The host Mike Rowe works in a surfboard factory tonight (Tuesday August 30.) The series follows this guy as he works the dirtiest jobs for a day. If you're in Hawai'i, it's on a 6pm and then on a couple hours later. Might be interesting...
Very Cool!
From their site!!!
Show Title: Sludge Cleaner
Dirty Jobs: surfboard shaper, honey harvester, sludge recycler
Premiere: Aug. 30, 2005
I huess it’s “dirty” to be a shaper these days
Drew
Remember the Learning Channel story on Forestall and Pope?
No doubt they’ll show some guy covered from head to toe in foam dust. That’s so old school… cutting edge shaping today is done by computer controlled machines with attached vacuum lines for a clean, dust free operation. The “shaper” sits in a control room with a keyboard in front of him.
http://www.surfindustries.com/video/CNC.wmv
http://www.3emmegi.com/Immagini/3d-shaper-video-176x144.wmv
http://www.allaboutsurf.com/0311/articles/kkl/index.php
did not see them all yet, but it looks like they over shaped that one (pulled too much off the deck)
thanks John, interesting to see the CNC process, had not seen that before
thats horrible!.. the amount of foam they take of the deck is huge!
You hit it right on the nose - I watched it last night & they were planing the blank without any mask at all & he (the host) eventually was covered in dust. They did mask/suit up for the resin work & sanding. The best part of that whole show was the very graphic demonstraion of what side lighting gets you. They had the side lights on & overheads off - you could see every ridge/bump in that blank. They switched the lighting & all the defects disappeared.
As someone who shaped his first blank without side lighting… I going to get some asap.
The shaper was/worked at Barker in Ventura County? (I hope I remembered that correctly…)
Yeah, that was Matt Barker. I’ve seen his shapes around here for a few years. Even surfed next to him a few times and didn’t realize it was him until I watched that show last night.
It was pretty bad form to be filmed shaping a board without lung protection though. You’d think that after 5000 boards he’d know better.
that host was kind of a jerk. but anyways, it didn’t seem worthy of a show called “dirty jobs.” i get dirtier when i bake a cake!
that host was kind of a jerk
maybe…obnoxious behavior seems to be what sells on TV these days…can you imagine Orange Co Choppers if Daddy wasnt so pissed off all the time? ratings would tank big time…
anyway regarding the dust masks…they werent wearing them cuz you wouldnt be able to get clear audio…im sure they tried talking thru them…no way it would have come thru clearly on playback so i guess a little dust in the lungs is the price he paid for getting some tv time…
was kind of funny to watch the barney dude shape…“Gouge surfboards”…where’s that darn spackle?
Classic…
host: “Oh, so I get a “sand-job” too? Sounds good to me, a sand-job and a happy ending!”
Somehow, I am glad I was not tuned in to the Discovery Channel that day.
i actually saw that show and watched it without knowing its on it was really good
hopefully they show reruns so i can tape it
I loved how fast he was cutting his cloth.
Got to love the CNC machine if you can afford one.
Howzit Liki, Did you notice that when the TV guy was cutting the glass in the nose area the real builder was pulling the glass over towards the other side, I think it was because the TV guy was cutting his side to short and by pulling the glass over it would compensate so in the end both sides were evenly cut. Aloha,Kokua
hey kokua,
I noticed the same thing. I was laughing as he was pulling it. Also in the finished blank there was a gouge in the bottom.
Austin S.
With mega scissors like that no wonder it’s fast…in experienced hands of course.
This is the reason I glue most of my own blanks, get them to the rocker I want, then skin the deck on zero, just enough off to make the foam turn white. The old days it was 2 passes off the top and bottom, turn rails, your done, but in this era of ultra high performance boards, no need to burn away so much foam that the deck collapses on the first session. What is the surfboard industry doing, becoming another Detroit ?
On the other hand, I have seen foam operations glue so true that the cutter barely takes anything off the deck when machined