Earlier in some HWS thread I promised to post some pics of work in progress. Here are a couple pictures but also a link to the album which has more images w/ explanatory notes.
This is probably a good time to point out to y’all that I havent the slightest of what I’m doing. That is to say I have no certainty that the said item . surfboard will even work or even float. No previous experince in board making of any kind. Surfing experience is …1,2…12 days total. That is to say I haven done much else other than drink lotsalotsa salty water, met some urchins, bumped into a bunch of waves and reef’s and… you get the idea I guess. Above said board maybe/perhaps/might be actually tested in portugal sometimes late this summer… Then I will be able to tell if the bugger actually works. Yes I have two unsuspecting testriders… who are faar better surfers than I. heheehee
I have some exprience in woodworking however. With any luck I will have time and money to build another board for next summer as well… probably with same rocker, different shape/profile, different glues, materials etc. more on that later.
I’m not a very experienced surfer or board builder i only made 3 boards(regular PU Poly) but your work seems to me very good…I’m tinhking in make hollow wood surfboard but i’m still trying to find the materials and tools for that!!
By the way where are you going to test that board in Portugal??I’m portuguese and usualy i surf in Peniche very good beach break for beginners!
okey dokey… I got out of the igloo and was able to scrape and glue some bits of wood together, then I drilled em wood bits full of holes… then I trimmed excess and then…
Anyways I got the deck and bottom skins glued on ze frame… Got the leash plug glued in… made the lightening holes bigger and hopefully tmr will start to glue outer-rail strips onto “it”
and yes… the buggers quite heavy, maybe too heavy… maybe should rename it “torpedo” ?
but no… I havent build a board before this is my first one. However I have worked with wood before, european term would be “joiner” I think the americanese term would be “cabinet builder/maker” ? dont know. I have some experrince from building a wooden experimental aircraft , or atleast its wooden components and I have drawn some of that into this project. The boat in the background is being built by a teacher A “Lappland river boat” … as to the workshop… well its the local woodworking department of the local vocational school… So I’ll admit “ok, I’m lucky!”
The stringer consists of six 4 x 12mm pine strips laminated/glued to form (upper and lower form) . The ribs are 6mm birch ply.
As mentioned the design is heavy! my next board of otherwise the same design I’ve made the stringer 6 x 12 mm (ie half less) Also the ribs are all spruce ply instead of birchy. Also I’ve skimmed the the deck skin to 5.5mm instead of 8mm .
For board number three I’m thinking of keeping the deck and bottom skins at 5mm and using more ribs. Currently the ribs are spaced at 190 mm (about 7.5 inches) - on board number three I think I’ll space the ribs at 5 inches and make the ribs out of 5 x 6mm pine sticks reinforced by 0.8mm (or 1 mm) birch ply; similar design as the horizontal stabilizer ribs on the experimental I worked on:
Incidentally board number one (in pictures) will have a very slight V on the bottom, partially by accident and partially because I want to try it out - making it. On board number three (which I have yet to plan out) I’m thinking of making a V -bottom as well as making the deck domed. . just because it’ll probably look better… hopefully… or something… and for the challenge!
Thus far I’ve worked about 112 hours total working time. Includes about 20 hours in planning, drawing and design + some 20 hours makiing cnc -programs
… and hey! I have still some 134 wake ups left before I get to try this board out…!! wuhuu!
→ Lpc… I’ve been following your project with great interest. I’d been balling around with the same idea as you with lightening theory (ie. thinner deck - ribs spaced more frequently). So far looks really good!
–>Hicksy. I honestly dont know if there is enough matreial around the finbox area… Im kinda hoping that there is. ( at this point there is little I can do anyways as its all enclosed). I’m counting on the effects of the deck and bottom skins to reinforce the finbox area. after all the board thickness there is about 45mm and less. The die is cast as they say… for board numero 2 and 3 I can do something about it… for now I guess all I can do is surf straight and calm withouut all those curves… once I learn to surf that is
The fin will be a DIY one. I’ve never actually seen a fin or a fin system, this way no-one can say I ripped their design off… I seriously doubt that this fin design will work as I Hope… but my secondary back up incase it doesnt work is epoxy the fin in place…
Don’t be so hard on your self ambrose - I know you kick the leaves out of the way when they get over shin deep!!! It’s the foam dust cocoon that worried me. Taylor
Thanks for the kind word ambrose… but to be truthful Main reason why the workshop is supposed to look clean and organized is because we try to teach the kids to be cleaned and organized…sigh
IN reality… well, lets leave that to our imagination, but by what ambrose confesses … its not far from the truth at all!
IN anycase, I finally finished gluing all the 5mm slats onto the rails and did some preliminary sanding and planing to get the rails even so I can begin the actual shaping of the rails (yikes! first REAL chance to blow this!)
okey dokey, a couple pix below for all the viewers pleasures… tmr will begin shaping.
(the buggers still going to be too heavy! No overnite miracle cure - yet!)
It would seem that due to an increased work load (real work) I wont have tiome to start building board numero tres… SO this one will probably be the only one I’ll have a chance to test this summer. 108 wake ups left…
Started the rough shaping today, got the right rail roughed out and strted on the left one…still not much ideas on what I’m doing… except that it (the board) seems to be coming out nicely… Gotto keep you guys waiting over the weekend though, sorry no pix yet.
I tried to find a weight scale to get the weight of the board before sahping the rails but couldn find one… But my pessimistic best guess is around the 8kg range… Original paper planning haad the weight at around 6.5 kgs… Right now though it feels like 10 + kg !
But to answer Pats question: I weighed da bugger with a unshaped/foile fin on and the left rail unfinisihed and deck unsanded… the scale gave the result of 10.5 kgs !
Now if I really tried, I think I can skimp off the 0.5 kgs with the final shaping of left rail, and sanidng/scraping the deck … about 1- 1.5 mm off. then I’m guessing I’ll be spot on 10 Kgs… add to that the epoxy+varnish and it’ll probably be back to 10.5-11 Kgs…
I have only 38 days left… I should really start doing something about finishing this one. But the darn students…! Students are always complaining about teachers and such! They never bother to stop to think about the “other side of the coin”. ITs a good thing school will be out in… 11 days… which will give me 38-11= 27 days… drats ! its going to be a close one!
OH yeah… almost forgot I’VE lost some 3 kgs now, so hopefully that will equal things abit
Last nite I coated the board and one of the fins with a clear wood preservative Hempels Impreg I (a marine product) … this I will recoat once before moving on to clear marine varnish - Le Tonkinois 6- 8 layers time willing… I’m .
The other fin (the failed rising sun variant) I will probably epoxy in its entirety. The other one will be varnished.
About the fins… the tab is 9.1mm thick, hopefully enough. the rising sun has a core of 5mm =2x 2.5mm aircraft plywood. otherwise mahogany strips and nordic pine wedges. the fins are 19mm thick at the base and 10mm thick at tip.
The ordinary looking fin is basicly 3ply birch ply and mahogany veneer alternating…
Only bottom of the board has been epoxied once and after one week i will varnish it. Otherwise the board will hopefully survive and work… Epxy is a nice smoothener… makes a nice surface.
Last nite I coated the board and one of the fins with a clear wood preservative Hempels Impreg I (a marine product) … this I will recoat once before moving on to clear marine varnish - Le Tonkinois 6- 8 layers time willing… I’m .
The other fin (the failed rising sun variant) I will probably epoxy in its entirety. The other one will be varnished.
About the fins… the tab is 9.1mm thick, hopefully enough. the rising sun has a core of 5mm =2x 2.5mm aircraft plywood. otherwise mahogany strips and nordic pine wedges. the fins are 19mm thick at the base and 10mm thick at tip.
The ordinary looking fin is basicly 3ply birch ply and mahogany veneer alternating…
Only bottom of the board has been epoxied once and after one week i will varnish it. Otherwise the board will hopefully survive and work… Epxy is a nice smoothener… makes a nice surface.
Impressive woodworking. I especially like the effect of lapping the rail laminations past the centerline at nose and tail. To me it gives a nose/tail block effect without the block. Dunno if it would mess up your procedures, but it might look even cooler next time if you alternated the lap, i.e, have the middle of the three laminations lap to the opposite side.
hokay… fresh off the press… well nothing really new, just a coupl new pix…
The failed rising sun fin will be epoxied throughly and will be a test to see how well just plain epoxy will work… though it will be varnished as well.
The veneer plywood fin will be well varnished as the board. I had some leftover epoxy that wont last long so I’m using it up on some small places “to see how it works” basicly just “R n D”
the board has received its second coat of Impreg1… tomorrow will give it its last coat… then have to wait a week for it to dry and start varnishing. hopefully I will have timw to give it atleast 6 coats… It will be a tight schedule. Leaving for Porto on the 28th of june.
