Can be ordered across the whole Morris Surfboard Range
We’ve been making Epoxy boards for sometime now (since about 2003) Having experimented with many different materials including Innegra, Carbon Roving, Kevlar and Vector Net along the way.
Taking the best attributes of the big companies use of carbon fibre and e-glass / hybrid combinations into consideration I wanted M-Tech to be purely composite engineering based and not pander to a cosmetic ideal.
The Core
Expanded Polystyrene 28 Kg locally made in New Zealand to close weight tolerances.
Bottom Laminate
Carbon center uni directional running nose to tail and under the centre fin plug and to the end of the tail.
Basalt uni directional either side of the carbon center strip. Between the riders feet this curves away to intersect and finish under the rail fin plugs.
The geometry of the basalt and the fact it is bonded to the fin plug gives the board a tremendous amount of positive torsional flex through the engine room of the surfboard.
The carbon and basalt are layed into carefully shaped channels done in the final shaping stage of the blank once the fin plug holes have been routed out of the foam.
Once the carbon and Basalt is laminated onto the board using resin the fin plugs are installed, angles and can’t checked and left to tack’
Once hard enough to remove the set up fins the board is laminated using 2 x 4 oz E-glass the bottom 4 oz tuck just slightly under the rail and the cover 4 oz laps over onto the deck in typical free lap fashion. Or 1 x 5oz or 1 x 6 oz depending on customers request.
*Resin: We use Kinetic R110 Optical Bright Epoxy Resin which does not require skuffing between laminating if done with in a 12 hour period, time between set up of carbon and basalt / fin set up jig removal is typically 1 - 2 hours so mechanical bonding between layers is not an issue.
Flipping the board
Once the bottom has gone off we flip the board and tidy up the deck lap. Carefully taking down any high fibres and lightly scuffing the rails and bottom to just out side where the deck lap will land back onto the bottom.
Deck Laminate
Carbon and Basalt uni directional layer down into pre shaped channel nose to tail.
Tail rail carbon strips or X basalt patches applied.
We go straight on with the glass no need to wait for things to ‘tack’
4 oz to just around the rail tuck - 4 oz Double Bias +/- 45 to rail boarder for impact strength then a 4 oz, 5oz or 6oz (customer determined) full cover free lapped onto bottom.
Deck Hot coat
As soon as the deck laminate has tacked the deck is hot coated with Kinetic 100 Epoxy Filler Resin brushed under the rail tuck and allowed to cure overnight.
Sanding / Finishing
When Epoxy resin is left to go beyond tacky we need to sand or 'key up’ the surface so subsequent layers can mechanically bond to each other. So at this stage we completely sand the bottom of the board paying careful attention to the laps and reshaping in the hard bottom edge through the fin area.
Bottom Hot Coat
As per the deck the bottom is taped off and then hot coated. Once the bottom has hardened the tape is removed, left to fully cure before final finish sanded and QA checks.
Ready to go surfing!