agave fins

[chippy61]

Inspired by ....

gary linden's agave board site and photos ,

neighbour['ino diddly'] , Ross ['P-Co' here .... and his 'Tequila Madness' thread ! ]

and the abundance of agave plants I have now noticed .....

 

as well as THIS photo ....

 

 

(and , thanks for the offcut , Ross !! ....)

 ...here comes another  'it begins'  project ?! ....

[Ross and his son were RIGHT ...it does , when cut , look a bit like bread / honeycomb / a [big!] wafer !]

 So, I have templated and glassed the inside edge only so far , with 3 layers of four once , after quite a thick 'cheater coat ' of lam resin [polyester] was applied , as I wanted to see how much / if the soft wood 'soaks up resin' [as miguel had mentioned on the 'tequila madness' thread ]....

 

 ....to be continued....

 

 cheers !

  ben

 

[chippy61]

....the colour and patterns are not all that different to the hemp fins that I have made in the past , I noticed ! 

So , that might be an interesting combo for a quad setup ,  or maybe a 'truster' set ??

 

...two hemps and two agaves for a quad ,

or ....

two agaves with a hemp trailer fin for the truster , perhaps ?

 

  I reckon agave keels could look nice , too  . Also,  perhaps a single [fin box] fin  , if I'm feeling adventurous ?  [maybe by the time you have made your agave single fin , Ross , if you were to put a finbox in it , maybe ?? ] . I would need MORE agave offcuts to do all these , obviously , so by all means , please keep harvesting them , Ross and Matt ....

 cheers !

   Ben

[P-co]

Nice photos Ben, very professional. Would only be planning a glassed on fin on the agave board, mainly for aesthetic reasons but also I don’t go for fin systems on real porous materials. Looking to do a D fin style on an old skool pig board. We’ll definitely be putting a timber / glass composite fin on. I just need a couple of weeks off from the daily shaping, repairing and general customer, staff and business maintenance.

[girvin]

Me like! Yeeahhh chippy!

[obproud]

Ben,

I have made a few agave fins. Here is what I learned.

You can cut a few more cross sections of the stalk, to get more panels, and fins!

You will notice that the outer edge of the agave is very hard, line that up with the leading edge of the fin so that it provides some structural strength.

Be very careful when you foil the fin because it can because the inner core of the stalk is very soft. If you are doing single foil, then lam the flat side before you foil the outside.

[chippy61]

...thanks Ross / 'P-Co' !

 

" Be very careful when you foil the fin because it can "?" ,  because the inner core of the stalk is very soft."

 

 "? "  = 'tear' ??

hi OB ! 

 

thanks for the feedback

 

I DID cut crosswise,  rather than lengthwise on one , but found the grain looked nicer when I cut the stem lengthwise , and also I could get bigger fins from a lengthwise cutting .

 

Do you still HAVE your agave fins , per chance , and if so , I would LOVE to see them !! ...do you or the board's owner have any photos , please ?

 

  On another , but related [to Ross's 'tequila madness' thread] note ....

   "surfer / shaper" Eli Mirandon features on the cover of new zealand longboarding magazine 'Slide' this month , in winter , in a pair of boardshorts , with no legrope , in a lovely watershot , in a green , seaweedy-looking tube at Blacks Beach .....

 

....riding an AGAVE  board  !!!!!

 

  STOKED !

 

  cheers !

    ben

[tblank]

Hi Chip! If you notice, the fibers in the stalks grow longitudinally and that is where the strength is. When cut cross-grained, the fibers are cut short and lose any integrity. Go with the grain to get a better product and take advantage of the structure.

ps. Really dig the glow in the dark ones. Makes me think of doing something on the rails. Might be cool.

[chippy61]

thanks t ! do YOU have any agave fins ?

 

.....in view of your ps , maybe i can combine the two , and do a 'glo' in the dark agave fin , eh ?

 

  cheers mate

 

 ben

[tblank]

Hi Ben! I haven't any agave around at all. Once I was through with it, I made sure all the pieces were thrown out. To itchy to have around. Haven't you gotten a little itchy working it? I will follow your tip on the glow in the dark ones. I still think it would be cool to have glowing rails on a board. Maybe a piece of wetted two ounce and trimmed like cut laps on both sides. Does it take a lot of powder to activate? You sure appear to be the resourceful type!

[chippy61]

" Does it take a lot of powder to activate? ..."

 

hi mate !

 

  so far , my results with the 'glo' fin panels , and fins , really seem to have varied !

 

  this latest batch ['glo' ones ], I wound up with three panels from a litre of lam resin , mixed with 50gm of glo powder ...it glowed for about four hours , after the lights were off ...others have glowed OVERNIGHT ??

 

I'm thinking that TWO 50gm jars may be needed for a litre [1000mls ] of resin , in order for them to REALLY glo a long time ?

 

  but then again ...maybe when the panels are templated , cut out and foiled thin , it may be a different time that they will glo for ??

 

  ...it's probably not REALLY that important , anyway , as it's not as if it is VISIBLE to other surfers UNTIL i'm out of the water . And , since I don't do 'twenty foot ' airs , with seconds out of the water, when surfing , it's not a real issue to me ...] . It's probably more the inconsistency of the 'glo' time results that baffles me a bit , i guess . [ I always write down what I do , EVERY time I make a new "batch" , as I am not doing them that often ....]

 

     cheers !

 

      ben 

[chippy61]

" I still think it would be cool to have glowing rails on a board. Maybe a piece of wetted two ounce and trimmed like cut laps on both sides "

 

.....maybe ..... 

 

or...how about ....

 

["plan B" .....]

...maybe either painting a rail [ a fairly wide ? pin?] line of 'glo powdered' resin on the blank,  prior to glassing ?

 

  or else ,

 

["plan C" .....]

 

  after sanding the finished board , do the same , and gloss coat or 'pro speed' over it , or something ?

 

  [ it might be the easier option on the sanded / finished board , I'm thinking ?  Because , if you did THAT , you could put tape down as a guideline to paint along , [wide] "pinline-style" , perhaps ? ....and then gloss coat , or 'pro-speed' , over it , to seal it ?]

 

   ..well, 't' , these are just some thoughts , off the top of my head , anyway ... 

 

 [I'd DEFINATELY  like to see you go through with this idea of a 'glo' railed board , as I reckon it would look GREAT !! ]

 

 cheers !

 

   ben

[tblank]

Thanks Ben, great advice. Just read your answer on the Agave thread about mix ratio. Thanks Heaps!

[chippy61]

Okay .... today I finally got the chance to template ,  and cut out , a slightly bigger side fin, in the agave .

 

.....maaan , this wood is soft  ??!!

 

  I broke one fin using a handsaw to cut it out  [oops!]  , so the next one , I used a ...stanley knife !!

 

success .

 

  Three layers of four ounce on the inside .

 

 I'm guessing , due to the softness of the raw wood , that I will be hand foiling it [? probably with a sanding block ?]

 

 Doing this reminds me of the foam core fins I tried making , a few years back ..."slow and steady Ben ... slow , and steady !! "

 

....anyway , here are a couple of piccies of it , so far ...to be continued .....

 

 cheers !

 

  ben

[chippy61]

the first one I did was smaller .... This template is roughly the size of the ' M.R. TX ' [trailer fin for the M.R.  twinny templates] from F.C.S. This photo is not to scale , obviously!

 So, IF I ever ride the orange stub [? as a quad ... I'll need to put in extra proboxes , if I want that configuration !], I would combine the two templates , when they are eventually all done ....

[chippy61]

[need to get a carborundum blade or three for my jigsaw , before progressing with these fins .....to be continued , once  blade[s] available ....]

[chippy61]

[quote="$1"]

Okay .... today I finally got the chance to template ,  and cut out , a slightly bigger side fin, in the agave .

 

.....maaan , this wood is soft  ??!!

 

  I broke one fin using a handsaw to cut it out  [oops!]  , so the next one , I used a ...stanley knife !!

 

success .

 

  Three layers of four ounce on the inside .

 

 I'm guessing , due to the softness of the raw wood , that I will be hand foiling it [? probably with a sanding block ?]

 

 Doing this reminds me of the foam core fins I tried making , a few years back ..."slow and steady Ben ... slow , and steady !! "

 

.... here are a couple of piccies of it , so far ...to be continued .....

 

[/quote]

 

I have full respect for you , Miguel, and any others here who have made agave boards and / or fins ...

I tried to 'foil' this oh so lightly , and carefully ....first with a file , then with a sanding block , working my way down from 60 to 400 , then hand sanding the edges . I think I will do the same with a foam core , just for a comparison , at some stage in the future , because I've forgotten how THAT was  [ much easier , and quicker , I'm thinking !!].

 At the moment , the fin is coming along slowly . When I get some more resin , I will put up a shot of the outside edge and the probox tab , completed . Then , I just need to make a matching left side one ...fun fun fun ?!

 This is how the fin looks at present , anyway ....

 

    cheers !

      ben

[chippy61]

okay , it's finally update time ... the eye felt well enough today to chance a small job of glassing .

 

Firstly , I thickened / strengthened the tabs with 6 layers of 6oz cloth , to bring them just below flush to the rest of the fin base ...

 

Next , I brushed on a layer of laminating resin , allowing it a bit of time to spread evenly on / ? into? the agave ...

 

[ please excuse the camera shake ...these were taken one-handed under a 100w bulb , without flash ...]

Then , two layers of 6oz cloth were laminated [with a brush , agave is VERY soft wood !] , one layer at a time ...

It is a difficult colour to get accurate in photographs , but held up to a 100w bulb , it looks something like this ...

Because it is nearly 11pm here now , I haven't filler ['sanding'] coated it yet , as I will need to cut it out tomorrow , and , if it still needs it , 'may' need to further thicken [?or take down?] the base yet , to fit in the 'Proboxes'.

 I'm happy with how LIGHT they are ! As long as they are STRONG , too, they should hopefully be nice looking , functional , light fins ... now I just need to make / get made , a nice light board to put them in !!

 

  ...to be continued ....

 

  cheers !!

 

   ben

 

  hey Mr. 'Wood Ogre' ..... I hope this prevents me from getting my eye poked out with your 'poke-eye stick' , mate ?  [ I did this fin  with ? maybe about 80% ? return of vision in my right eye tonight , as it is !!  I figure that I probably don't really want / need any less vision , if I can help it ?  So, mate , am I safe ??!! I sure HOPE so ?!]

 

 

[chippy61]

 

two things I will differently when I make the next one

1. foil thinner , so I can add rovings around the edge of the fin

 2. or , again with a thinner foiled fin , lay it up as an 'inlay' in a fin panel .   why ?  so as to get SOLID tab strength .

 

  Although I had TEN layers of six ounce cloth over the thin wood core tab , when I screwed the grub screw tight , I heard the sound of cracking  [ 'uh oh !' ] , so I backed off. I have now hollowed out the tab [ ie: I scraped the offending weak agave wood from inside the tab ] , and plan to fill it with a mix of powdered glass and resin , as this is what I use to install plugs and so far , touch ..er..'wood' [haha ] , I have never had one pull out .

 So , it's all a learning process for me , eh ?   I am hoping that "the next one will be better , too " !

 

   I would love to have a WIDE enough piece of agave [eg: an 8" x 10" 'panel' , at least !]  to enable me to be able to make TWO agave fins at a time , from the one piece of wood ....

 

  cheers

    ben

[sharkcountry]

Hi Ben, I made some fins with Wiliwili a while ago, but I never did finish them. I’ll try to post some shots. They look just like yours, but with less glass around the edge. I had shaped them then covered them in glass similar to what you did.

I also made several paddles with Wiliwili and last week I snapped 2 of them. The paddle snapped right where the shaft ended. There may have been some bonding issues, because there’s a flap of glass about 4 inches long that separated from the wood. I think I only had about 4 layers of glass on the paddle (2 each side).

For future fins and paddles, I’m going to have a lot of glass and very little wood. In fact I already have a partial fin panel and then I’ll be making thin wiliwili inserts that will be sandwiched between at least 10 layers of glass on each side with a generous outer ring. They will be for boxes. I think for glass ons, you might be OK with less glass since you add glass when you install them. The strength is all in the glass.

Just wanted to give you a heads up. I have some Wiliwili that is 8"x10" I can send to you as well as some fins we cut out that haven’t been glassed, just raw wood. You could foil them thin and then finish them with glass. I’ll PM you later.

Glad you’re eyes are doing better. Check this out, December 1978, I had a board hit my face and sever the right eyelid. Couldn’t see out of my right eye for a couple months. 

[chippy61]

....arrrrrgggghhhh !!!!!!!!!

 

  that eye looks agony , mate !

 

  (...mine has started watering just looking at that photo ! [sympathy pain , I guess !!] )  my mate Alec did the same thing , about eight  years ago now ...eight hours surgery was needed in his case  [it had done tear duct damage too, apparently]

 

 " 

 ....For future fins and paddles, I'm going to have a lot of glass and very little wood. In fact I already have a partial fin panel and then I'll be making thin wiliwili inserts that will be sandwiched between at least 10 layers of glass on each side with a generous outer ring. They will be for boxes. I think for glass ons, you might be OK with less glass since you add glass when you install them. The strength is all in the glass.

Just wanted to give you a heads up. I have some Wiliwili that is 8"x10" I can send to you as well as some fins we cut out that haven't been glassed, just raw wood. You could foil them thin and then finish them with glass. I'll PM you later..... "

 

  mate , THANKS very MUCH , Harry , for that generous offer !! 

[ I will DEFINATELY take you up on THAT !!  ]

 

It would be GREAT to make some fins from hawaiian wood !  thanks heaps !!  And , of course,  I would post photos , and give you a ride report , when finished !!

 

  yep ...I think that the "thin wood slivers layed up in a panel" will be the way I will go for future fin panels [with strong[er] tabs ].

 

thanks for your feedback and encouragement , mate ...you and Bernie are such  GREAT guys !  I'm  SO glad you caught up with kokua . He was STOKED !!

 

  cheers !

 

  ben

 

...how is your right eye now , by the way ?  do you ever get any spasms or pain , as a by- product of that injury ??    "chicks DIG scars" ,  eh ?  [is it TRUE ?   did it help you get lots of action , later , when it had healed ?  ....maybe you could put that on the " been getting any lately ? "  thread [under : 'injuries' , perhaps?!]