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Leak
Detection |
You
wiped out, the mast slammed onto the rail, the paint cracked - is that all
that cracked?? what if the PVC foam fractured as well, and the inner glass?
what if it leaks into the EPS core? how can you find out??
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Open the vent if your board
has one of those, and put the board into a cool place overnight. Next
morning, as the sun starts to get warm, close the vent, and set the board
into the sun. As it warms up, brush dishwashing detergent onto the suspect
crack. If there are bubbles, you got a leak. (as the air inside the board
warms, it expands, and will escape by whichever means) |
Hot tip from Cliff H: set
board into jacuzzi for a quicker warm-up. Brilliant! |
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Or you can build a pressure
tester from a small bilge pump or such, plus a few bits of sprinkler tubing.
Just make sure to put it all together with plenty of slip-joints, so that
your testing gizmo blows apart before the board does.
Pressurize board via a piece of tubing threaded into the
vent fixture. |
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and thar she blows! |
A quicker way to answer the leak/ no leak question in
the shop is to dial in a modest amount of vacuum, say, 7inHg, then attach
the board to the vacuum. If it does not settle down at the same 7inHg the
closed system had, then there is a leak somewhere. |
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to Repair Menu |
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