How much camber? making a vacuum bag foam mold

[Afrodeziak]

So I swear I search the hell out of this site for answers to my questions and lately I keep coming up short.

I use to build my decks crudely with clamps, boards, etc and I'd sorta eyeball some camber into my decks while clamping concave. It was tough to do and most of the time the camber itself sprang back a tonne.

With that said I realize that camber is usually involved in decks that are going to be flexy but have some sort of fiberglass layup to keep them strong.

I am now going to start vacuum bagging and making a foam mold. I've got a hotwire cutter ready, etc.

Seems like many decks these days just utilize a lot of concave and not much camber.

I'd like to add a bit of camber to my foam mold for the majority of my boards

1/3rd of the way back from the nose, I used to do my highest point of camber, so the question is:

Onthe x-plane, what should the highest measurement of camber be?

I was thinking 0.5" - 0.75"

I read on here that camber usually springs back more than concave, so maybe to overcompensate?
Pretty much every foam mold I've seen hotwire cut, always has the person cutting some foam off for camber too, so just wondering how much to go with.

Cheers
Brennan

[CaptainBass]

I think spring back is dependant on the type and thickness of wood you use, what will you be using?

[Ted]

This is a tutorial that shows an easy way of putting camber into a board. The problem with pre-shaping camber into a foam mold is that it is difficult to change if you screw up.
The method in the video is infinitely adjustable by using thicker or thinner pieces of wood and by bending the mold more towards the back or front of the deck.

Ted

Bending A Foam Mold on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[Afrodeziak]

I usually use 1/8" baltic birch x 4 plys so it should sprign back less than if I were to use 2 plys of 1/4"

i will be using Titebond 3 for some decks and other decks will be more epoxy/glassed. I plan to stick to glued decks for the most part until I am comfortable with my new system.

Ted, thank you for your idea. I have viewed the video previously, after following a different thread on here.

I have the means to cut a nice concave/camber into a block of foam, so I wanted to go that route. I might give the way in the video a shot as well.

I just know that I've followed a few tutorials on here which go into cutting the foam template and nobody ever really posts how much camber they use. I guess I've always looked at concave #'s and not camber.

Cheers,
Brennan

I think spring back is dependant on the type and thickness of wood you use, what will you be using?

[Ted]

I usually use 1/8" baltic birch x 4 plys so it should sprign back less than if I were to use 2 plys of 1/4"

i will be using Titebond 3 for some decks and other decks will be more epoxy/glassed. I plan to stick to glued decks for the most part until I am comfortable with my new system.

Ted, thank you for your idea. I have viewed the video previously, after following a different thread on here.

I have the means to cut a nice concave/camber into a block of foam, so I wanted to go that route. I might give the way in the video a shot as well.

I just know that I've followed a few tutorials on here which go into cutting the foam template and nobody ever really posts how much camber they use. I guess I've always looked at concave #'s and not camber.

Cheers,
Brennan

Thx
Less camber I suspect is better than more. The decks we have been building have between 1/2" to 3/4" camber with no complaints from their riders.
Ted