Christmas Came Early

About a month after placing my order it finally showed up. The big box took a bit of a hit but the boards look pretty good. The top layers of the foam looks a little rough and the edges are rough too. I don’t know how normal that is, doesn’t look too bad.

That’s a 9’6” blank and a 7’3” blank and all the stuff to finish the boards.

Boxes!

A little damaged

The 7'3" board

The 9'6" board

Rough sides


Stuff

Excellent Ed! Looks like some fun evenings ahead of you! It will definitely look like Christmas when you start tearing into that foam.

I think you'll really like the epoxy!

What length are you going to go with the 7'3"?

happy shapers Xmas Ed!
enjoy

Sweet!

That's pretty normal for blown blanks...plus you have basswood stringers right? Anything with wood will get screwed up in some fashion

I'm going to wait until I get back from my Cali-Christmas break and have had a chance to look at and maybe measure some long boards before I go to crazy with these toys.

We did have Pizza last night. That’s a good thing because I’m getting a little concerned about a glass and rice paper skin for the bottom of Recycle This II. I’ll skin the bottom of Recycle This II with the new pizza boxes. So I’ll finish up that cardboard surfboard, try a little west coast surfing, and then start making dust. I’m also reading Essential Surfing.

Jeff, because it has wood I'm confident that all will turn out well.

I've come a long way in a year. Remember when I asked what the line down the center of the board was?

A couple of questions.

First one about fins:
I've read the Surfer Steve online surfboard building book and George Orbelian's Essential Surfing. That's my starting point.

I've got one jumbo 9 ½ inch fin and two matching fin boxes. This fin should be good for the 9’6” board. Is that too much fin for the 7’3 board? I also have two 4.5 inch Futures Tri-fin sets. I’m using one set for Recycle This II. I was planning on using the two outer fins for the 7’3” board. So I’ll use a big fin box and two Futures fin boxes on the 7’3” board. Do you think that Futures fins will be too small for a 7’3” board?

Second one about tools:
I probably don’t have the shaping and finishing tools that I need. I have a small orbital sander, Sanding blocks, and a standard handheld wood plane. Surforms are cheap and readily available. Handheld belt sanders are relatively inexpensive and available locally. However, I haven’t read about them as shaping tools. There are handheld motorized planners that are used to shape boards. I’m afraid that If I use a power planner or belt sander that I’ll cut too quickly. Would shaping a long board with a surf form be too time-consuming and ridiculous?

Shaping:
I’m really hesitant to start shaping the blanks. First I need to finish up my current project. I think that I also need to have a better plan or design for the boards. I expect that some shapers use templates others might be so experienced that they just shape by eye.

I’ve made patterns for the balsa and Recycle This II surfboards. I can make templates, the inverse of the pattern. I’d make a stringer template and a set of half longitudinal templates. I have a good four foot level and a four foot straight edge. They should help to make sure the shape between templated stations. Does that sound like the right approach?

Ed

On the 7'3" - why don't you put the "extra" longer fin box on that, along with the futures boxes on the side. That will give you options to play around with the longboard fin on that board, or take it out while still having the 4.5s, or vice versa. What type of ride do you want on it?

As for shaping tools - yes you can do it all the rough shaping with the surform and sanding blocks. Might be long process - especially on a longboard but can be done. However, if the board is a fairly close tolerance shape to what you want, might not be too hard at all. You'll probably want to stay away from the belt sander. If you are going to be ripping away lots of foam, for your first power planer, check out one at Harbor Freight for pretty cheap. They do the trick - you can make long even cuts - just not as deep as the Hitachi or other surf-modified.

As for templates - Outline template for sure and I think your are on the right track with the stringer/rocker template...

For the rails, I'm not sure how you would lay out the lateral templates for rails? (as pictured above)
As you mentioned, you can just eyeball it. After you've made some cuts, put a 2ft straight edge or level across the board from rail to rail at various points to see if it is even.

Don't be afraid to start shaping - I'm sure with your patience and meticulousness things will turn out alright.

I'm sure some other folks will have some ideas and comments as well.

(Message edited by smedman on December 09, 2007)

(Message edited by smedman on December 09, 2007)

Hey Ed,

Buy a planer and start ripping. Neither a surform or a planer are accurate tools, they'll mow foam quickly and that's what you want to use them for. Then you bring the shape into tolerance with dragon skin and sanding blocks.

If you set the planer at it's shallowest setting - 1/64" or whatever is available on your model, you can't overdo it...the deck prevents an over-cut. THAT isn't true with a belt sander - and that is why you don't want to use it. It's very easy to score a 3/8" groove with a belt sander that can't be corrected.

You're concern with over shaping using the planer isn't justified, but it's normal. NOW, if you need a good upper body workout - do it all with the surform

I know that in a production facility ghost shapers use a rail guide to match a board to a master. Most of us just do it by eyeball. I would suggest to get a "fred tool" for the rails. Also if you haven't done so, acquire a copy of JC's shaping video:

http://www.surfingvideos.com/shaping_room.htm

The visual aspect is worth it's weight if gold.

I'm a little concerned with your templates/guides other than the outline as Matt indicated. The blanks you acquired already have a rocker in them, are you planning on significantly changing that? It just seems to me like a great deal of effort that won't serve a significant purpose. You'd have to have rocker templates that eminated every 1" or so off center with any sort of concave or some way to make sure your master was parallel to center at each markup for a flat bottom, which is difficult to avoid twist while allowing a flat bottom. Like Matt suggests a long level can make all of this pretty easy and just make sure that your rockers "hit" specific measurements at specific intervals (1 foot of nose, etc) You'll want everything to flow and I really believe that is done by eye and feel. I am more artisian than engineer with this stuff, so take that prejudice into consideration.

In regard to the fins, what are you doing with these boards? Both longboards?

Jeff and Matt, Thanks for the info.

I'm not looking to go too crazy shaping these boards. Again I probably won't start until after the first of the year. By then I'll have had a chance to look at and measure a few boards on the coast.

Jeff I want to keep the 7'3" board on the long side. I'd like to see if I can put a nose rider channel in both boards.

If you want to use either/both of them for nose riding then you'll want deep fins. What happens with a noserider, Ed, is that as you start to move forward, the board behaves like a lever and fulcrum, the wake being the fulcrum. You need fairly deep fins to keep it in the water. At your weight on a 7 footer you're going to need an 8 to 9 inch fin to keep it engaged with the water. I think that you'd be disappointed if you used a fin under 8" as the trailer. As far as rail fins, I personally don't like them on those longer board. You really should hit Dennis up on the longboard design questions - he's a former exhibition rider with Gordon and Smith and knows the in's and out's of longboard design.

The fin I have is 9.5 inches, should be OK.

lots of videos about shaping and glassing is on youtube - but not all of them are from pros