Alright so I’m going to do my best to keep up with this build thread. I’ve learned so much over the years reading other build threads so I figured it’s my time. I’ve build a handful of boards starting with a couple in college years ago then starting back up after a couple year haitus. Last summer I made a List style fish to get back into it and now I’m planning on making a mid length board for a friend. She’s still pretty new to surfing but she’s past a foam board or a longboard. She’s ridden a few “funboards” and has liked those so I figured it would be good to stick with what she’s comfortable on. I’ve also been interested in the shape myself as I don’t get to surf as much as I’d like so I’ve found myself having way more fun with more volume.
The first couple boards I made I tried to copy big name shaper’s designs and it never turned out very good. The times where I just had basic guidelines in mind and went more off of feel things turned out better. Now I’m trying to get back to basics, understanding better how outline, rocker, foil. rails, etc change how the board rides. So for this board I’d like to make the design myself. Based on some recommened dimensions I’ve seen on this site it seems my outline should be something around 22" at the widepoint, 15-16" in the nose and the tail with them being about the same, and the widepoint slightly in front of center. For rocker, about 4" for the nose and 2-2.5" in the tail and continuous. With that in mind I came up with the attached design. Is the width ok and the widepoint where it should be? Should I widen the tail a little more? Is the nose rocker too gradual or should it be flatter with more curvature closer to the nose? Should the tail rocker extend out further? Is 3" too thick? Should I shut up and just make it and see how it rides? Any feedback would be much appreciated! By the way I have block of 2# EPS that I’ll be hotwiring a blank out of so I won’t the constrained to an off the shelf blank.
No comment on your questions as I am a new builder myself, but wanted to say really looking forward to following! Good luck with the build and excited to see it from start to finish!
Made some progress last week and this weekend. I printed out my profile outline and got my masonite hotwire templates cut out and cleaned them up. I hotwired out my blank using bobbins (saw someone posted that trick on here) to help the wire move across the templates easier. I use 26 gauge nichrome at about 15-16V. The top always goes pretty smooth since you have gravity on your side and if you get stuck you can just pull up. I always have trouble with the bottom, you can see i gouged the bottom last time I cut a blank out. I saw someone on here say they stand the block up but I decided just to flip the block since it’s small enough and my basement’s ceiling to too low to stand up the block. Worked out pretty good but I also had my girlfriend help make sure one side stays flush with the template. Next I cut my stringer out of a sheet of PVC foam with one of my templates. I used a fabric rotary cutter and it worked really well. Cut my blank in half with a pull saw then prepped my stringer for bonding with a little sandpaper and some IPA. I glued the stringer with Roo glue on the foam and the stringer and clamped with some bar clamps. Printing out the outline tonight, more to come!
Nice work, looking forward to seeing this thing take shape. From someone who looks at heaps of boards the outline looks good to me, I couldn’t comment on how it will interact with the rocker and rails as I’m not a long time builder but a pleasing outline is a great start in my opinion.
Very nicely done. You’ve got it figured out. Question; You used the bobbins to attach the template to the block? Can you post a close up of that? Didn’t know bobbins were pointy.
Thank you. I didn’t explain the bobbins very well, I attached the templates with nails but I threaded the wire through two bobbins and aligned them such that the templates would sit between the two flanges of the bobbins. They basically act as rollers. Here’s a picture of the hotwire with the bobbins, I’ll have to get a picture of it in use next time.
Thanks Fletcher, I definitely spend way too much time looking at outlines and not enough time understanding how everything else changes how it rides. Gotta have it look good though!
Not as much as I should but the door to the outside is right behind the blank and was open as well as the door to upstairs to add some cross breeze. Also I had a respirator on of course.
Made some progress last week. Cut my outline with a jigsaw which comes out surprisingly crooked. I made this tool to square things up a while bad. I had some teflon coated fiberglass lying around so I put that on the surface that rides on the deck to help it slide a little better.
I finished up my railbands as well. I decided to use the ones detailed on pg 65 of Surfboard Design and Construction. After I cut the first band I decided I didn’t like that I just copied them so I spent time researching rail bands, reading some of the classic threads on here. I have a much better understanding of how to come up with the numbers on my own. Still struggling with the hard part, actually cutting the railbands. I struggled mostly with figuring out when to taper them off at the nose and the tail. I think I extened a little far, especially on the nose. I guess I’ll just have to make another board soon for practice…
I made the mistake of cutting in the bottom contours mostly because I didn’t figure out what I should do. I’m thinking that since I haven’t made many boards and this is for a beginner I should just go mostly flat bottom with a slight concave maybe vee in the tail. For fins I was planning on just going thruster since I have fin boxes already and no jig for a single fin. For placement I was thinking 3.5" and 11.75-11.5", and 1.25" off the rail, .25-.175" toe in. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Cleaned up the bands. I noticed my tail is a little lopsided so I need to clean that up. Also the I need to thin out the nose. I seem to always have that problem so I’m going to try and thin it out a bit with a sanding disk and see how it goes. I have a couple other spots where I need to sand down the bands as well. Sorry about the sideways photos, I keep forgetting to take them horizontally.
I made a lot more progress last week and this weekend, catching up on posting. I decided against the sander for thinning out the nose and just went with the ole sanding block. Worked like a charm. I used the surform a bit and decided I liked the block better for less gouging and more control. The rail line at the nose looks a little off between the two sides but after messing with it a bit I figured I should just leave it before I screwed it up big time.
I cleaned up the rest of the board, did some fine sanding with a pad and spackled with some thinned fast n final. Decided to use bottle water since I had one handy, not DI water, and the spackle was a bit darker than the foam. Next time I’ll do some experimenting. Ready for lam.
Finished glassing with no major hicups. Went with a purple tint on the bottom with 6oz glass. I decided to make some relief cuts a few inches back from the nose and tail, big mistake. It left gaps so I put some small pieces of glass to fill the void. The fabric definitely would have been able to handle the curves without darts. Next time. I trimmed the cutlap a few hours after it was laid up and I tried pressing down the edges since I’ve had issues in the past sanding through the laps after the hotcoat. I also sanded the edges pretty good with a block the next day. For the top I just went clear and used a logo my buddy made using a picture I took of my dog. Went with a full layer of 6oz and 4oz on top. Finished up the hotcoats and its ready for sanding!
So I slowly got some work done, mainly sanding. My lamination and hot coat weren’t perfect so instead of focusing on not getting burn throughs I focused on getting everything as flat as possible. So second hot coat/cheater coat/gloss coat it is. I also still need to do fin boxes, leash plug, and pin line. I didn’t add glass patches for the boxes since I wasn’t sure where I wanted the fins or if the patches were needed. I assume its a good idea so I’ll start by adding them next.
For fin placement, I searched a couple threads and measured a 8’ longboard I have and was thinking something like 4-4.25" rear and 13" fronts. I’ll be using proboxes so I’ll have a little adjustment of placement and of course cant.
For the pinline I was planning on doing a black resin pinline with epoxy which appears to not be all that easy especially with my slow cure resin. I’ve started by sanding along the length with 220 then 320 grit. I’ll plan to add the pinline after the boxes are in.