1.) When doing big noserider style boards with 50/50 rails, do you guys go ahead and do rail bands on the bottom of the board with the electric planer just like the top?
2.) I’ve been scouring YouTube for shaping videos (tons), and I seem to see a LOT of people using their sander/polisher on the bottom of the board. I’d think this would be a great way to smooth things out and get a nice flat bottom (for a noserider at least), as long as you have a light touch and use BIG passes…Any suggestions on that, or why it’s NOT a god idea? I was thinking of doing it on my next log using 120 after the bottom is skinned and brought down to thickness, but I’m on the fence…
You should do your bottom rail bands first, they are what is in the water and determine how the board will react.
As far as the sander is concerned, throw it as far as you can, nothing can mask a shape more.
The sander will schmooth out the worst of planer miscuts and blend it into anything but a clean bottom or deck.
A sanding block will show how level the playing surface is and finish it off much better.
I work around “shapers” who routinely finish off with a sander and take machined boards and promptly screw them up with dips and wobbles that were not there only moments before.
When they carry the blanks to the glass shop, the light hitting the surface shows the uneven places that the sander left behind.
I don’t use the sander for anything but sanding, and I’m not that good at that, either.
For concaves… I lightly sketch out the perimeters, rough them out with a surform, and finish them with a sanding pad. I like to feel the board through the tool, and a sander does not let me do that.
Yeah I second that. I have seen the same thing. Even if a guy uses a sander he should only use it to carefully get the worst of things and then go to a block or pad. I’ve been shaping quite a few Surfblanks Aus. on Maui and they are considerably harder. So I do power sand. But I always finish off with block and pad, paper and screen. I just recently shaped a 9’4 B US Blanks and a left over 9’8 S Clark that I had in storage here in Cal. No power sanding, easy cutting. I could even use a surform. I almost never use one on Surfblanks Aus. Too many tears.
I can’t say I never use a sander on a shaped blank, some of the short board rockers are more easily done by sanding the skin away in the tip where the planer just doesn’t fit well and the newer foams that chip like hell are sometimes power sanded to get the godawful surface clean.
Gary McNabb was shaping in England and the shop had only Homeblown foam, he said it chipped sooooooooo bad that he had to use #36 on a power pad to clean it up before he could go to a sanding block.
So there are times that a sander eases the just plain grunt labor, but for a daily finishing tool, I pass on it creating more work to straighten out.
Do clean planer work and it is very easy to get a good result
Ive been using the grinder pretty heavily on the last hulls ive been shaping…I scoop out the nose of the s-deck w/the same pad i foil fins and grind my fin boxes down with, but i would say that if somebody is not proficient with a grinder, for them not to go ahead and take one to foam, it disappears pretty quick! Since i started using it though to shape, things have been ALOT less tedious, ive been enjoying it quite a bit.
I try and do my boards from the bottom up as well. I find it much easier to blend from a bottom (flat surface) into a rail then a rail (round surface) into a flat bottom. I wouldn’t bother with a sander for shaping either. Electric sanding is for hard surfaces in my opinion. Using long strokes when hand sanding is a good idea too I feel. If you sand in one area, you’ll put a dip in your board. Starting on 120 grit after thicknessing will be slower, but safer if you know what I mean. Use something hard to back it with as well or it will conform to any lumps that may be in your shape. Not sure if that helps.
I have a school teacher “customer/video purchaser” who comes to mt shaping room for aditional advice and to bring me his shapes to get to glassing.
He has purchased vids 1&2 and done about 30 boards so far, but is one of those people who cannot get better.
What this is leading up to is, he brings blanks with disasterous, massive bumps and low spots.
when I ask what did he do to have this hapen, his reply was that there was a bump there and he was trying to get it out.
I try to explain to him, you never sand in one spot repeatedly to try and correct a problem, I’m talking about an 8"x 3" long area that is a half inch deep, not a small foo-foo.
His rockers, nose and tail on the bottom both resemble step decks, not what the planer can naturally do
