leash plugs

[apauly1954]

Wood longboard needs wood leash plug. Made these from African Mahogany & 5mm brass rod

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[apauly1954]

Forgot to say I've glued the brass rod in with Gorilla Glue & filed them off flush with the outer side. I also got a nice 15mm brass end feed air vent (its a plumbing fitting for central heating radiators) which is really small, neat & flush fitting so it should look good on the board. I'll post a pic of it later.

[turtlebo]

Nice. How big are they and how did you make them?

[apauly1954]

Hey turtle,
I used 20mm thick wood used 15mm & 20mm forstner bits to drill the holes to 15mm deep for the 2 diff. size plugs, then marked out 5mm bigger all round than the hole on both plugs, then cut out roughly to the line on bandsaw & sanded down to the line on belt sander, then finished with hand sand with 240 wet & dry paper, then drilled 5mm hole thru sides with handheld cordless drill for 5mm brass rod, glued rod in with Gorilla Glue as its good for metal (most things can be glued with it actually) & filed rod flush with outer side of plug. Done & dusted! All took about 0.5 of an hour.

Here's the pic of the brass air vent i got from a plumbing supplies online shop

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[wyatt]

Wow...sweet leash plugs....going to have to try that...I bet it looks real slick on the finished board

[apauly1954]

yeah I think it will wyatt as I've decided to use 5" wide white Monterey Pine with 3/8" wide Mahogany 'stringers' between each pine plank so I'll fit the Mahogany leash plug (not sure which size yet) centre of the inner white pine plank to keep the contrast thing happening.

[sandlapper]

looks cool and sounds like it will look sweet to match.

[apauly1954]

Yeah, I think you're right sandlapper.

I'm actually now at the point in the build where I've got the deck skin glued on, cut the nose & tail & glued up the tail block today. Hoping to glue up the nose blocks tomorrow & then will dry fit the leash plug & brass vent while I wait for the nose block glue up to cure.

I'm doing this build outside under a makeshift frame covered with several tarpaulins (as I don't have a shed/workshop long enough for a 9' + build) the crappy English weather tends to dictate my progression so I'm hoping tomorrow will be a fine day.

If all goes to plan I'll post some pics tomorrow evening.

[wyatt]

Hey apauly....how did the leash plug work out? Any problems or issues? I am just at that step now, and split between a plastic one and making one like you did, but I wanted to see if you had any results from it yet.

[apauly1954]

hi wyatt,
Worked out all good. No problems or issues thst I can see or foresee. I've set it in (glued with Gorilla Glue & located it where where the thickness of the board was right for it to also glue to the inside face of the bottom skin) & the when the board is glassed (next weekend) it will be under the glass as well so I can't see it ever letting go.

[ericden]

Heres a test I made out of an oak dowel. Later refined to brass rod and a little deeper

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[slomacd]

Did you glue extra wood to the inside of the bottom deck for reinforcing the leash plug?

[ericden]

I put these centered over the center spine above the fin box. I place two pieces of 3/4" cedar glued to either side of the spine from bottom to top to support the fin on the bottom so its a pretty strong spot. The plugs hole is solid and not thru to the core of the board and they are epoxied in so very chance of a leak here.

[access5]

This is the type my plans calls for ...simple....serrated gutter nails are about $7.00 at HF...can get 2 out of each nail....cheap

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[ericden]

Hadn't thought to come in thru the side. Would also work coming in the tail block. Very good idea