Guys, Nida core is probably not the core material for one off construction. Once you try to bevel it or glass the ends you are done. The glass only sticks to the flat surfaces which have a polyester fabric or scrim, heat bonded to it. We use a ton of nidacore for flat panels ie. bulkheads, salon floors and cockpit soles etc. It has an advantage here because it has the lowest frequency of sound transmission of all the core materials. We can get away with much less sound deadner in these areas with nidacore. foam core like Divinycel and Core Cell are so easy to work with, to steal an expression"A cave man can do it". The basic construction is incredibly simple. Cut out your parts. Glue them together with polyester body filler and drywall screws. In a few minutes the filler is set and you pull out the drywall screws. Now shape and smooth everything with a course sanding block till you are happy with the shape and glass away, inside and out.I built my last two duckboats this way but I used epoxy. took a while! With polyester you can go from first layer of glass to fairing to gel coat in one afternoon, with epoxy you spend this much time waiting for the first coat to dry. When you first pick up a piece of this foam core, it will scare you with its lightness and seeming fragility. But believe me with glass on each side you can drive your truck over it. I have a buddy who builds boats for the navy, these things run 50 knots or so[they wont tell us] they drop them out of airplanes with parachutes, and they dont come apart. The seals then proceed to do whatever it is they do and drive these boats home. What are they built out of? One inch core cell with about an eighth or so of carbon fiber on each side. You can achieve close to the same structure with fiberglass and foam, its just that you have to use more glass, and it will be heavier. A year or so ago I posted some pictures of my last duck boat built this way. I am sure some of you computer guys can figure where these posts are in Duck Boats Cyber space, look them up. If I remember right I explained pretty well how I did it. Rich.
