hey guys i am finishing up keel fish and the guy i am shaping for wants to use FCS keels the ones with 3 tabs on them.
I was wondering if any of you guys know the mesurements for the tabs. I was hoping for the distance from center to center of tabs so i can make a jig for drilling out for the plugs.
these are the fins they want to use http://www.surffcs.com/en/products/fins/specialty/FishKeel.aspx
cheers for your imput
antony
They should be equally spaced, normal FCS tabbed. That is, you could take a regular FCS fin and put it in the front two or back two plugs. I've used three plugs with a keel fin I made and on a twin fin using Webber's big, curved fins. Both of these setups had equally spaced plugs. Simplest thing would be to wait until you get the fin, then put the fin on the board where you think it will go and mark the center of each tab.
You can always just install the back two, then do the front one… but I gues it would be easier to do them all at once.
I’d just mark out the rear two with the template, then move it up a “notch” and mark out the front one using the middle one and center line as guides. You could do that on a piece of plywood or masonite, and there’s your jig.
these look nice and only to plugs that way you can use fusion plugs .
The PKF (Performance Fish Keel) is designed to take keel fins to a new
level of performance. The PKF has less surface area then the S-FK, more
rake and a thinner lead edge and tip. Resulting in a more responsive and
progressive twin fin set-up.
i have a pair of these fins from a webber mini fish
wondering about cutting off the back tab to use them with a standard 2 plug setup… is it possible the force will be too much and damage the plugs?
thanks
They may not last long and then if you did cut them the fins would become usless.
Hey Birdman! I don’t know about the three tabs, but twice I have seen a fin plug rip out because a screw was loose in the other. All the work of the fin is too much for one. thinking they probably put that third one on for a good reason. Peace. Good surfing.
i think you guys are right, especially since i’d want to cut off the back tab and that would leave the fin pretty poorly supported
tempting though
appreciate the advice
hiya birdman ! [?radio?]
A fair while ago now , I made a slightly smaller pair of those webber twinnys , with two plugs . They worked fine , for the small beachbreaks that I surfed them in , at the time .
but it depends on what power / bottom of the break you are surfing. [ they may well have been damaged riding shallow dredgy reef breaks …]
and a back fin woulda been an idea , with THAT scenario.
I found I enjoyed them more with a small back fin added , more hold …
I while back I managed to track down a three tab FCS template that used to install a keel fin. I used the black fcs plugs to complete the job. You could use the two clear pastci two tab templates and just over lap them.
My two cents.
D
" Probox " …
a good option , too …
because …
… then you can have one longer tab , to ‘spread the load’ , and also …less fartarsing around cutting out tabs , when you make your own fins
twisted stump , for your twin keels …
… you ‘could’ always cut a bit of the base , and back edge , away …to make them less area two tabbers.
Unfortunately the link to the keels didn’t work for me , but the ‘Rasta’ [dave rastovich] template [was it ‘Futures’ , or FCS , I forget ?? ] ‘could’ be an alternative , too ? …
cheers !
ben
Don’t mean to stump you, but here is a set of Probox Finsystems Keels 10" long with 1 Tab stronger than FCS 2 tabs, 3 tabs, 4 tabs. Just something to think about. Mahao,Larry
how deep are they , Larry ?
5" tall, exclusively the Finsystem of choice by Infinity used on the Phoenix Models with these ProBox Keel Twins that I design from the Surf Simmons fins which are 4" tall.
Those look great. Now where to get the boxes and fins in Europe is another question. :-S
Fiberglass Supply can get you anything to make a board shipped to Europe. Tell them Larry sent you http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/Product_Catalog/SurfSailcom/surfsailcom.html#Pro-Box
Mahalo, Larry
