New Boom Head – Why not?

Christmas 2021 was spent isolated at home due to Covid. Time was available in quantities never experienced before. A perfect time to search the internet for a way to replace the boom head on my old Simmer Blackline 160-220 cm from 2011 since it poorly fitted my North SDM 430 mast.

The modular boom head from Unifiber looked promising and now just over a year later I have used it for 10 times, and I can really recommend others to give their carbon booms a upgrade like this.

Bill of materials

• Custom 3D printed shim (black) – Shim to glue on the round (32-33 mm) boom front end to make it D-shaped.

• A Unifiber Shim – Unifiber Elite(=orange) Modular Boom Head Carbon Shim (25 Euro)

• Unifiber Boom Head – Unifiber (Elite=orange or HD=blue including the performance bolts) Modular RDM & SDM Compatible Boom Head (79-85 Euro)

• Epoxy Glue

• Tiny Stainless screws (to fix Unifiber shim to 3D-printed shim)

• Acetone

How to assemble

Remove old boom head

• Remove grip with a knife to widen the tubes to 130mm. Sand edges used to center old boom head

• Heat 3D-printed shim to ease mounting

• Test fit by mounting:
  3D-printed shim with gap facing front and the flat part facing rear
  Orange shim with gap facing rear

• Make more sanding until you’re happy with the fit

• Clean front pipe with Acetone

Mix Glue

• Apply glue on pipe and shim

• Heat 3D printetd shim again and make final mounting with glue

• Mount orange shim and boom head. Mount performance bolt to get pressure on the glued shim

• Wait for 24h to make glue harden properly

• Dismount performance bolts and boom head

• Drill 2mm holes through shims and mount stainless screws to restrain rotation. It is only the boom head that should rotate.

• Mount back boom head and performance bolts

Links to Unifiber retailers

Easy Surf

https://easy-surfshop.com/do/item/UF012010325/UNIFIBER-Elite-Modular-Boom-Head-Carbon-Shim–2-Bu

https://easy-surfshop.com/do/item/UF012010280/UNIFIBER-Elite-Modular-RDM-and-SDM-Compatible-Boom#prettyPhoto

Surfspot

https://www.surfspot.se/sv/unifiber-elite-modular-boom-head-carbon-shim-2-bumpers

https://www.surfspot.se/sv/unifiber-modular-boom-head-performance-bolts-2-pcs

https://www.surfspot.se/sv/unifiber-elite-modular-rdm-sdm-compatible-boom-head