Fin grinding techniques...

Where could I go to grind my stock fins down to make my board looser? They are the Ronix 1.0 alloy fins. I don't have my own stone grinder (im assuming this is what you'd use) or know anyone with one. Any suggestions on where to go or another/better way to shave off about 0.3 or 0.4 inches?

I made a pattern and then cut the shapes I wanted with a jigsaw. Then I just used a file to round them back into a fin shape. You actually have to be pretty careful because at about .7 inches the fin bolt holes will come through the bottom. I imagine you could just use a file or grind them as well. I would suggest measuring how deep the fin holes are into the fins and then seeing if it is even possible to cut them down as much as you as saying and make a pattern for what you want them to look like. I had a Ronix One and made the pattern for mine off of my OLD premier (era) side fins and the board seemed to do a lot better.

PS. Be careful and wear eye protection

You can get a grinder for about $30 bucks at HD. Not sure if that makes it worth it for you. A good file will prob run you 10 bucks or so.

would hyperlite fins work?

I was planning on shaving down the side that makes contact with the board so I dont change the shape of the fin, just the depth and I suppose the length a bit. I am not sure if I'm thinking of files that are burly enough to grind down alloy, and it seems that using a file would be hard to get a level grind that would be flush to the board. I guess it really doesn't have to be perfect.

Chris M - I hate the stabby shape of the a-wing and wanted a bit looser than the 0.8 p-wing

yeah fair enough.

jared eygabroad makes small rounded metal fins for his slingshot on rails i would try to contact him, they are legit. I would give you his info but I dont have it

if you cut the contact side, you won't get the screw tight...it will bottom out in the fin before the head gets tight on the top side of the board.

what about Slingshot fins... they make a .7 and the screw holes have to be close if not exact, worth a shot

Eric - yes, I have thought about this and there are one of two solutions that I can see. Either use washers to fill in the gap of the extra threads, (although it might look foolish) or use what ever device that i grind the fins with to grind down the screws proportionally. or even find shorter screws at a hardware store.

The whole point of me doing this is to not have to spend money on new fins. I realize that it may not be THAT expensive for them, I just can't justify using potential gas money when i have perfectly good fins and a whole lot of down time that has me bored to tears.

I did the fins for my Covin about a month ago. I left the contact side alone and ground the other side and then fine tuned it with a file. They are somewhere between 0.75 and 0.8. I just did them all pretty roughly, then made one of them perfect and traced it out on the others. It worked really well and they're all identical. Took well over an hour but even with just a hand file it wouldn't take more than a few hours with some elbow grease. Ask around though, I'm sure one of your friends or their dads would have a grinder you could borrow for an hour. As drew said though, be careful and wear eye protection for sure.

Oh and stick the fins in a vice while you're grinding them.

cool....i'd go for shorter screws.

oh and one more thing...if you use a bench grinder, make sure you go slow and use some vice grips....those things get HOT! good luck.