I recently had a custom longboard made by a local shaper in my area who is very, very good. However, after the blank was taken to the glasser, the fin boxes installed, then the board glassed, no fins, to include the two Futures’ side bites, and any and all 7" center fins will fit without using a rubber mallet and extreme force to get all three in and out. The shaper tried to sand down the bases of the fins, with some success, but that still will not allow for movement of the center fin back and forth, without still using extreme force.
Thus I ask of you, what are my options without destroying the board by taking out the current boxes and installing new ones, or leave it alone and deal with the fin issues extreme tightness, of which I really shouldn’t have to with a brand new board.
try putting some other future fins in there also to see if it really is the boxes that are the problem or if it might be the fins? i have one set of fiberglass fins that are always a bear to get out. you can put parafin wax on the bases of the fins to help them glide better.
sometimes the center boxes need some 'breaking in'. a loose fin is far more typical than one that is too tight. sounds like you already found out that a different fin fit the box better - thats probably the case with the sidebites as well....
if your screw is stripped then you can replace it with the next size up stainless steel grub screw.
also there may be a small amount of resin that has dripped into the boxes somewhere? that happens sometimes and can be hard to notice but throws off the fit....
try taking a razor blade to the inside edge of the box and razoring a small amount of plastic off. or sand down your fin more if you want to. WD-40 is great stuff; could work? nothing wrong with a little lube now and again.
Agreed, you shouldn’t have to deal with this on a new board. But there are a couple things you or your shaper could do.
Set up parallel guides for a router, and using a narrow router bit, trim a bit from the inside. That is probably what I would do.
Take a thin stick and glue some sandpaper to it, use that to sand the inside of the boxes. The corners will be tricky, but this would be a low tech and cheap (if tedious) way to do it.
You can sand the fins down more, but then you are stuck with either always using the same fins or having to sand down additional fins in the future.
You could also demand that the shaper pay for getting new boxes installed. It is a pretty common repair and shouldn’t cause any problems for your board if the person is any good. But I guess it depends on what your current and desired future relationship with the shaper is…
Sand the fins more to make the correct fit. A rubber mallot is a must have tool for a surfer who adjusts fins/swaps fins alot.
Bring it by my shop and I will fix your problem in 10 minutes or less. PM me for directions.(you live on Oahu right?) Store bought fins from anywhere need a fine tuning to fit the boxes correctly. It won’t ruin the fin either. It will work in other boxes just fine.
Did the glasser provide the fins or were they purchased by you and then placed in???
Appreciate all of your suggestions, and I’ll respond to everybody here.
All three of you suggest that I either sand the fin bases, and or boxes, of which the shaper did with the ‘original fins only,’ **and not the boxes, that came with the board, but not with much success, still too tight, especially the center fin and one side bite. The other side bite became too loose, and now requires that the screw be tightened almost all the way in of which is now stripping the threads when taking it out. My concern with sanding or routing away the plastic inside the center box might make the fin screw and plate pop out if too much is taken away.
The shaper has been very understanding to a point, however I feel he thinks that I’m being way to picky, of which I am to some degree, especially when this is a brand new board, and I shouldn’t have do deal with the mistakes of the glasser. Thus the shaper has monetarily compensated me with an agreeable refund. However, I must always deal with the tight boxes, and worry about cracking the glass, and this makes me unhappy : - (
“bb30,” I’m not in the Islands anymore, lived, surfed, and worked on Oahu for the Reef Hotel Beach Services long time ago with Rabbit Kekai and Gerry Lopez. Right now I’m up north of San Francisco in Sonoma County. But thanks for the offer, and thanks to everybody else for your suggestions.
In conclusion: great shaper and nice guy, beautiful board, wasn’t really his fault. Maybe I’m just to picky?
I wish I had seen this thread earlier! One of my pet peeves is when a box is too tight for a fin. I always measure a fin base and if it is correct, I never, never, NEVER!!!! sand down the fin. If you have as many fins as I have (and I do a lot of lb's for customers so I stock quite a few fins in various sizes) You will end up with fins that only fit one box that was improperly installed. This is usually due to a too hot mix or someone grinding off the tabs before installing the box. (read center fin here) My solution is this, and I must say that I consider fins and their install part of the custom order experience, is to use a very sharp chisel and remove small slivers of plastic from the inside channels of the boxes until the fin slides properly and smoothly in the box. Sanding down the inside of the box is a long and frustrating process, so I use the chisel. As far as futures go for side fins, this process works just as well. Glassers often mix the resin really hot for fin installs if they are doing a bunch of boards at the same time. You can always go back to the shaper and complain and have the boxes replaced. As a shaper who jobs out a lot of glass work, I would raise a bit of hell if my stuff came back with bad installs. The shop I use now will take back and fix any problem I see before it goes to the customer. In todays economy, it only makes sense to have customers that are satisfied from the get go. Just my 2c............... Hope this helps!
I will post a picture of the deburring tool I use to round off the top edge of the box which is sometimes the hang up.
Surfteach, The fins I buy from rainbow, red-x, FCS, futures, o'fish'l and Protect, sometimes fit nicely and other times need tweaking.
Too long, too deep, too wide. In fact many longboard fins have a base tab that is supposed to be sanded for perfect height allignment. I can prove this by using the same installed fin box and take different brand fins and one may fit the other may need tweaking. Sorry, it's not the boxes but the mm differences in the fins that are sold. Plastic molding machinery for fin boxes is way more consistant than hand made fins.
A finbox heating up so much it expands and stays expanded????. I would run from that glasser, especially with EPS foam.
What about the sander heating up the box too??? Lets blame everyone here.
Taking a chisel to a fin box??? You are a brave, steady hand man!!
Regarding the side bite future boxes and tight fins, the rookie mistake when adjusting length is sanding the front of the fin instead of the back pivot side. Sanded the front and the problem was with the pivot side or resin in the bottom of box on pivot side. That's why the scew has to be so deep to tighten now. Solve the problem with a new fin. $15 investment for a new side bite.
I swear, 10 minutes, all three fins would be fitting perfect and work just fine on other boards with similar boxes. I am not smart, but I learned the hard way. Also my parole agreement does not allow me to have a chisel in my hand and anytime when fitting fins.
(bb30)All I gotta say is learn to use a micrometer. That way you will know if it is the fin or the box. There is an industry standard. PM Larry if you don't have the dim's. I'm sure he will be glad to give you the info. There are lots of guys on sways who have woodworking experience and will attest to the proper use of a sharp chisel. Again, just my 2c....
I hear you surfteach. My last batch of rainbow fins where a bit too long and hade to increase the pivot curve on the fin. No big deal at all. Great fins making a good custom board better. I'll buy more. Placed two sets of red-x last week of double foiled fins that where too wide by a mm or less. Had to lightly sand. No biggy. It's a custom board. I know there is a standard, but if a human is involved in making it, the acceptable varience of that standard is present.
Chiseling to me would be transfering too much energy to places I don't want it to go and weaken. If a skilled chiseling backgound is necessary to use it, there are even more guys on here without those skills, like me. To my it is a risky and complicated way to solve this simple problem.
Another way to prove my point is to test fit a fin in an unistalled box which I do all the time to set cant. They are too tight sometimes.
Don't need a micrometer. It fits or it doesn't. adjust fit and go surfing..
It’s interesting to note here that with all of my other Longboards, the center fin box always had a plastic tab across the box when delivered, and that the tab needed to be removed before installing the center fin. These were all Harbour boards. Thus the question: since the bottom resin abstract had 3 different colors, and then the hot coat was added, without that plastic tab across the center fin box, could the box have tightened when the resin was curing? And if so, why not install a block of wood, or plastic the size of the fin, into the box so as to retain the original size of the box and fin, as I have seen done on a YouTube video of Waterman’s Guild ( of which Harbour uses as his glasser ) fin box installation?
BTW, the original 7" center fin is from Rainbow Fin Co, RFC, and the side bites are RFC’s too. I did purchase an FCS Kai Sallas 7" center fin with the fin screw in the front, and it seems to fit slightly better, but is still tight.
So, I just finished my final coat on my new board. It needs to be sanded and polished. Prior to this I check proper fitting of fins. 3 of the 4 future fin boxes were too tight for my RFC fin to fit. Thinking about it, it might be because when I sand my filler coat I am getting the fin boxes flat to tail surface. It may cause a build up of plastic in the opening of the box.
Pics below are:
Fin too tight, will not go down
deburing tool
tool in use
tool and total amount of material taken off
easy hand fit now.
My first fin boxes I ever started using where O’fish’l brand and this was the procedure for this system. I use the deburring for most fins systems(no fcs) and ceter boxes. I have never had a fin fitting as described by sunburnshi.
