As promised…Photographs by Brad Lally, lawn by Keith Melville. I picked this blank up in SB a couple of years ago and have be whittling on it ever since. I broke it into 4 sections and tacked together before I started shaping. The idea being to add some redwood stringers. After sitting in the warm confines of inland San Diego, the buggah really lightened up so screw the stringers; lets rock and roll! Rocker and foil pretty much set and rails roughed.
First ya gotta break the beast back into the original sections, pretty intimidating. Working on Swied’s suggestion, put a block of balsa between your hammer and the board…Whack, whack, whack, and she falls apart.
Now for the chambering. The board was the perfect weight before chambering so I was trying to lighten it up by about what the glassing was going to add.
Connecting the dots.
Finished product. I just chambered the center two sections giving me some room to play with the rail thickness and transition to the deck. I tried to offset the chambers to spread the load around.
After jointing the sections, time to glue…
I’ll glue up the two sections this week, then it’s fine tuning and sanding before following Mr. Clean’s advice and glassing it up. Photos to follow. Can I get it done for Big Sur? Stay tuned…
Finished product. I just chambered the center two sections giving me some room to play with the rail thickness and transition to the deck. I tried to offset the chambers to spread the load around.
Hi Lee – Nice looking project! I guess you’ve found out that it’s very difficult to connect holes drilled with spade bits. A flat bottomed foresner bit would have been a lot easier, but a bit more expensive. Another way would be to use a rip of ½” plywood, the size of your stringer, layed out with your chambers placed accordingly. Then a router with top bearing could be used. This would be a bit cleaner too. I imagine the first time though is quite intimidating.
Another consideration would have been to rip your boards in two, which would not only allow for book matching sides, but also to chamber through each stick. Regardless, there are many ways to skin a cat. W.T.G.
I tried foresner bits and had a router available but because the wood was so dry and light, the spade bit went much faster. It only took about 15 minutes to clean out the spaces between the holes. It sure may look messy but if anyone ever sees these holes again, it won’t make much difference!
I made mine about the same time as Keith Melville was making his. He lives a block from the beach and his board, stored in his garage, really soaked up the water. He told me drilling the holes was going to take all day. It only took an hour or so with the dryer wood. If you want to make solid or chambered balsa easy, move to Palm Springs.
Great looking board Lee! I think you made the right choice using the spade bits. I remember lifting your blank, and commenting on how light it was. You don’t need to reduce the weight by much, so there is no point in getting too anal about the chambering method. The drill press is definitely the fasted way to go. In my case I had a 6’ 2" blank that weighed almost 30 pounds. I used a router, and was able to reduce the weight by more than 60%. It took all day to router everything out, and afterward I was really tired. Chambering with a router requires a lot of concentration.
For a peek at the process of routing for maximum weight reduction without sacrificing skin strength, go on wetsand.com then click on “green room”, then “shaping room”, then “surfboard design”. The opposing trapezoidal chambers with radiused corners are super time-consuming, but weight is the enemy!
This board is gonna be great, I can just “feel” it… Following those two posts (this one and the one about glassing balsa) with the utter attention as I have a similar gun project for the winter… Except with some marquetterie inlays…
I hear ye delete this post. Keith has nothing in his garage. Please excuse below this post if it makes no sense. It’s my fault, Lee called me out, and I blinked.
