Kiteboard Inserts - Where do you find them?

4winds · Post by **4winds** » Fri May 30, 2008 10:13 am

I'm making a wood/fiberglass board and I'm having trouble with the threaded inserts. First of all, does anyone know a good local source for stainless inserts? Right now I'm just using t-nuts (home depot) that I inserted from the bottom end and covered with filler. I'm looking for soemthing a little more "professional" looking. Also, is epoxy the best way to put them in? any particular kind?

Sonny · Post by **Sonny** » Fri May 30, 2008 10:33 am

I don't think that is a good idea to use t-nuts from home depot since you will be in salt water. I have stainless steel t-nuts. Look for me if you ever come to 3rd.

4winds · Post by **4winds** » Fri May 30, 2008 10:53 am

i'll probably be at 3rd this weekend. if I get my kite back in the air. thanks for the work you did on it (red XB). the bladder heat seal didn't hold unfortunately. I wanted to put some patch material over it. do you know if helm carries the stuff? (the clear stuff cabrinha gives you with the kite)

kitecrazy · Post by **kitecrazy** » Fri May 30, 2008 11:48 am

One thing I've done with my home made boards with good results is to use Helicoils installed in an epoxy filled hole. Its very clean to install and seems to be quite strong.

I oversize drill the hole, fill it with epoxy, drill it out to the right size, tap the hole for the helicoil then thread in the insert. The hole is a through hole which means you will not cause delamination and bottom damage by threading in the screw too far.

Let me know if you want more information about this.

4winds · Post by **4winds** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:05 pm

kitecrazy, not quite following what you mean by

"the hole is a through hole which means you will not cause delamination and bottom damage by threading in the screw too far. "

if its a thru-hole, doesn't that mean you CAN thread the screw in too far and cause damage on bottom? I actually have had problems specifically with this so any more info / pics you can provide would be great. thanks.

windhorny · Post by **windhorny** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:07 pm

The probelm with t nuts is that they act as a jack screw as you tighten the screw in. There is no bottom so how do you know when tight is enough? the best ones took me a year to find, here is the fruit of my labor.

http://www.snowboardmaterials.com/

I use the 7.5mm inserts, stainless. They have agluecap as well which is awesome!

elli · Post by **elli** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:15 pm

http://www.snowboardmaterials.com/pages ... erials.htm

You can also google for other places that might sell it.

Much better than T nuts. They are closed at one end, so if you tight the screw too much it hits the metal end rather than go through the board.

You put them in with epoxy and put something under the top laminate to make it little stronger, like extra fiberglass, ABS block and so on. This will spread the load on a bigger surface.

4winds · Post by **4winds** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:16 pm

thanks WH. I actually came across these a few months back and forgot about them. it suck though that if I wanna but 20 or so for $8, I've gotta pay $9 shipping. well, I guess thats about the same cost as gas to get to 3rd!

elli · Post by **elli** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:18 pm

If its a wood core then you probably do not need reinforcement to the top, I never did and it was never a problem with strong wood cores. Light wood cores may be more along the lines of foam in terms of reinforcement.

4winds · Post by **4winds** » Fri May 30, 2008 12:20 pm

yeah, right now I'm just using pine. cheap and easy to find for first time. when I move to balsa, I might reinforce.

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Kiteboard Inserts - Where do you find them?

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