I’m about to start doing my first chanel botomed board and I need soem advice. I’ve searched the archives but still need lots of clarification. I wish to do 2 chanels either side of the stringer
The board is 6’6" * 20" sith swallow tail and quite wide through out the nose and tail sections. I know these are kinda open ended questions with loads of correct answers
How far up the board should I start teh chanels
How far towards the tail should the chanels go.
How deep should I cut em
How far apart should the 2 chanels be.
What method should I use to cut them - Sand block or planer.
How wide should they be.
I need advice on laminating the chanels
Need advice on how not to pool resin in teh chanels in the hot coat.
Any advice from you experienced guys would be brilliant
Think personal design. The board is yours. You are the designer.
If, theoretically, channels are straight lines cutting speed into curves, then think about where you personally want that characteristic.
Speed under your feet then put the channels under your feet.
Speed off the tail then run them off the tail.
Combine the two, it’s your choice.
The greatest satisfaction I got out of designing and making my own boards was doing exactly that, designing them and making them myself.
I hope there will be more constructive comments from others for you to consider, but whatever you do it will be good, you will learn from it, and the next one will be better.
I won’t try and tell you where to put them, but when laying them out, LIGHTLY pencil the edges in, tape about a 1/16th over the pencil line, so it will remain visible. Sand, surform, or what ever manner you choose to cut in the channels, using the tape edge as a guide and sanding shield.
When the inside set of channels are done, pull up the tape and repeat the process, but cover the remaining pencil line from the first channel, this is to keep from loosing the edge. I make contour sanding blocks that create the bottom edge of the channel and then fine sand them with a piece of scrap foam to do a polish. After you pull up all the tapes. look for any remaining pencil marks and very lightly sand them off, try the air from a compressor first as it will get rid of most pencil lines if they are not gouged into the foam