Background Info! new planer, stoked! bought it myself! got a couple blanks for free (soo grateful.. seconds but hey ill take it!!). tested te planer out, it worked great! decided I'd just toss this blank due to damage (lots of birdshot, conclaves, etc) so I start trying to adjust the depth on the fly. do an absolutely awful job, but later decided to try and get something out of it.
Question! how do you fix different depth cuts? one side is thicker in some spots than the other but the lines are hard to see and it's just a mess! I'm thinking I just start along the stringer and go out? or I can take the surform and go to town? te board was supposed to be 2 3/4 but it's about 2 5/8" now so I want to keep as much foam as possible... advice??
happy thanksgiving everyone! hope it was a good one.
Stand behind the planer, more like shooting a handgun, than your position reaching over the top.
Keep your wrist solid. The larger muscle group you use, the more steady the tool. That means keep your body solid, and walk the length of the board. As opposed to standing in one spot and twisting your body.
My best tip to getting the sides even, is to use a two foot level. Start by making sure the top of your shaping stand is perfectly level. 1/8" off across the stand is going to give you a board that is 1/8" thicker on the lower side. You are going to put the level across the blank. If the stand is level, and the blank sits solid on it, when you plane to level, the board will come out even to thickness, with no twists.
I personally start at the stringer, and work outward, but I know all the pros will disagree with that. I sart at the stringer, because I use a rocker template on my boards, so I get the stringer perfect, and go from there. All pro shapers say to start on the rail, and go inward from there. They have their reasons, and I have mine. You do what makes sense to you.
To minimize the ridges, set the planer to a shallow depth, and run it backwards. It works fine on foam, because the blade doesn't really bite into foam. **NEVER RUN A PLANER BACKWARDS ON WOOD. **Crazy dangerous, because it can bite into the wood, and throw the planer back into you.
Loose the hoodie, if it has draw strings from the hood. If the planer blade grabs the string, like when you are lifting it to start the next pass, it will break the planer, and maybe much worse.
Your racks are a little high for you. The more comfortable you are, the better your work will be.
If you start along the edges and create a 'step' with your first cut, you can position your planer with the front shoe resting on that step so that each subsequent cut reduces the width of each remaining step until you have.... a flat surface. HERE is a video showing Terry Martin shaping a board. Note that he's not too concerned with perfect rail bands or anything... he's getting the job done. A surform and sanding block will remove those planer marks pretty easy.
PS - I didn't see what everysurfer wrote as I was typing as he posted. I'm just going by what was in the instruction manual that came with my Skil 100 planer in which it shows clearly how to plane a flat surface. Mark's point of initially cutting the stringer to shape is well taken. (I'm no pro.)
I’m nowhere near experienced even, but I recommend cutting “bands” starting from the rails and working your way in.
Count 5 strokes from tail to nose on one side, then switch to the next. Focus on keeping the planer “even” on the same plane you started on. THink of the tool as an airplane–smooth takeoffs and landings.
Cut the board fat, and use handtools for the rest. As you get better, you can use the planer more and more.
Save the “on-the-fly” cut-depth changes for later when you’re expert.
Not to pi$$ off the experts; but yes you do work from each rail toward the center. I will qualify that statement by saying it is smart to first take a cut down the center at the stringer top and bottom to establish your thichness. Then by checking the center with the calipers you can determine how close to your desired thickness you are. Hopefully leaving enough foam and stringer for sanding/screening and a finish pass down the stringer with your mini-plane. Then begin working from the rail toward the stringer both sides of the stringer just like Terry did. The cut down the center gives you a visual guide to plane towards and establishes you depth of cut so that you come out level with the initial center cut. I always start with a cut down the stringer, top first then bottom. I stop at that point and using my calipers check for thickness to see how close I am to my desired thickness and so that I know how much excess foam I have to work with to get there… I then proceed to plane the bottom of the blank. Once it is planed I Surform my planer marks and then block it with sandpaper and a block. This gives me a nice level surface, It is at this point that I lay my template on the bottom, mark and then cut out the planshape. It’s a little complicated to explain without visual, but once you’ve seen it done the light bulb comes on. Of course the deck and rails have yet to be done and I’ll leave that for others to expound on. But establishing thickness, leveling the bottom and cutting an accurate planshape are fundamental in the shaping of an accurate and well proportioned surfboard with no “whoop-dee-doos” as Terry said. Lowel
I do the same as McDing, establishing the max thickness at the stringer first is more precise, and you’ll only need to hand plane the stringer at the nose and tail. After making the skinning cuts along the rails to that first thickness cut, I rough out nose and tail thickness using crosswise passes. Here’s my method of doing rail bands: http://www2.swaylocks.com/forums/dave-daums-railmaker-tool?page=1#comment-1470753
BTW, your shaping rack is way too high for you and you’ll need to set the blank on the rails for banding. Watch how Terry holds the planer and how it’s angled to the cut in the video. From your photos it looks like there were starts and stops in the lengthwise passes. Do these in one continous motion, set the depth to only 1/32 until you get the feel.
Thanks for all the tips!! They’ll definitely come into play for the next board, which should be done next weekend haha.
Everysurfer- your wood work is absolutely beautiful!
Perhaps I wasn’t clear in my question though, how do I fix the uneven surface? I’ve included a picture of what I’m kind of talking about. Do you think a surform would be enough? Or perhaps they’ll shape out when I modify the rocker?
Thanks for all the responses. You guys have been such an invaluable resource, and I am forever in debt to you all.
hahahaha using a leaf blower to blow everything out is a great way to not be held accountable… the worst part is that it absolutely COVERS my mom’s car so we worked out a deal… I get to shape, she gets car washes/vacuums whenever I do hahaha. give and take!
Use a hard, flat sanding block, stand on the opposite side of the blank you want to take down. Just use nice long even strokes, 40-60 grit will take it down real quick, check with a straight edge as you go. You may have plane your stringer down a bit to get rid of some of those dips. Looks good, all that stuff will go away as you move through the next steps.
One thing I noticed is your rack looks to high for you. you look awkward holding your elbows up makes your arms tried and that will result in less control. Did someone else say block your planer? Put some weight on the blank! wrap a brick in a towel to help hold the bland down Also get yourself a hand held 17 1/2 sanding board. work it using long strokes at around a 45 degree angel. If you find a sanding board with some flex they are good for truing up the outline. Measure measure and measure some more.
Well, just about everything shaped out!! Definitely gonna have to spackle some pukas though!
And WOW!! This blank was so flat (about 2" of nose rocker and 1" tail) so I did some major rocker adjustment and good lord that is easily the hardest thing i’ve ever done!! Definitely gonna order some more custom rockers hahaha
Where do you plan on surfing the board? If it’s in small or mushy surf, you may find that very little rocker will give you a serious planing advantage!
As someone mentioned; You shaping rack is too high. Drop it down to about belly button height, Get behind your planer and push it. Don’t stand over it with elbows out. Atrocious planing isn’t as bigga prob. as the worm holes in the free blanks. Get some lite-weight spackle and fill 'em. Make sure you get the spackle in the hole only and don’t spread it all over the area surrounding the hole. Make sure the spackle is 100% dry throughout before you screen. What were those free blanks? Elova?.
