Pictures of a roy, paul, grain ,robbo, hicksy, sway and others inspired woody in the build process, thanks everyone
Details 6’6”by 3” , 23” wide 4 inches up , 16.5 Nose 16.5 Tail with a 12” butt crack flavour of the month fish
Skins and frames from 5mm Paulownia, rails will be 1” ½ vertical lay up aka grain.
Any and all comments welcomed except any about my messy shed as i get enough grief already, more pictures to follow as I finish the sucker
Cheers
Shane
Nice board, and nice woods you are using. The only thing I can tell you is: In my last 2 boards I’m using curved deck ribs too, with the purpose of reducing the rail width to less than 1 inch. The same way the EPS-balsa guys are doing. Dont you think 1.5’’ wide is too much? Just a thinking. I like your rocker profile. well done, one more HWS board builder.
Jack
Not sure how flexable your deck material will be but if you can curve the deck
out towards the rails you will be able to save a lot of weight and time if you only have to build up 3/4" or 1" or the rail thickness.
Your middle stringer needs at least one hole for air circulation.
Otherwise you heve to pose 2 air vents.
It think you don’t want that one side of your board explodes.
Thanks for the comments…
I built up the x-sections with the rolled deck all the way to the rails so I could see how far i could push the deck out before the compond curves became to hard to bend the 5mm timber, such that I could trim back accoardinly. After running some deck planks over it last night you guys are correct i would be able to get away with 3/4" to an 1" of rail.
Yeah i am hearing you about the vent holes in the stringer, as i lapped the 2 oz glass up the stringer each side I was planing on doing them after it sets so i didnt have to clen out the set lam
glued up the top deck into a flat sheet last night and started marking out the 1" rail, still deciding if i will do a vertical rail lam or go for the wegner/roy horizontal lam… spent about 1 hour last night looking for things in the messy shed might be time for a clean…ahhh no.
next big question is fin position. Is the steve lis position size (no cant no toe) the go for a 6’6" fish…???
cheers
Nice work Shane. I can’t even begin to tell you how psyched I am to see that!
A picture is worth a thousand words and I’ve just been studying your photos. Considering where you are at in these photos - One way to think about approaching your next step of railing out is this: Your bottom has a harder edge (especially towards the tail right?), so why not consider making your base wider than your deck - saving at least the weight of 1/4 of your rail stock.
Somthing kinda like this:
This is just a quickie sketch so may not be exactly like yours but you get the idea.
What this would entail for you is taking your belt sander (make sure the belt is aligned right up to and maybe even a smidgen beyond the edge of the bottom plate), and hitting each frame vertically from the top. After you sand down about 3/8 of an inch let the sander fall/roll off to the outside. You’ll end up producing a rounded corner that mirrors the deck crown you’ve already got cut into your frames. All your really producing here is a place for the rail strips to land (and an extra point for glue). You could do them in steps too. But in any case, they don’t need to be perfect at this point because any inconsistencies will be absorbed by the final shaping.
For us, at GSb, this means we end up with 3/4" of base rail and 1 1/2" of deck rail
I found this photo that shows a little of what i mean about the sanding on a longboard.
Of course all of this means you have to adjust your deck’s outline to be a little smaller than your base, but that’s easy to do is you just make a little tool to help you draw the line (i’d be happy to show you how if it comes to it). As for fins, I’ve got key measurements for a 6’4 that might work for you, if you want them say the word.
Whatever you decide to don’t stress about it. The rails ALWAYS take a lot of time. You can be charging along great until you get to rails and then bogged down and frustrated. That’s totally normal, it’s happens to me all the time.
That board is f-ing awesome and you are going to be so stoked to ride that puppy.
We’re here for you if you need us!
ANYTIME
PS. You can do all of this even after you’ve installed your deck planks - in fact that’s when we normally do it.
Hey Rich
Thanks for you comments, what you are saying makes sense about the rails and would reduce rail weight a fair bit, It would be quite easy to step them to suit and I have heaps of 20*8 (3/4 by 5/16) strips left over from my outrigger canoe so they would work fine for the first couple of upper deck layers with the 20mm been able to be bent to suit rocker.
I looked at that picture on your site and couldn’t figure out what you where up to with the step, now it becomes all clear…. thanks
I would be interested in the picture of the making tool I was just going to use a pair of dividers as a scribe to make in the cut distance on the top and bottom sheets and please send thru fin placements as I would be interested in how they compare to steve lis set up
Stuck away at work for this week and itching to get back in the shed to finish the blank, as I will need to go away again next week, hopefully give it a big push this weekend to get the rails on…
Cheers shane
Shane, here are those fin placement dimensions. Keep in mind, I’m not suggestion you use these exact measurements for your fish, but these are what I use on my 6’4" hybrid and you can compare them with others you find. This is just a rough sketch to show you where each value goes too.
I’ll take a snapshot of the tool i use to trace adjusted outline profiles when I get back to the shop.
Cheers,
Well got back from work and straight into the shed and managed to laminate the inside of the deck, cut the shape 30mm inside the rails and get the top deck stuck on and start the rails, All going well thanks to all the info I have got off all the HWS builders and little tips from rich, cheers guys you have definitely made it easier….
The fish takes shape, not quite the planer and shavings Robo but the next best thing for wooden boards, a japanese pull saw…
gluing on the rails, using clamps, wedges and anything…
cheers
Almost finished the fish, only the fins to go and a couple of coats of gloss coat, thanks everyone for all the help and tips in all the posts about hollow wood boards. I have pretty much used the RichB (grain method) and found it to be realy easy to build up a board.
I am real happy with the out come with just a couple of small blemishes here and there and cant wait to get into some waves on the fat boy.
Fins getting the rovings on the edges, these will be set into the board and glassed in
Nose and tail, used a bit of western red cedar just to touch it of…
(cant seem to get images inline)
cheers.
cheers
Man, that looks like a great board. How did you end up adding the rails? Any pics with the explanation would be great if you have them.
Pat
Well long time between posts, back in Perth now after a very relaxing 4 month stint in NZ of family, fish surfing and fishing. Finished the board back in january and have spent the last 4 months on it, luving it after 10 years on single fin longboards, real easy transition to ride it after long boards with the width, float and glide been pretty spot on for my hefty frame… Only bad point is with its fat nose (23") i tend to get bounced on choppy faces, down line speed is oh so fun turns on a dime twinzers rock…
all finished in all its glory. Thanks again for everyones advise inspriation and stoke…
cheers
fins big bad kegs
bottom contours
shane , are you still at swaylocks ?
and if so , have you made any more boards since ?
are you back in enzed now , I wonder ?
cheers mate
ben