Hi Carl! I can’t shape til after sat or so… I’m short sum lumber to set up my yard spot. So far I got zee blank down to thickness real nice. Of course I do that on bottom, and skinned deck. Got to saw out my design, but trued up a uneven little line to perfect. But yeah, this Hitachi is good enough. It took it down pretty quick I was surprised at how nice it cuts. Anyway, I’m planning on designing me a box type shaping stand- I just like the design. I’m also going to scew together saw horses hopefully by weekend as I want to get to finishing my board.
I am the same, if I can have a $100 I’d buy what I need. This mos has been bad as I had to pay off some bills…I got lumber, but my brother could only find me one half the amount I need. But I got a buncha side beams for front + back for my box stand. All my cutting im doing by
Hand. But getting out sawing wood feels great! But yeah, as soon as I get these done I gotta saw out my design, shape in the bottom, do sum nice rail bands, and sign it! Then I’ll worry about glassing.
Good news is, I got most of my tools, but want to get a tool to rasp out the crack for fish tail. I’m also going to make my own fins from marine plywood. I’ve never made one yet. Gotta learn how to foil a fin next! Good times. Best regards.
Yes , swap out the stock bearings for sealed bearings when you get the chance. I’ve never done a set, but I think it can be easily done. You may need a small bearing puller that can most likly be found at an O’Reily or Napa Auto Parts store. You can shape a board with an unmodified Hitachi, You are just going to be doing more work with a surfoarm and a sanding block. Do and tell us about it later. Honestly I would like to know your thoughts on the whole experience and I am sure others would too. Other than a $1200 Accurate (which is a copy cat Skill 100), there are no planers straight out of the box that do not require some kind of modification to make them more suitable for surfboard shaping.Lowel
“5.5 amp Skills(sp) are not so good for real foam mowing”?? More of reverbs “fractured fairy tales”. Man are you full o’ shit or what??? You never probably even laid eyes on a Skil(sp) 100 5.5 or 7.5 much less ever use one. If you had, you wouldn’t be talking such bull shit. Little Hawaii/Nalu Nation/Lowel
as it has been said many times, it is the archer not the arrow. If it cuts and can be adjusted, it will work, I have 5 Skil’s, 2 - 7.5’s, 4 Hitcahi’s, what do I use 99.99% of the time, my Hitachi’s. Shaping the first 40,000 with a heavy weight Skil hanging from the end of my arm and then it was my first Hitachi taken in a trade.
Not many of the participants on Swaylocks are full fledge, full time shapers and when you put in a day on your feet with a planer in one hand, all day, not for an hour after work at the day job, you start to get a connection with a lighter tool. Shaping foam for the most part doesn’t require all that much horse power, only large stringers and wooden boards need the oomph of the Skil or Rockwell.
I seldom am cutting any deeper than a 32 second or 1/16th, the foam goes away a lot fast than one would imagine, so big cuts and big horse power are not needed in the daily routine.
The last Skil I bought was from the widow of Bruce Grant, I didn’t need, but thought it was better that she have the money, I may never shape with it
I’ve used both the Hitachi, and the Bosch planers to shape surfboards. They both are quite workable, and cut well. The workhorse Skil 100 is the ‘‘devil I know’’ and am most familiar with. Going back to 1958, when I first used a Skil, through garage board days, and on to pro-shaping, the Skil 100 was ‘‘the planer’’, period. I’ve got 8,500 to 10,000 boards under my belt, with it. My best estimate, based on how much money I made. A board count was never very important to me. I think It’s all in what you get used to, as has been pointed out by other posters. I have both a 5.5 and a 7.5 amp Skil, and have by far, the most miles on the 5.5 amp. A great many of those boards being balsa, in my early days. The 5.5 is well up to the task of cutting balsa, and foam is is an absolute breeze. Especially the current lighter weight foam. Sharp blades, are an absolute must, as always!
You can shape a board with a cheap harbour freight planer. You just have to know the steps. I have been in the situation before where I had no access to my Skil. We built a shaping stand under a tree in Hawaii and blasted away. The planer was just a stock Makita that blew dust in my face because I am left handed. I used a method called “step” planing. It works great. Just takes more time.
I already knew how to shape boards so it helped. Lots of cussing about the dust though. We glassed and sanded em under that same tree. It had Mynah birds in it that shitted over everything. Damn those were good times.
Jim - thanks for pointing that out ! FYI I’ve only shaped around four garage home builts, and a thruster with a Makita planer… but something real cool happened a learned how to fade out my cuts by accident! Anyhow, I sat in on a custom, and my shaper added in rocker using a skil 100. Anyway, I wasn’t aware of wth he really did, so I just pushed my planer at tip end of board, seated my shoe flat and plane forward, and gradually float my planer up and off board zeroing out…repeat to another row.,…Believe it or not my shape had a nice series of roughed out cuts towards center…but it definitely curves up the nose sum’! FYI -'I set my planer to 1/16", and it works so well I had accidentally cut in just a wee bit too much flip in nose. But you just got to use calipers at the mark- on both ends if say you wanted rocker here or there…
Rails, were just a bit different. You got to come in light…and gradually cut at a 45 deg angle, seat the planer at wide point, and gradually fade out towards tip ends. When it starts gettin too thin around 12" from tips you call it done for now…
Then you do another band if you want to. I just went straight to surform, then sanding. I’ll probably do more bands as im going for a low rail on my modified FISH tail. I know this sounds questionable, but it’s just like having a control knob, except you do the controlling. Hopefully this unit holds up for awile, but at $99.00 + tax I can just get another one if it craps out. T c- Jim
Hi Bill! Thanks for your.02 ! I think the skil units are an awsum tool - although I never yet tried one. Its just
Whatever I can swing $ wise…lol. anyway, I somehow developed a few methods to do the applications necessary to build board. T c - & happy next bunch of board you make! - Jim
Hello Sir! I enjoyed reading what you said. My whole entire exp -even though I accidentally cut in a tad bit too much nose rocker, I can now just turn knob to shallower setting. Or just be careful…it’s amazingly fun using a light unit -Hitachi planer. Believe it or not I like the stock knob it’s easy to hold planer on the flats and whatnot.
The use of steps is fine I’d imagine, but I bet you have to plot out your cuts for a good flow.Good stuff.-Jim
BiIll------- I really liked the five amp Skil that you set the blades on for me that time. It has moved on to Rooster–Mike. Like I said I didn’t take it back to the Islands with me and wound up using a Clark Hitachi for a couple of years. Balsa Bill uses a B&D and a Harbor Freight. I’m thinking about taking a job scrubbing and just using a sanding block.
Folk’s - talking about planers, I went to a pawn shop to pawn something and I saw a Makita planer - exactly like the one I had! Price was $55.00 or sixty five bucks! It looked barely used. I agree that these cheaper unit are not ideal for high output. But prob fine for two or three boards a week. And for say a guy who’s doin more- just switch out the bearings, and maybe get sum spare blades. Also, don’t push it too hard by Taking breaks for a smoke or whatever. But man, for the price I paid- if it broke down - just buy another one! They went up a little. Mine was $106 .00 0td, now they’re $135.00 + tax - so prob $143.00 0td! Not too bad. I’d like to try a Harbour freight planer bcuz I am.in there mailing list and get 20% off coupons! If I run across sum dough I might try one. JIM
Bill set the blades on my planer? That’s very cool. It’s a great tool and I couldn’t be happier with it and know a lot of nice boards came out of that planer. I probably don’t ‘deserve’ a tool so fine. But, I’ll keep it! I shaped a 9-6 log for a friend in San Diego. I used my 653 to skin, take it down to thickness, and some foiling. Used the Skil to cut the rail bands and a bit of concave. I have a modified Hitachi(sold one to a stoked noob) that works just fine, but I like plastic tools as much as I like plastic guns. I started with and shaped my first 6 boards with an out of the box Makita. It’ll do the job. It’s great that Shapoholic loves his tool. mike
Mike - I do like my planer, but I prob should put sealed bearings in it here soon as id hate to lose my tool…those Makita are good! Maybe sum planer wiz will start mod n planers n selling them?
Yeah---- Then I almost took the tip off of my middle finger later on over at Aloha Glass with those blades. Bled all over Steve Albin’s shaping room. I didn’t tell any body though. Be careful when you set a planer down and the barrel’s still turning. Wrapped it in a piece of cloth and kept shaping. Had to finish and get outta that loaner room before closing time. Luckily I didn’t bleed all over the blank while I was doing the finish work. Foam dust in an open wound burns a little. Even though those blades say Germany; Pete C said they are most likly Swedish. Even better. They’ve got a lotta life left in them and many more sharpenings to go. They were new and razor sharp when Pete installed them. But Pete didn’t have a gage to set them with so I drove the old Volvo down to SD and met Bill out in Mission Valley. He pulls up in new Mercedes sporting a white shirt and a silk tie. Gets his little black bag out, spreads a towel on the trunk of my Volvo and proceeds to set the depth of the blades with one of those Skil feeler gages. So that’s the story Mike. Another classic. Lowel