I broke my favorite long board last year. Been banging around my garage this whole time. Every time I turn around I knock it over. Broke dead center so I can't make another shape out of it - so I'm going to put it back together. Question - do I use dowels or a flat strip of wood to parallel along and touching the stringer, or both? Or mini stringers away from the main one - say 1foot in both directions from the break?
tried to use dowels for a shorty I broke a bit ago and had a tough time lining everything up... good luck with the fix. I would vote for taking to a repair guy.. .I hear that once these kinds of repairs are done, the magic board you are looking for is going to be a whole different beast.
It's best to use something right next to the stringer and attach it to the stringer via glue or screws. I have seen and always wanted to try fiber glass rope instead of wood. Just cut the area next to the stinger and fill with fiberglass rope and resin- altjought this might be heavier... Idk
Strip the glass off of both pieces about six inches either side of the break... more if it's delaminated or otherwise compromised. Make clean, straight cuts with a utility knife, then sand the existing glass where the new cloth will overlap. Clean up the stringer so the two parts puzzle piece together tightly, with no wobble where the stringer creates a pivot point. Stand the board upright, and glue the two pieces back together, making sure you get the rocker back. This is CRITICAL. Use hot laminating resin, and clean up any drips that squeeze out. But make sure both inside surfaces are fully wet so they bond everywhere. Getting the rocker perfect is not easy, because the foam will be deformed... one side from compression, the other from tension. So when the two halves puzzle piece together, the rocker might not be perfect. If it's not, you have to recognize that and make the adjustment, using tape to secure the halves where you want them to get that rocker back. Once cured, the two halves will be glued together, you'll have your rocker back, and you can then reinforce the stringer. Some guys use slats of wood (stir sticks, quarter inch ply, whatever..), but I use fin rope. I cut out wedge shaped channels with a utility knife on either side of the stringer, about 6 inches long, and lay in enough rope to fill the channels, making sure the rope is flat and flush with the foam. Do this on the deck side and bottom side. Once that's done, I fill in any low spots with thickened resin, then glass over that with several layers of cloth, until you're at the level of the existing glass, then put one or two patches over the whole area, each one larger than the other. This is usually 3 or 4 layers of cloth, depending on what weight glass you use and how much foam came off with the old glass when you stripped it. Once laminated, sand it back to shape, so everything is perfect... bottom, deck and rails. Fair the edges, tape off, hotcoat, sand, and then use a stencil to paint a design, or use cloth to make an inlay to cover the repair. Hotcoat or do another lamination over that, then hotcoat again over that, sand, and you're done.
