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Cardboard Surfboard - 6'4" by mesheldrake is licensed under the Attribution - Non-Commercial - Share Alike license.
© 2010 by mesheldrake
Instructions
1.) See the full kit instructions on the cardboard surfboards project website, to see what's involved in building an entire board, beyond cutting and assembling this core kit. From the project homepage, find the "kit instructions" link on the right side. sheldrake.net/cardboards
2.) If you're up for all that, download one of the compressed file sets at the bottom of this page. Get either the EPS or DXF versions - whichever format works best for you.
3.) Get enough cardboard for 21 12" by 24" panels. Thickness is important. You're looking for cardboard that is somewhere around 4mm thick. (3.8 to 4.2 should work) It's a standard dimension called C flute, and it's pretty common. But it's not always easy to find a source for 12" by 24" panels without folds or damage, especially if you're scavenging. I hand-cut most of my panels from 4' by 8' sheets I buy at a packaging and moving supply store in town.
4.) Find a laser engraver/cutter with a 12" by 24" or larger cutting envelope.
5.) Adjust speed and power settings so you get surface marking for the part numbers and the fastest possible cut for the part contours. (Don't worry about kerf offsets. It matters, but I've already included a slight offset that seems to work.)
6.) Cut all the panels. It might take take three hours to cut everything.
7.) Pop out all the parts. Each part has two or four short bridges holding it in the panel. I don't know if these work yet, so let me know if they don't - if they are too hard to break, or if the bridges got burnt away. Also, watch out for the corners on some of the ribs, where notches get too close and cut the corners free. Where this happens, or almost happens, I've added extra bridges and numbers to the corner pieces so they don't get lost, and can be matched up with their "parent" ribs later, after assembly.
8.) Arrange the parts in order.
9.) You now have a core kit ready for assembly. The board building instructions on my project website begin at this point, so go back there for the rest.
sheldrake.net/cardboards
