starting back 30 years ago, I built a collapsing router template that creates a arched bottom and domed deck chamber, I had been building chambered foam boards for my team riders, with flat tops and bottoms on the earlier ones, the foam sucked in after sevaral sessions, a result of different atmosphere inside than outside. The dome/arch didn’t entirely stop the action, but reduced it
What about Roy’s method in regards to saving wood?
Seems like a good option
Huck, I may have mis-communicated…My thought was to have a single chamber per stick from nose to tail (taking into consideration fin placements on certain sticks). I only have one board total (which is chambered) under my belt, so I don’t have any personal data on succuess/failure on this idea. My concern (whining here) is that machining multiple chambers is a laborius task and the idea of a single chamber which then would be fitted with internal supports from nose to tail might be a less laborious approach. I’m just tossing it out for consideration. As I write this I realize there may be as much or more labor involved in the proposed approach, but again just looking for feedback.
Thanks all
with a single chamber running from nose to tail, you would need a rocker form to hold the pieces from moving around.
I am careful enough to not waste excessive amounts of wood, lay out rocker to avoid check marks, wood that would be scrapped anyway, entice rocker out of sticks that would not normally be usable, I can chamber a 10 footer in 2 sessions, first day break apart the blank, lay out the chamber patterns and set up my tools.
I have a few 4" long bits, but have found that I seldom need them, the 2" cutting length solid carbides I have go through a 4" wide plank, run all the pieces at 3/4" depth, drop router to 1-1/2", rerun, drop again for wider planks. After that it is use my double ended cut off template to clean alternating chamber ends with my Porter Cable plunge router. I clean the center pieces first so I can get them into the glue press, then while drying go to the finish on the next pieces and reglue the blank sections at a time.
At the end of the second day I have the blank nearly completely re-glued, a much faster process than a frame and spar method using less wood, labor far exceeds the cost of wood and I have a constant supply of good balsa and red cedar
That’s some innovative stuff from 30 years back Jim…was the iintention to build a lighter board ? or some other reason?..
Hello Raymond92078,
Same first name and zip code as Stingray...but not the same guy.....
I have done tons of research on HWS and Chambered surfboards.......It's not for me. The only thing I would gain is more money spent on tools and heavier surfboards. At the end of the day what do you gain? What are your goals? Most hollow surfboards have funky shapes/rails. Chambered are cool but heavy and a big problem when dinged....
If you are a hard core woodworker you are going to build a wood surfboard.....the boards look great.
There's a reason surfboards are made out of foam..............Stingray
at that time I had a fairly large surf team, they were doing quite well in the rankings and the quest was on for lighter boards. The stryo / epoxy revolution was still in the infancy, epoxy resins were still a pain in the ass to work with, Clyde Beatty and others were building them, no one I knew yet was hot wiring blanks.
Clark foam, 4oz, sanded finish, g/o fins, 6 pounds, that was light back then, got them down to almost 4 pounds by chambering them. The shaped blank was 3 pounds prior to that, the rest was glassing.
It wouldn’t be long before Greg Loehr came to the rescue, but he too took the long road to come up with a viable solution on how to build them strong and light, now we are at where we stand today, what lies ahead, we’ll find out if we live long enough
Yes, I see wood boards with poor craftsmanship, foam boards too, but we are dealing mainly with amature builders, many “pro” shapers completely shy away from wood, but the pro builds look great and they do carry more weight.
I’ve yet to suffer a disasterous ding in a balsa board, not saying it can’t happen.
Surfing a well made woody has a different feel than a foam of the same weight, it’s like a rifle with a fine balance to it, I only break out my balsas for a great session
…my only problem with Balsa is that I have a bunch of planks, I had imported from Ecuador directly, that are tweaked, so I cannot use the spot glue method, etc
I glued all the planks (for each blank) then cut again; the problem reside in the shortage of planks, due to the area taken by the cuts
No Balsa planks here except only mine, so Im here building foam boards and trying to manage a way to find more Balsa to complete those boards…I and the customers (that are waiting for so long now) do not want to use PS “band” in the middle or like that to achieve the desired wide…
very few of the sticks of balsa I get are straight, after many mistakes I’ve discovered to match them up in pairs with the bowing in the center, with the tips touching. I have 4 sets of rocker sticks from fairly straight 2 x 6"s and 2 x 10" for guns, I jointed the ones that developed tweaks and go over them periodicly.
I use them to clamp the wood without damaging it and bring the wood back into straight.
The 16 footer had so much bow at the centers that I used all thread and fender washers to keep it together, spot glues weren’t going to work, the shear weight, length and bow would have had it pop any time it was touched
Having made a few hollow boards, using various different methods, I’ve decided to have a crack on shaping a solid balsa board. This effort is going to be a 4’6" bodyboard due to the limitiation on the size of balsa planks I could get hold of. My point is I suppose that while I am well aware this board will be inferior in a lot situations to a foam board, there will be some occasions where this board will excel. Mainly though I just enjoy the experience of building wooden boards and am really looking forward to watching my bodyboard emerge from the balsa planks. Learnt some interesting things from this post already though so quite a timely thread and thanks for the info!
you seriously are looking for your wife to beat your ass
Kitchen tables are useful when it’s too cold outside!
That my friend is the essence of the hws experience. Planning and executing a difficult task, struggling with countless hurdles, nevertheless somehow enjoying the journey, watching a board emerge from the woodpile piece by piece, and finally, finding it can be fun to ride is just the icing on the cake.
Definitely not for everyone, not cost-effective, no money in it for the pro who has to feed the family, not going to win the asp world tour on a hws, just a different experience for those up to a challenge.
To each their own. I love building and riding foam boards too. I’m pretty sure I’ll build a chambered board and a compsand too, before they put me in the ground. Building surfboards is fun stuff! This is the first surfboard I ever made, been hooked ever since…
Well that’s certainly a lot more impressive than my first effort but have to agree, despite the 50 odd hours and much frustration my first board took I’m definately hooked now.
…yes, I had no problem straighten em up, I have a problem with the shortage of planks due to the re cuts, jointing, true in etc so I do not have enough to get a right WP in an intended planshape.
-what I see with most of the wooden boards is that lack of “the shapers eye” or functional perspective regarding efficiency to the ride (riding with skills not going straight…)
The planshapes do not look right in comparison with a good foam board.
Yes, I see lots of fish, eggs, longboards made with foam core that do not look right too…
I’m not sure the cause, but like in the case of a true batten, it needs to taper to get an increasing curve to bend “right”, many of the ones that fail to be eye appealing lose the tightening up of the curve in the nose and tail. I would think a solution would to be be is to have the stations closer together nearer the nose and tail.
When I watched KKL scan boards, their method is, center of stringer across deck, around rail and back to center of stringer on bottom, as they approach the ends of the board, the number of scans increase so the mathematical curve stays and does not lose the increasing arc.
When I get old pics from customers who were victims of mine in the early to mid 60’s, they all have this “coke bottle neck” look to the tails, the shapes lost it’s curve, I don’t know if I was trying to get a gunnier look or just didn’t know what the heck I was doing, but not knowing was obviously winning out over constant curve
All the words you can use to describe surfing a wood board end up sounding trite or clichéd. I think that’s why internet discussions about them devolve into photo essays. Almost anything I could contribute would be the same – it sounds stupid, but harmonic, resonant, and organic are really all I can say.
You obviously can’t actually feel the wood when it’s wrapped in a layer of glass & resin. But beyond the tactile, there’s definitely an emotional aspect to paddling, sitting, and standing on a piece of wood in the water.
You ever driven a Ford truck from the 50s? Slept on the dirt in wool blankets? Cleaned a big fish? Sipped 40-year old Scotch? Chopped down a tree with an axe? Like surfing a wood board, all of those kinds of things awaken something inside of us.
Of course, there’s also plenty of stimulation about driving a brand new BMW, a reclining 1st class seat, expertly-prepared fresh sushi, a chainsaw, and a custom foam & glass board.
You may find the wood board isn’t for you, but isn’t it worth checking off the list one way or the other…
there are some good blogs out there for those interested in wood surfboards, one is http://woodensurfboards.blogspot.com/, which has surfboards from all over, some are really nice.
Here’s one with bad planshape and funky rails, obvious non-professional workmanship - but its owner is still somehow managing to stay stoked on it! …
