use!
The result
The results were pretty good except that I could not get the fiberglass to stick to the sides of the foam stringer. The common practice of applying a thin layer of epoxy and waiting till it gets tacky, then applying the fiberglass cloth and more epoxy seems to be needed.
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