Chinook 16" tracks

[Surfside]

I purchased the Chinook 16" tracks and was tinkering around for a sound installation through to the deck. The tubes fit like a glove and have not been epoxied together yet. Should come out at 1.5 lbs. Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanks,
Gary

[PonoBill]

Chinook tracks are milled out of a single piece of injection-molded ABS. They're in Cascade Locks, 20 miles from my house. I got to see how they were made once. Accept no substitute. I wonder what the fuck people are thinking when they use some two-piece POS in their boards. A good friend of mine uses the crap ones and says "I've never had a problem with them." to which I always mentally add: "Yet".

I like your reinforcing structure. Those look like 15MM tubes, which I have a bundle of, so I particularly like that. I might add some deck tubes a bit longer than the tracks, but I really don't know if it's necessary. You could feed the structure from the deck side and then glue the tracks to the tubes at the same time you set them. You can notch the vertical tubes to join them to deck tubes with a holesaw the diameter of the tubes. I have a tubing notcher for building roll cages, but you can eyeball them with just a drill press and a vise pretty well.

I think if I did this I'd route the installation holes for the 45-degree braces full depth and then backfill with two-part foam, which is nearly as strong as PVC and is closed-cell. Or just ditch the 45 degree braces which means you could install the structure with just simple holes and a bit of gorilla glue. Incidentally, Gorilla Glue is like welding on carbon tubes. I'm not sure why, but you'll break the tubes before you break the bond.

[Surfside]

Thanks for the reply. Well, I was thinking of back filling also like you're suggesting.
I did not know GG was that tuff with carbon tubes. I'll have to use it...thanks
The tubes have a 27mm internal diameter, exterior is 30mm with a wall thickness of 1.5mm. Instead of adding a center post I thought the truss would add more strength, but it does create a little more work.

[clay]

I did a similar tube support in 2 boards, I wrapped in cloth to give more purchase

[daswusup]

Not chinook but a prefab cassette from Greenlight. I added 4 wooden dowels through cassette up to deck and put 2 birch ply stringers on sides. Probably not the lightest but I built this board out of shit lying around in my shop. Only for dw and light wind winging.