Some might remeber that I posted a few weeks ago about help choosing a blank for a stubby/egg. I really appreciate the help I got from everyone. Since the friend who the board is for wanted a multi-fin I ended up going with a US 5’10" RP with -1" nose and -1/2" tail rocker. It seemed to work out pretty well. This is my first fully completed board that will be glassed. Did a few beat up blanks a few years ago that I re-shaped recently as practice for this. I have been working with my hands and with power tools for a long time so I feel I have a good hand-eye-mind coordination, that said I know that I’ll make plenty of mistakes.
So I figured I’d share some pics of the finished product. Final dims are 5’6-1/2" over the bottom, 17-1/2" x 20-1/2" x 16" x 2-7/16". Nose rocker is a little over 2" tail about 1-1/2" (they kinda just ended up that way, not through any control of mine). Wide point is 2" up from center. Made the outline on boardcad by eye-ing the sahpe I wanted with only a widest point to guide, then printed a template. My friend is 5’11" 155lbs.
I’m happy with the final product but there are definitly some known issues that I need to work on. Had to stop sanding and shaping things and just let it be otherwise I’d have no foam left. All in all I think it’s pretty good.
Some issues I know I need to improve on, and questions I have, will appreciate advice/remarks on all of these:
-Planer blade gouges when shaping the contours. Standing at the back trying to shape the spiral vee into the back half of the board I would make passes from closed to open to closed to blend the double convaves into the middle of the board, then when I pulled the planer back to start another pass the edge of the blade or the edge of the shoe would leave gouges in the foam (could also be on the cutting stroke, don’t know). Using a hitachi p20sb that I modified to have the large cutting range, and smoothed and faired the shoe edges, might be a knife alignment issue, have to check.
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I know my spiral-vee is more of a vee with small doubles on either side, oh well, had to stop shaping, will get more accurate with time. Nose is belly into a single.
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Rails came out more 50/50 than was my intention, probably too much taken off the bottom tuck. Top bands went well I think, but rail apex was higher than I wanted. I did two top bands at 2 and 4, and 1-5/8" up from the bottom. Bottom tuck was supposed to be 3/8". That would leave 1-1/4" of square outline left, how do I round this? I used a 80g screen from that point, focusing more on the top, but still ended up with almost 50/50. Would prob help to watch a skilled person do rails. Anyone in Bay Area or Santa Cruz that wants to take me under their wing?
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Any tips on how to get a nice smooth outline with not dips or flat spots? There’s one small flat spot in this board up forward. I used a jig saw to cut as close to the line as possible, then smoothed with a long block making full even strokes, and stopped as soon as possible, I figure more fussing = more flat spots.
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Using the planer to cut the rocker and concaves I need to learn how to close the blade more smoothly and evenly and in better relation to where I am stoping my arm movement. This resulting in rail/rocker lines that had transitions that weren’t as smooth as I’d like, had to smooth them out with the block. Especially hard was the transition along the outside of the bottom of the belly nose into the single concave middle, this ended up with a hard break (not actually hard but abrubt) in the rail line nose rocker into the middle.
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Along the same lines as planer control, I foiled the board as best as I knew how, then began to cut bottom contours in stages (nose, middle, tail). This kinda ended up creating the rocker in the board on its own, and modifying the foil. I kinda don’t like that I didn’t have control over it, it just happened when I was doing my best to make the contours. The result is ok because this is a first board, its for a friend, its kinda experimental, and I chose a blank with rockers as close to what I wanted as possible so I couldn’t screw it up. I think I would struggle if I was cutting a small board from a big blank and creating everything myself. I guess this is where experience comes into play.
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Could really use some help with fin placement, I know nothing at all about fin placement. Would like this board to be a 5 box futures.
Thanks for looking or for any advice.