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Carbon fiber fin crack/break - what to do?

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Thelonious

Member
Nov 11, 2019
2
0
11
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Hi everyone, unfortunately my carbon fiber fins have suffered a bit of a crack/tear during transport and I'm wondering what the best thing to do would be.

Here are some images of the damage.

I'm wondering if it will affect performance much and I'm wondering if using them will worsen the damage.

Wondering also if there's some way to repair them.

Thanks,

Aaron


IMG_2294.jpg
IMG_2298.jpg
IMG_2296.jpg
 
You can use carbon fiber repair kits for small low load areas like that just fine, fiberglass will do well too. The critical thing is to either completely remove the damaged area and replace the plies with good overlaps or have a very good vacuum bag setup to ensure any and all voids are completely filled. Delamination of any plies due the original structure being compromised or voids during the repair will ruin your day and fin. Be very cautions with any sanding or cutting of the carbon fiber, it is nasty stuff that is very bad for your health, even gloves up to the elbows are recommended.
 
Hi ‘Thelonious’
If I were you, I would ask the fin manufacturer the questions about what he recommends as a repair kit.
 
Hi everyone, unfortunately my carbon fiber fins have suffered a bit of a crack/tear during transport and I'm wondering what the best thing to do would be.

Here are some images of the damage.

I'm wondering if it will affect performance much and I'm wondering if using them will worsen the damage.

Wondering also if there's some way to repair them.

Thanks,

Aaron


View attachment 57651View attachment 57653View attachment 57652
Hey buddy! I know the feeling, had this happen to me during a rough coastal dive re-entry in Scotland.
The most important thing you can do is to NOT use the fins until repaired.
The only way to fix it is by removing flex from the cracked area, otherwise it systematically gets bigger.
What I did (after speaking to the guys at Latherfins) is to cut the affected area with a Dremmel . You simply make a clean U shaped cut or remove one in across the entire fin. I did this on both my fins, never had a problem again. It happened 2 years ago and I use the find a LOT!
 
Hey buddy! I know the feeling, had this happen to me during a rough coastal dive re-entry in Scotland.
The most important thing you can do is to NOT use the fins until repaired.
The only way to fix it is by removing flex from the cracked area, otherwise it systematically gets bigger.
What I did (after speaking to the guys at Latherfins) is to cut the affected area with a Dremmel . You simply make a clean U shaped cut or remove one in across the entire fin. I did this on both my fins, never had a problem again. It happened 2 years ago and I use the find a LOT!
I meant: “remove 1 inch”
 
If it is just the tip, I would put some duct tape on both sides and that's it.
 
If you want a quick and easy fix that is almost permanent, get boat epoxy (or clear epoxy) mix it and epoxy the crack together.

Make sure the affected area is smoothed out flat. Use a clothes iron over fabric on the affected area to iron it flat.

Then, after the crack is epoxied closed, use more epoxy to build a layer or two on both side over the wound. Keep the layers thin and smooth.

Don't cut anything.

That's it.
 
A very simple method is to apply a tape on both sides of a crack. Tapes, like used for packaging are thin but very robust. The adhere well to the smooth surface of a carbon fin. Applying them carefully - avoiding bubbles - one avoids the infiltration of water. This is cheap and heals the wound, and the crack will not propagate...perhaps must be replaced after some time.
With Epoxy and similar I had a back experience: those materials are rather brittle and do not follow well the bending of the fin during finning. This causes stress concentration around the repaired spot and it may break up again.
 
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