I definitely would avoid a pig shape. Have the thickness under your chest, it’s more comfortable when paddling and just feels right. I’d say N-19", M-23", T-16". 3,3/8" - 3,1/2" thick. Like one of the guys said before lose the nose flip. Take the thickness out to the nose and tail more, a nice gentle even rocker and roll the bottom slightly. Keep the rails full and round all round and you will have a good floaty forgiving shape. Stick a nice big deep old fin on the tail and it will noseride real nice too. Oh…avoid a kicked up tail (abrupt tail rocker) They drag and don’t help with wave catching in my opinion.
I saw Ace’s 11 footer and decided to ‘go big’ (since I was already home) and make an 11-3 style blank and an 11’ template, 24" W, 17.5"N@12" , 16"T@12".
Stringer is pieced 1/4 “ply+3/4’ EPS+1/4” ply with wooden end blocks all glued with epoxy except the final glueline which is PU. Router bit is from a Probox or Gearbox install kit so the stringer got routed like 1/16" or so larger than the hot wired foam.
A big aloha and mahalo to Ace for sharing his thoughts with me about his build and ideas for mine.
Gunkie said to post pics, so here they are: block to blank to template cut and rough surface sanding. Hopefully I can get going on rails and foiling soon.-J
Thanks Matty! None of this would have been possible without Sways.
Yesterday was a good day. I got to mess with a Skil 100 and with hot wiring. Both tools cut EPS smoothly but the working modes are so different. For whatever reason (been sick, been busy at work, afraid to mess up more than normal…) I had been reluctant to hack into the blank and decided that this weekend I needed to remedy that situation.
I used the planer to thin topside nose and tail. All was good until I pulled the shop vac off the table and then the hoses pulled on the planer and I made a little dig in the nose. I am new to the Skil and its depth control. The first swipe I ran the depth backwards. Another pass I made showed every ‘click’ as I went down the wooden block in the stringer. No permanent damage done, just shows I have much to practice.
Watching Youtube shaping videos and reading Sways the other day, I got the notion to start the upper railband on this chunky EPS blank in a Dave Daum fashion- 45 degree cut referenced to the bottom rocker. Since I don’t have a 45 degree router bit or the jig I decided to remodel my remodelled hot wire to do the job. The only hiccup was hiting the shaping stand on the first cut. Second cut I slid the board over on the stands and used a piece of scrap EPS and a clamp to secure it.
Some pics of the blank and the hot wire. I think I will make a separate hot wire harp for each function (plain, 90 degrees, Daum-style) as this one is getting pretty cludged and heavy. I also want to make one for a simple chamfer nearside.
Looking nice there J! Cutting bands with a C-arm hotwire is a bit tricky but as you are demonstrating, pretty easy to do once you get the hang of it. Your shape is really starting to take form.
Thanks John! The hot wire work is quiet and easy to clean up. I cannot freehand wire. The bottom band pic below has angle and plane determined by the tool and board and the path by the tape.
I woke up yesterday and the garage was below freezing and outside was even colder. Not wanting to be cold or to trash the living room (again) or guest bedroom (again) I decided to go ‘underground’…and cleared out a space in the laundry room. My LED lights were about 3" too long so I had to improvise by shortening the backers and letting the last few inched run wild. I am still trying to figure out tarp or wall and whether I will stay at 7 feet or widen it to 8 feet.
"better not glass on your fin down there, haha!"-Huck
That made me laugh, the classic boat-in-the-basement problem. There is another window in the room that has a straight shot outside that is above ground level, no window well. I was planning a FU 10.5" Bahne box down the middle and some Gearbox sidebites anyhow so I should be fine.
Snow outside, foam inside.
I am really happy with the 1.5PCF EPS foam, it cuts easier / tears out less that 1.0PCF. I am through banding and onto screening the rails. Nose and tail still need work. I am beginning to think that I should use a finer grit during the ‘torture board’ phase after hot wire and try to reduce the amount of ‘fur’ on the blank.
I am liking having a room-temp space to work. I need to work through if this is temporary (1-2 boards this winter) or permanent. Currently the walls only allow for a ‘limbo’ access under the inside light. Managing dust from screening and sanding will become issues as well. I might just do a DIY remodel special, plastic sheeting and frequent use of the shop vac w/ a good filter. If I were to go permanent, I could move a partition in the basement and gain a doorway into the space, power and vac hookup in the ceiling over the board, add a couple more feet for storage, etc. Project size will still be limited by access through the windows.
Over the holiday I got to work on the board: turned the nose and tail, sanding, dent ironing (with a damp cloth), and stringer shaving.
Starting to think about whether to add some color or leave it white. Seems like a white board on a white car in snowy weather is a bit too much white. Maybe a red or yellow painted rail, black pins, and leave the rest white?
I messed up on the stringer. I added those wood blocks which look nice but made the nose and tail harder to turn and will make the fin box harder to rout. I also should have made the space between the plywood stringers 1 inch to allow a Bahne box to drop in. They are at 3/4 inch apart and 1/4 inch thick each so I’ll have to rout into them halfway to install the box or try to shave the box to fit between them.
As far as a 10.5" box on this board, start it 4 1/2 or 5 inches up from the tail? I was thinking 2+1 now I am thinking about just the one.
Yes, as long as there is a dent to remove (not a scratch or gouge) and one doesn't linger too long. Too much heat and steam will overexpand the dented foam and give you an 'outtie' or an iron mark and be sort of a weak spot. There were 6-8 dents on the board mostly from the trip through the window and the iron took most of them out. The ones that did not come out 100% were still better than before the iron.
I trimmed a box to fit between the stringers. I had a no-name box with broken mounting tabs that seemed like a good canidate.
It took me four passes on the mill: one to fixture raw box, two to trim top half, three to fixture trimmed top half, four to trim bottom half. Picture with shavings is halfway through pass four. The fixture pocket routs are friction fit CNC to locate the box and the trims were done manually.
Does a 10.5" box placed 6" in from the tail sound/look about right for an 11 foot beast? I have seen 6" as a rule of thumb but have seen others set from 4.5" to 6.5".
Nice work getting that box between the stringers. I’m a big fan of that method of box placement. MUCH stronger than routing nearly all the way through a single stringer and violating all but a tiny bit of wood.
7" sounds about right on box position - at least that’s where most of my single fin longboards (10’+) have the single box. On 2+1 longboards I put the center box farther back and use a smaller center fin with the sidebites.
Note: Just to be certain, I just measured a 10’ single fin Yater Surftech and a 10’ single fin Robert August Surftech. They have the center boxes at about 6.5"-7". I wouldn’t worry too much about it if you’re ahead or behind those exact numbers.
I really like how the box turned out between the stringers. I might put one of those ruler lams on the board that shows how far up the fin is from the tail. I did my first tail block a couple weeks ago on the ‘Charlie Brown’ board, thinking this one could use a little help out back too. It seems I am quite good at making weak corners when lamming tails.
Forward progress has been slow-work, holidays, indecision. After I had gotten the spackle+floor finish on the foam I decided that the nose needed some more thinning. It’s still not a thing of beauty but better than it was before. I also got the HD inserts for the Gearbox sides in place and a couple spots drilled through the end blocks for leash loop/ tie downs. I wish I would have done the drilling ahead of gluing up the stringer, I am 0 for 3 drilling straight holes for leash loops in boards on the stands. I am also 0 for 3 countersinking the same holes.
I am trying to decide if I am going to put any color on this, leaning towards painted inlays with white rails. I also found some old t-shirt screens from my kids’ and my printing adventures. I might pick a couple of those and run some acrylic through them onto rice paper and use them for a little extra somethin’.
Enclosing some pics as the box between stringer came up on another thread.
-Box trimmned and grooved, test fit boxes, overall shot, box and leash loop hole
Enclosing a couple shots from the lam printing session. The screens are homemade, 6 years old, cut lacquer film. The paints are acrylics and the paper is a mix of 15 gsm ‘rice’ paper and Greenlight logo paper. The Thalco is not the best squeegee for this job but it was handy and the ‘real’ ones (square edges and wooden handles) others were not to be found. The paint goes right through the paper so either you have to use a sacrificial paper underneath or wipe the platen ( aka black formica board) between pulls.
Hopefully glassing starts this week. I am now leaning toward a clear lam and the rice papers. That way I’ll be able to laminate it leisurely and fix dings without having to match color.
