Pauluk,
Check out Sea Base...
been dealing with seabase for 4 years now one word useless!!!
oh though of another one overpriced!!
would deal with homeblown only the shipping is the killer from uk to ireland!!
How about South Africa - Rod MacDonald makes great blanks Shipping would be better than from West Coast US.
in response to you helping your fellow craftsmen.
i am continually humbled by the brotherhood of surfers and builders alike regardless of where we live,i hope no one in other country’s took offense to me talking about keeping it american.i said this because of the financial situation we in america are having now and in no way was being disrespectful to my fellow brothers and sisters all over the world,we are all one.your the man dead shaper!
Going back to the inception of this thread…“I don’t see how some of these blank companies stay in business”…
Well, I don’t see how some shapers, glass shops, and surf shops stay in business!
Dropping everything and flying out the door to go surf the perfect storm is one thing, lacking a work ethic is quite another. Can you deliver the goods?
Ask yourself, are you a professional and this is your career…are you a part timer and this is your side job…are you a wannabe that doesn’t know as much as you think you do…are you a hobbyist that enjoys learning from the real guys?
If you are a true professional relying on supply sources for your livelihood, ‘Business 101’ includes having alternative supply sources in case one breaks down, burns down, financially vaporizes overnight or becomes unacceptable for some unforseen reason.
In the sense of blank suppliers, there are many vying for a durable position in this marketplace. If you are someone that wants to try every new foam that hits the market, you are probably going to end up bumping into some great, not so great, okay…and terrible foam.
This is reality.
If you find a blank company that listens to your remarks, and you see noticeable changes from that blank company (i.e. “I don’t like slippery finishes on blanks”), then you are probably well positioned. If you did have a problem, did the blank company offer, and compensate you for an obvious problem they had?
Compensation is a touchy issue, especially if a blank related problem shows up after shaping, painting, glassing, sanding, glossing, polishing a surfboard…even worse if it was a time sensitive custom order. There is no reasonable accepted standard currently in place although Clark offered a policy that replaced the problem blank with a new one.
Currently, any compensation above that, is regarded as generous.
The problem the blank companies are faced with is who did what to their blanks. Do you have many years of expeience in shaping and all other facets performed on their blank? If you use a glass shop, is Homer melting down the foam when he puts in the leashcup or fin plugs? Are the blanks gassing or delaminating because of the foam or is it because Jimbo used some new cheap paint that he got at a yard sale? Are the blanks “super weak” because Sharky oversanded the living crap out of the single 4 oz. bottom?
Did the blank company compensate you for legitimate reasons or due to your inexperience or someone along your production line (that maybe got hired last week)? Did they compensate you while shaking their heads, just to shut you up?
Here is a good example of how sh-t happens. I currently do my boards start to finish. Most of you regulars know that I am a handshaper. This doesn’t mean I won’t go to Spencer at I Shapes in Ventura if someone orders a container of my boards to be sent to Argenina. (I once was, in fact, asked if I would supply a container of custom sailboards to South America, and if I would put Bruce Jones logos on them…they said they would pre-pay and the deal would be hush-hush. I responded with offfering to make a container of sailboards with NO LOGOS on them and no signature and whatever they did with them was beyond my control. I respect BJ big time and there was no way in hell I would ever do that.)
Anyway…sh-t happens deal. Okay, so I just made a custom quad for Pro Beach Volleyball player Todd Rogers…he and his partner are almost a given for Bejing Olympics with their recent 3rd place down in OZ. I’m wiping down the board and notice the last fin doesn’t want to go all the way down. Upon closer review there is some white resin down in the blue FCS plug. I pop it out and the fin goes in. No how did that happen? I look it over and it appears that the corner must have cracked. I look over the other plugs (with a magnifying glass, have you) and there is another hairline crack on another insert.
SHIT!!!
Do I bad rap FCS for this? Am I frustrated? Pissed? Sad?
Let’s go back a step. How did I put those plugs in? Well, it is so easy to melt plugs from over-catalyzing that I do them in 2, not 1, cool batches. This takes time and is a pain in the ass… but I spend all the time setting everything up and have protractors for my degree sets and finally get out my little squeeze bottle and do the deal…then hurry up and wait for the stuff to finally go off. Then once the exotherm goes off and the heat dissipates it gets the 2nd (and hopefully final fill) so there isn’t a compounded heat build up from two batches of catalyzed resin and milled fibers.
…and now of the 8 fin plugs, I have 2 that look to need replacing.
So will FCS offer me a couple new plugs? Throw in a few more for my trouble?
Hope so…I am not stoked to have to remove these but will do so. It takes my time and time as we all know is money, or at least robbing me of some time I could be doing something else.
But, I am not going to spend my life bad rapping FCS for an unfortunate event. Luckily 25% of the plugs had a problem and the other 6 didn’t.
Now if this happened all the time, you can guess that I would be forced to take another direction regarding fin systems.
So in the end…what is responsible behavior, by whom and what is fair compensation? I’ve tried to be responsible by taking the time to make a claim in great detail instead of blowing it out my ass.
I suggest all of us do the same.
i work for a huge company and all the blank guys are haveing probs…it like playing craps take a chance, eather the rockers are off or the blank is not cured or the list goes on… it,s bad as well i herd that grubby is hanging the us foam guys too boot…quig
I hope all the blank companies make it! Competition is healthy. It breeds new technology and we the shapers make out. EPS is ok but will it ever replace PU I think not and we all know the reason why. I shape both but I love shaping PU. The new foams far surpass Clark’s previous product. I hoarded a bunch of Clarks blanks after his closure and once I shaped the new foams I realized they have far better foam quality. Consistency seems to have improved and now who ever has the reliable sales force (a few guys out there are just BSer’s!), dependable delivery, consistent rockers, and custom stringers they’ll be the cream to rise to the top. It’s no different than any other business, if some of the guys aren’t good at business they will not prosper. You can see who these guys are right now.
Dead’s Quote:
Personally I am surprised that the CNC approach hasn’t run the same program as what a board has been machined on then rerun with inflatable sanding drums to finish that board.
You can add a second router with an inflatatable sanding drums once the main cut is made with the principle router the secondary router could make a quick pass. You would not want to change heads because you will loose time on change overs so a second router may be the answer?
You should build CNC shaping machines and design the software.
It would be a good fit for you.
…funny you say that…my dad was a machinist as part of his life…owned a machine shop and had many thousands of dollars worth of CNC and other equipment in his home shop as well. He even helped a certain world famous shaper with his inital setting up to machine boards.
My dad was an interesting guy with a genius IQ…but very understated and had a common sense way of approaching projects. Some of those jobs would involve companies like Raytheon…they would get a cntract to build a part but didn’t have the tool to make the part…so they ended up coming to him to invent the tool.
Guess it’s in the genes.
I originally envisioned secondary scans (if needed) and inflatables for sanding the hotcoated, boards…removing that bit of drudgery from the equation.
Now that’s a great Ideal! Sand the boards on a cnc. It’s actually posible. I sanded a Hotcoat today and it’s the part that I hate to do the most.
To put it on a CNC and sand it would be great.
Back to the tread:
ICE 9 is working out a few things and I look forward to moving on with the Study. I can’t wait to get my hands on some MOSES.
It looks like I’ll be able to start soon!
…man, I dont understand exactly your post
if you buy on Monday and delivery on Thursday (rockers, etc)
what s the problem in it?
sounds good
for me there are no better PU blanks in the moment than Surfblanks (Aussie, Brazil, then Mex/USA) and Rhyno (may be the wood is too heavy…because of that, the little ones come with T-band)
…man, I dont understand exactly your post
if you buy on Monday and delivery on Thursday (rockers, etc)
what s the problem in it?
sounds good
Reverb:
The problem was when I made some orders that took weeks with other companies to receive delivery. I was being Ironic.
US Blanks was able to blow out an order in less than a few days.
As far as Surfblanks America they are good as well and I have six of them to try out. Super hard and light.
I’m using US Blanks (Easy to Shape) and KING MAC (Good feed back on peformance). They use alot of the Surfblanks America down in San Clemente in the surf getto where good reports are coming from some legit board builders. I can’t wait to try out the MOWES from ICE 9 there have been some good rumors floating around as well. Just waiting for it to be available.
I haven’t seen Rhino yet? Where are they from?
Yesterday my good friend from the GOLD COAST OZ called me up and has his new formula for EMPIRE FOAM Australlia which is really light. I shaped one a month ago of the old formula and it was really creamy with really tight cells. He may send a few of the new light ones over for me to try out. I go through some foam some weeks so availablity can be a factor as to what foam you use when you production to push through.
Good, good and good.
If we can envision it that is the beginning of its reality…
I said that.
I agree w/ reverb on the quality of the Rhyno blanks, they are really good. But fairly expensive here in SoCal, I believe they are from Brazil if I remember correctly.
yup, here’s their url:
They were great early on. I liked the blueish tint in the foam color. I bought mine at Green Valley Mills (now RIP) and they were expensive but it might of been GV’s mark up. Foam really held up and also flex’d nicely. I think they sell it on the east coast. They are from Brazil.
Hi Paul, i couldnt agree more on the seabase comment!.. they have my hands tied though as they are the only ones doing resin research! now if only there was a similar resin being made over here!
im heading down to see adam at trimsurfboards in a few weeks as he has a few bennett blanks on the cheap to make space for his new shipment, i know you would still have shipping to deal with but he’s also going to be the distributor for probox.
adam has blair foam and walker blanks too i usually get mine from surfari in newquay, but want to try some blair when they arrive! will probably just order 20 as they are meant to be good.
there is another guy doing epoxy in bristol its french epoxy ive been using it for 2 years havent even bothered trying RR epoxy as this is only £85 for 5kgs resin plus hardener
http://www.connexiontechnology.co.uk/
tell him i sent you he might give me a discount next time i order ;o)
Are people happy with the EPS blanks from WNC in San Diego? Would be nice to just pick one up as opposed to dealing with shipping.
PS - thanks again for letting me borrow your fish - mine is coming along OK, after a few delays.
what do people think of xtra foam any of you shaped with it?
If it’s from South Africa and it’s made by Rod McDonald it’s good stuff. They know what there doing and supply a good part of Europe.