Blame it on Sways...

General Discussion
1

First, hats off to those that can glass…seriously.

I did not want to drop 900.00 on a new long board this year…so I thought, why not make one?

So…I started reading sways…hourly…go ahead, ask me anything and I can tell you what Thrailkill, Greg, Oneula, stingray, Resin Head and that compsand guy said to do…

I started with a 9’4" junk blank I found down in SC for 50.00 ( I did buy 3 good blanks while there), it had a twist but plenty of room to shape it out (I thought so anyway). I also picked up a modified planer at a pawn shop on the way home for 45.00, its a Bosch, it can cut up to a 1/4inch (!!!) and you can change depth on the fly. All the other tools I would need I had, even a big old Milwaukee sander/polisher.

I had no template to work from, I just went by eyeball engineering and knowing what type of board I wanted.

The shaping part was pretty easy, I skinned it with the planer and then swapped to the surform and block/paper, I read here that you can make big mistakes quickly with power tools! I believe it!

I did everything at first by eye then I measured everything out and found I was within an 1/8th inch in symmetry as far as width and one half matching the other. Shaping took two hours.

Good so far.

I had trouble with the stringer, getting it level with the foam was pain even using my smallest hand plane (I build guitars).

It was easy in the nose concave I shaped in but the deck…ugh!

Is there a super secret to getting the stringer level without tearing up the foam on either side?

I tried taping it off, a scraper, a planer and a small block…and still tore some foam next to it.

I got all of my glassing stuff together, triple checked it all out and then laid out the glass, mixed the resin/colors and catalyst, I read to have everything ready as to not freak out and waste time looking for tools.

I masked the deck for a nice cutlap (thanks sways), laid on the bottom cloth and started with the squeegee.

I went ahead with a slight swirl of color, yellow and blue, pouring 6 ounces of yellow and then the 5 drop blue

(thanks ‘show us your resin tints’ thread!).

Every thing was going pretty good till I realized I did not blow all of the dust off.

Ugh.

I used enough resin to saturate it though and hope it should be fine.

I had lots of trouble with the rail laps, either too dry or too wet and dripping everywhere, I didn’t make the right relief cuts in the right places till everything was wet…

Though my resin mix said a ‘pot of life of 30 minutes’, I actually had way more time before I saw any gelling.

Next time, I won’t panic…

I flipped it after it was tack free (three hours!) and cut the masking and the lap, pretty nice for the first timer!

I then cut the glass out for the deck and realized I wasn’t sure how far to extend both. I read one went all the way around the rails and about three inches onto the bottom, where does the other end? On the deck lap? Sounds good to me!

I didn’t extend that second glass layer all the way to the nose, I want the board light so I trimmed it in a pyramid at the 7’10 mark to reduce swing weight in the nose.

So far so good…but those rail laps on to the bottom! UGH!

This morning, it looks good, I have to sand out some tits and boogers, saturate the rail lap on the bottom where its laid down but has a few dry spots, cut open three very small blisters and get them flat, before I hit it with the fill coat.

I read that if I leave any high spots or drips before hot coating, they will project through and I will end up chasing them through final sanding.

So…

Blank…50.00

Glass…35.00

Resin…40.00

fin box…5.85

Misc…25.00

Shaping your own board with the swaylockers shared knowledge behind you…

Friggin priceless!

I will add some pics later…going surfing now…

2

Sound like you did okay for a first timer, and I’ll bet that in the end the board looks pretty good. Especially for the price.

One: Cutting the stringer down without tearing the foam relies an a sharp plane. I use an inexpensive finger plane made by Stanley that is only about 3 inches long. The blade is not razor sharp, but it suffices. Being a guitar maker, you know you have to cut with the grain. A slight convexity in the blade is desirable but not required. Cut stringer, then block sand with 100 or screen. A luthier would likely have several such instruments; some like to use a small spokeshave, others a block plane with low angle blade. Whichever one is used, it must be sharp enough not to tear foam. Your blank may have complicated this if it was poor quality foam.

Two: I brush off the dust first, then use my little compressor to blow away the rest. Could probably leave the brush on the shelf, but it’s habit.

Three: if you post your location, chances are there is someone in the area who can stop by and walk you through. This would have saved a lot of anxiety, taught you a LOT, and resulted, hopefully, in fewer “gotcha” moments. I’ve done this with a couple people. I sure wish someone had done it for me. Well, there was a friend, but this was back in high school and certain things didn’t have priority I now know they should have.

3

If you didn’t vacuum-brush or blow your blank before glassing, you were pretty lucky that masking tape on the deck didn’t decide to go to the floor in the middle of the process. In fact, you were lucky that you actually could make it stick. Beginner’s luck…

Anyway, it seems like you pulled it out quite OK for a first glassing experience.

(I can hear Chips yelling in his sleep -they are supposed to be sleeping right now in Australia-: “Post those photos, maaaaaaate!”)

Next one will be (almost) perfect. (That’s what I’ve been saying to myself for more than thirty years now…)

4

I swear the best board I ever had was twisted,bumpy,filled with pin air and the fin box was tilted.It rode unreal.I built it in an overnight frenzy because a swell was coming.You guys are getting to carried away with all of this cosmetic stuff.Shape it…ride it…have fun.

5

Here are some pics…

A little yellow ‘mud’ on the rail but thats what sanders are for…

Note the next victim, a 10’2B USBlanks triple stringer…

Thanks sways, all of ya rock!

I put the hot coat on the bottom an hour a go, waiting to do the deck and then clean it up with the sander. No gloss, just a sanded finish as this will be a comp board (though I might do pinlines as soon as I find a post that says how…lol).

Pretty happy so far, not out much money and I thoroughly enjoyed the ‘anxiety’ of it all, kicking that resin and knowing ‘here it comes, this is for all the marbles’!

I owe a lot to sites like this and the free flow of info with no attitude.

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Quote:

Is there a super secret to getting the stringer level without tearing up the foam on either side?

I tried taping it off, a scraper, a planer and a small block…and still tore some foam next to it.

Hold the plane at a slight angle across the stringer, don’t start off the back come in and touch down.

Check the blades is alined correctly and you not taking too much off at once.

Most importantly you need a very sharp blade otherwise your just waisting you’re time.

I use small stanley hand plane to start then switch to a david combie plane that takes razor blades, very sharp. in the rockered area on the deck near the nose I use a spoke shave and a thumb plan on the tip of the nose.

I sounds like thinks went well though.

7

I have 15mm spoke shaves and other very small planes that fit the tips of my fingers. I use them to shape soundboard braces for guitars. They are plenty sharp, I think its just my technique-I don’t have any yet.

I just finished sanding the board out after doing the hot coat late last night, I tried using my big sander but it scared me with the amount of material it would remove so I only scarfed the laps and the nose and tail.

The rest I did by orbital with 40/80/120 and now I am on to 220 and up, heading to a finish of 800. I am building three more so I should invest in one of those pads every one uses, seems safer any way.

I have a few pinholes to fill and then I will do some pinlines in red, install the fin box and fin and paddle the thing tomorrow, surf or no surf…

Like my wife said, “whats the worse that can happen when you build your own, it sinks?”

Well, it def won’t sink!

Next one gets cut laps top and bottom though, way easier to feather than the free laps I can do right now.

8

Ahh…the stringer is going to be high in the long run anyway after the foam shrinks and gets crushed on the deck.Gonna have dings and scratches so go ahead and ride da buggah.Ugly boards rule.It can be a status symbol.At least they will know it has soul.My friend Jim Stephens Underground Boardworks just built a board for a client and they purposely made it look yellow,cracked,and dinged.His philosophy behind the concept was that at least it stood a good chance of NOT getiing ripped off.

9

Howzit Mr. Clean, And the guys wife ( if married ) won’t know he got a new board, he can tell her it’s a used one.Aloha,Kokua

10

I bet if you polled everyone on here we all probably had many of the same problems on the first board. My stringer in the nose rocker (and but crack) gave me fits. I refused to buy any tools to make my board so it took some tries before I was able to find something which I could trip it down with (convex curved wood rasp, which then got sanded smooth). Yup, didn’t blow my board off, had issues with my laps, even though I used Greenlight’s bamboo glassing which uses bionic double sided tape. Sanded through the epoxy in some ares like a jillion times, I finally ended up finishing my board by spraying it with two cans of Krylon cleat coat and wet sanding it. As far as pin lines, yep there are some great posts on here about how to do that. Screwed that up too, they bled and are little bit uneven. In the end I decided I really didn’t give a crap about the cosmetic crap, the shape was good and I made the damned thing myself, something that none of my friends who surf WAY better than me have ever done.

By the way, I am sure that many of my problems were ultimately my fault due to the fact that I don’t like to plan things and that I was usually drinking beer while working. Who cares, it rides great.

11

when you are laminating you want to really saturate the laps, its ok if they are dripping just try to make sure that there isnt more resin on the floor than on your board.

if it took longer than 30 min for the resin to kick i think you need more cat. if the resin is gelling too slow it will drain out and off the board which will be a problem especially on the laps and around corners. ideally you want the resin to kick in about 10 or 15 min, you may need more time to make sure everything is wetted out but if you give it too much longer you will end up with really dry laps and bubbles in the nose and tail- particularly with swallow tails and the like.

by the way if you are near me at all i would love to come by and give you some pointers in exchange for some guitar building lessons

12

Hey thanks for that, I figured out the resin was too cold at 64 degree’s, I heated the next batch and while it still took some time, it went much easier. I didn’t think about slow curing resin actually dripping out of the lap!

I didn’t get any drips really, a few dry spots but they saturated and laid down when I did the deck.

The sanding was a pain, I need to get a pad from that guy over in Powers before I do another board, my hands are killing me from holding the sander, I thought feather out the sailboat was tough…

The board is almost done, I did the box tonight (yeah, thats fun…argh…) but it look great and I will surf it soon enough. Its my first start to finish board though I have helped a few shapers to get a deal, none of them did cut laps though.

I am 540 miles North of you though so you are on your own for the guitar stuff.

If you go to www.frets.com, Frank Ford has a ‘sways’ for guitar tech’s and luthier types, lots of good info for repairs.

13

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pcinsc love the pic- i still feel like that sometimes.

srfnghigh- u in arcata? i love camel rock and samoa, near your area? anyway, if its cold or the temp is inconsistent try adding cobalt as well, it will help the resin cure faster.

when you do a cut lap its sometimes nice to use a tool to mark an even line down the rails to follow when you tape (look in the archives). when you lam the deck cut the first layer of cloth to sit just above the crown of the rail, cut the next (top) layer so that the laps are the same size as when you laminated the bottom

also ideally you are gunna need a few different pads for the sanding but everyone likes different stuff.

15

PC in SC… great drawing!

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"Shaping your own board with the swaylockers shared knowledge behind you…

Friggin priceless! "

Hey Surfinghigh…

I’m stoked because your stoked…

That compsand guy is Paul Cannon , We don’t always agree but he knows his stuff and I’ve learned quite a bit from Paul.

For the stringer make sure the planer blade is sharp. I’m using the same small Stanley plane as the rest of the guys. It’s about 3.5 inches long. Sometimes the wood will cut better from front to back and sometimes back to front…45 degree angle may help too.

Some thoughts for future projects…

3" laps are over kill

Explore relief cuts…what works best for you…it takes a few boards

Power sanding creates heat…keep it moving…heat can make soft spots…sharp sand paper is best

I’ve always paid extra to have my boards gloss coated. Now that I make my own I always put on that extra coat of resin. Power sand the hot coat with 100 grit and give it one more thin coat of resin. I do this with both epoxy and poly boards. sand or buff as desired…100 percent sealed.

Have a great day…

Stingray

17
Quote:

It can be a status symbol.At least they will know it has soul.My friend Jim Stephens Underground Boardworks just built a board for a client and they purposely made it look yellow,cracked,and dinged.His philosophy behind the concept was that at least it stood a good chance of NOT getiing ripped off.

Does that mean I can start selling second hand boards at brand new prices ; ) - yep just finished it this morning, honest - those aren’t dings there status symbols.

18

For what used boards sell for up here, you might think they were vintage guitars!

There is an Arrow in the local shop going for 10.00 more than new and its been beat and nothing special. They also sport one of the wood surftech things, its a bit beat with some delam, 880.00!

I usually pickup a board when I surf trip to SC but this year, after riding Harbours for so long, I decided to just make one and add what I wanted as if I was ordering custom. (that and Harbours, even plain, are bumping 1100.00!)

The board is very close to my HP1 except I added an inch of width and a touch more nose rocker in the last 5 inches and a bit of chine rail for 24 inches up there too.

The fin box went in nicely-after I realized I can grind most of the top lip off to set it in.

Next time, I will tape off the slot so I don’t get to dig a bit of resin out.

Love those first timer mistakes!

Three inches is over kill? So more like 2 or 1.5 from the lower rail corner?

I read that strength comes from those layers on the rail, I almost went around the rail with the deck patch. We get caught inside a lot up here and boards take a beating on the three mile hikes, driftwood and seaweed. I have snapped and stressed cracked every board I have had in the last twenty years up here.

One thing I will take some pride in, from surfing so long and riding so many different boards, design and what works for me was really easy to make happen.

I am ordering a sanding pad today for the next one, three hours with my little sander…my hands are numb this morning…

Does that mean I can start selling second hand boards at brand new prices ; ) - yep just finished it this morning, honest - those aren’t dings there status symbols.

19

Done and surfed…

does everything I shaped it to do, surprised at the weight, rather light at 9 lbs…

Final dims…

Single six bottom

Single six deck with 3/4 six deck patch

Red pinlines in resin

9’0"

18 nose

23 3/4 wide

15 tail

3 1/4 thick

3/4 inch nose concave with chine rails

Knifed out 50/50’s in the middle

Hard tail rails

Slight V tail

10 inch Flex fin I foiled myself

Thanks swaylockers for all of the info and help!