This problem has bothered me since my first board and I’ve been unable to find any advice in the archives. My question is, how do you get a planer to scoop out the nose on the deck side? I try it with the planer wide open and the blade won’t touch the deck because the curve in the nose. I’ve resorted to taking perpindicular cuts to the stringer but this leaves me with major unevens that take forever to straighten out. My best guess for what to try next would be to get a rounded sureform blade and do it by hand, but is there a simpler way that I’ve just not figured out yet? Thanks in advance for any tips. By the way, I use the basic Hitachi planer.
Go Man!, you`re doing Ok !! more hand work for the masses. I sell these new design planers they have a rounded concave wedgetail barrel, great for the nose…sorry not taking the piss just being a bit less knowledgeable. http://www.geocities.com/wunderboyi/ninetysixpercent.html
i run mine up just like your doing, then clean up with my surform real fast only takes a second I also have one of the 10 inch half moon surforms that works unreal on noses. http://www.surfboardglassing.com
Use a small spokeshave with a sharp blade on the stringer. X-acto makes one that is perfect for the chore. Cheap and reliable. http://www.x-actoblades.com/xacto/xpage6.htm
those are great for the cleanup, but for the gruntwork… im not seein it http://www.surfboardglassing.com
You could always run the planer at an angle. It took me some time before I realized that the planer can cut “peel strips” even at high angles. Let me clarify: Let’s say the cuts are going nose to tail. The front shoe is up on the “old” foam and the rear shoe rides on the “new” foam. While this is happening the planer is probably at an angle of about 45 degrees or so. Well, INCREASE the angle. Your motion is still going nose to tail but discipline yourself to cut with the planer at 80+ degrees or so. The planer looks like it is going almost sideways as it crabs its’ way down the blank. The cuts are only about an 1/2 inch wide but you can get really good thickness flow through the hardest part of the peel deal. Watch out: Many a shortboard nose have ended up on the floor because of too much zeal. When you reach the band that cuts the stringer, go S L O W L Y. Try to just cut HALF the stringer; and DO NOT FLINCH! If you’ve got the balls, there’s a blank out there waiting for you… Good Luck. PS. Feel free to post for some help on how to re-attach the nose to the rest of the blank[wink]
“PS. Feel free to post for some help on how to re-attach the nose to the rest of the blank[wink]” Yeah, been there, done that… The planer at more of an angle to the stringer is the way to go, tough on short boards, but you can do it.
Sharp surform, 60 grit sanding block, and a spokeshave. takes 5 minutes.
I also use a half-round sureform, topman plane, sanding blocks, … but the thing that I like best is made from two feet of carpet roll tubing (about 6 inches in diameter) with 50 grit paper glued to it. It helps to have a dowel across each end to use as a handle. Since I remove as little from the top of the blank as I can in the first place, theres usually not much to remove in the nose area anyway. Good Luck! http://mb-soft.com/public2/lift.html
All this advice is crap!!! Pure unadulterated CRAP!!! The guy asked for some advice. He didn’t want to here different difficult ways to scoop the nose. And that Penguin board guy doesn’t have a link to his curved bottom planers he sells. Don’t add to a link unless you really have good advice…oops…gotta go…
That angled planer method seems to be the ideal way, but it sounds a bit tough (and risky) for the limited amount of boards that I get to practice on. Think that I’ll go ahead and puchase the rounded sureform for my next try. I appreciate the feedback.
you can spoon out the nose with the electric sanding pad, and plane off the stringer with the spokeshave if it is too curved for the little hand plane. When sanding, let the smoke clear and then stand with the surfboard tip at your belly and rock your ass, shoulders and elbows as you move the sander around to hollow it out.
SOUP’s got it right. If I can’t use the power planer (nose is super thin or stringer is “chippy”) then I’ll use a power disc sander and the spoke shave. That could be a good step before going with the Planer. The power planer has the accuracy and flow so it is worth it to know that as one figures out how to fit a flat object into a concave surface better work will result.
Planing sideways is the norm but a little tricky for beginners.A surform and spoke shave will do it.Also you can take a small trim router with a 1/2" or larger flat bit and use it as a mini plane to get the hard shell off.I have a little Porter Cable with the bit set around 1/8" deep that does fine.I stand at the front of the blank and pull it up the rocker starting from the middle and working it to the rails.Flipped up tips take a lot of hand work no matter how you do it.
hey roger…do you use a trim router to cut out the fin box slot??
For longboard fin boxes I use a Dewalt Plunge router with a 1/2" carbide bit.For future fins I have a plunge router with the factory bit.I take multiple shallow passes.If you don’t have a plunge router you can use shims on your jig that slip under the router base.You set the router for the finished depth of cut and stack the shims…make a pass…remove a shim…make another pass…remove a shim…and so on until you get to the final depth.All of my routing is done with jigs…no freehand stuff.The jigs are held in place with tape.When routing boxes that go in after the hotcoat I glue sandpaper to the bottom of the jig to keep it from sliding.For jigs that sit on foam I glue thin foam rubber on the bottoms to keep it from sliding or marring the blank.If you plan on airbrushing the bottom of a blank its best to cut the slots before you paint as the jig can easily scratch the art work.There are lots of slick tricks for routing boxes…thats just a few that came to mind.