i recently picked up a perimeter stringer blank and was wondering if there is anything different with the shaping process or laying out the template on the blank i should be aware of. any advice that anyone would like to pass on is appreciated.
thanks in advance.
brasco
I’ve done a few perimeter stringers and stringerless lately. The easiest is cutting it right down the middle and gluing it back up. The glue line is an unchanging center line to work from. However, I cut my own blanks from EPS block, so it would likely be a hassle to cut a premade blank down the center, nice and true. The other option is what I did on the first three, and that was to pop a chalk line down the center. This becomes an issue because as you shape, the line comes off and you have to snap another line on it. You’ll be amazed at the difficultly you have finding the center of a shaped board when you go to install fin systems! One thing you can do is get your center line, figure where you want your fins, then put a mark with pencil about a quarter inch into the foam. You likely wont’ take that much off the blank and your fin spots will still be there post shaping, eliminating the need for the center line. As for shaping, you have wood on the rail, so yeah, it’s different, but just plane down to thickness and finish it out with a nice, sharp block plane. Piece of cake!
Brasco
It’s best if you accept the fact that it will take you more shaping time simply because you don’t have a center line to work from.
Use a centering ruler…. One that reads outward from center to the right and left. Set the ruler so it reads the same number on each stringer and the center of the ruler gives you the blank center.
Have a good sharp block plane for the stringer work. If the stringers run in side your rail profile the block plane is what you’ll need to fine tune the rails.
Have fun.
D.R.
…get a Flexcell, those have a center stringer few inches from the nose and tail
or in the intersection of both stringers, in nose and tail, grab a rule and trace a line with a razor blade or something like that, with the depth equal to the planer passes; and then with a 6B pencil, trace again
never shaped a perimeter stringer nor a stringerless… but…
what about finding the center then drilling a hole all the way through the blank.
one in front of the nose and one behind the tail… usually you don’t use the entire
blank anyways… the hole will always be there no matter how much you plane…
maybe an 1/8th in hole??? when you need to find center again, you could stick
a nail in to wrap your chalk line around…
just thinking out loud
Great idea. I usually just use a straight edge. I bought an 8’ alumibnum one which I use for other stuff as well. Drilling a hole in each end would establish the center and the hole can be filled later with spackle.
Pretty much all i ride now, them perermietier stringer thingys.
If you use a full template, all the problems on centering and layout go away. Have everything marked out on the template before hand, drill holes 1/16in in the template to mark out the fin placement. when your done just lay the template on the rail edge, and make with a pencil lead. flip the template over to do the other side.
Hopefully you don’t wobble the shape after its been cut out and shaped. Look in the archives on using a router to cut a template.
-Jay
Oh, one more thing. If that doesn’t work for ya, or it’s too much work, just use a ruler and divide the board in half. snap a chalkline, use a aluminum square stock 10 ft ruler like greg said. I got a jumbo 12ft aluminum ruler i used to use to level floor. I used it to find the high & low sport in concrete slabs…that works too.