MJSB: Part 2
October 8, 2008
What new material might get me to where I want to be? I know, polyethylene! I’m still trying to make an unbreakable stick. I find a place fairly local to me and I order a sheet of it in 3/4″ thickness. I forget where I had it cut into a goalie stick shape, but I do and I bring it home and start to work straight away. I choose my trusty Dremel tool to whittle away at it and I start at the handle. I think an I-beam design for the handle would be good for two reasons, one it’s unique and two it’ll help reduce weight. I’m making pretty good time and one hell of a mess and I’m down to mid-blade when I decide to check the flex. Gotta have flex, right? I have so much flex I can practically fold the thing in half — not good. Another lesson learned. Check progress sooner than when you’re almost done! I show it to the wife and this time I hear what she really says. She has a good laugh while I have a good cry.
By this time in the process, I can barely sleep because thoughts are just racing through my mind on how to fix my problems. I somehow get put onto a guy that makes surf boards for a living and I call him to see if he could help me out by making a stick for me. He declines to get that involved but he lists his ingredients for me and although he doesn’t physically help me, he gives me material direction and a place to call for them. It’s a yacht-making facility in Mays Landing which is south of me by about an hour. I buy a few sheets of HD-80 foam, fiberglass, resin and they throw in scraps of Kevlar. I head home and get to work straight away again, but this time I’m sure i have the right stuff.
