Brace yourselves guys, not another thread with another question, but finally my build thread. I ordered last week, blanks, resin, cloth, etc should arrive soon.
I already built some shaping stands with wood I got laying around. What do you guys use for the cusioning? I still have some bubble wrap, would that do the trick with duck tape around?
squishy mattress topper type foam works well and grips the blank better…
I like the egg crate stuff.
Check out my SBC thread… I got 3 pieces of that foam at a garage sale for $2
Strips of carpeting will work, the egg crate stuff crisp mentions, yoga mats, anything like that.
Thanks guys, I wasn’t being presice enough. The only stuff I have here would be bubble wrap. I just thought I’d ask if someone used that succesfully before I go out and buy anything.
Make sure your stands are stable. Looks to me your stands will be all over the place without some some solid cross bars between each of the stands.
Just a few things irritate me more then wiggling stands
Yeah, I was thinking about a cross bar between the stands and didn’t do that yet, as I will be shaping boards between 5’6 and 6’6. But I guess that isn’t that much of an issue so yeah, I’ll connect them.
Today I received everything from viral surf! I still got some work to do on my van, but I’ll sketch up some templates over the coming week and will hopefully start next weekend the latest.
The working part of the stands appear to be too lightly constructed.
You’ll need something to stop your blank sliding around on your bubblewrap. Carpet or foam are the obvious choices. Use these for a couple of boards, reflect, and improve on your design.
Thanks for your input on the stands.
I found a scrap piece of foam from a mattress I used for the bed in my van. Just duck taped that to the wood. Also added 2 pieces of wood to the foot of each stand to improve stability, will add a cross bar later too. I played around with a blank on it and so far it looks to be working fine.
Right now I am spending time on the various shaping programs to get a template done. This ones more tricky than I expected it to be.
Get the foam for your racks from an upholstery fabric store. They usually sell 1/4" sheets of the stuff for cheap and you can cut it to size. It’s the same stuff us pro’s use :)
As so many (it seems…), my first one will be something mini simmons-y. Took the nug template from blending curves and altered it a bit. Took a while until it was all good, but I finally figured it out.
Still unsure about the tail though, as I really would like a diamond tail. We’ll see.
At first I thought my stands were way too high, but once I made the first stroke it was perfect.
I kept some of the scrap foam and did some free hand sanding right away, just to get a feeling for the material. I had some concerns as the EPS blanks looked so porous and stuff, but all fine, it sands away smoothly.
I don’t know what the general concensus about surfer-steve is on here, but in his book/on his homepage/in his videos he suggests to make a miniature version of a surfboard. Some of you that have been shaping for years (or some of the other first-timers who are just more courageus) might smile at me, but I’m just gonna go ahead and do that. I built a lot of wooden stuff so the sanding process will be fine, but I reckon that miniature model will be especially helpful once I get to glassing.
I will get my sanding blocks ready and start next week.
I am excited as f***.
Holy **** this is fun. I just started with the rougher grits taking down foam. Next thing will be rails, which translates to reading time on here again (rail bands thread i guess). But I am so hooked even after the first strokes with sandpaper and the rasp.
However, I might have to move this to the garage, I really underestimated the mess that this makes.
Pics will follow, also of the tools I made (i.e. stole from the homemade tools thread).
I am a bit later than I originally imagined I’d start shaping, but some stuff came up, but really really stoked that I’m on it now.
Just a little update: yesterday I shaped the rail bands. Shaping just took me a fraction of the time I took to mark the bands. This seems to be the case with a lot of aspects, i.e. preparation takes really long, execution not so much. Anywho, I’ll go for my morning run now and blend the rails bands afterwards. Already looking forward to shaping more boards.
I have some pics on my phone which I will upload, once the board is ready to be glassed.
Sooo, I am coming to a point, where I gotta start thinking about finishing the blank. I think I didn’t f*** up too bad.
I actually wanted to shape a soft belly in the nose and a concave in the tail. Would you rather recommend not doing that on my first board? Also, how far do you go concerning sandpaper grits when finishing a blank? Should the surface be as perfect as possible or does the glass/epoxy need some roughness to better form a bond? My last step was using 180 grit with a sponge.
Soo, I just put a little concave in. Transitions were a bit tricky, but worked out fine.
But: I really need your help on this one. I kinda roughed up the foam next to the stringer when bringing the stringer down. I won’t go as far as to say I ruined it, but it doesn’t look good. at all. What do you suggest? Bringing everything down, blending it in? Spackle, before glassing? Does it even matter? I sure don’t want it to be visible like that after glassing.
Any help greatly appreciated.
If the shape is finalised and the board is for you it does’nt matter but it will show through clear glass. Looks to me like that board is pretty thick so you could sand it out. Set your block plane to a less aggessive cut when you are finishing and use it at an angle and you won’t gouge the foam.
Hi sidiabed,
looking good, especially for a first board. IMO your tail still looks a bit thick, if I were you I’d foil the board more. I remember my first one which was way too thick…
have fun and ignore my advice if you don’t agree…
Just subscribing. 
Thanks for your input.
The board is “just” for me, however, I’d prefer not to have those gouges around the stringer. All the time I had a feeling that nose and tail were a tad too thick, but I was already down to a harder sponge and 120 grit and I just said “f*** it, this looks good enough for me”. Well until the plane came into play.
Okay then, I’ll take some more volume out of nose/tail, pay more attention to planing down the stringer and hopefully will start with #2 soon.
electrican by “primary trade” or day job
Europe? just judging from the outlet in the pix.
As if I am anyone…
I’ll say
you are doing exceptionally well!
Most overshape the 1st.
This is good.
Slow
Think
execute
And
“you can’t put foam back”
My stinkin’ 2 cents???
low rocker in and out
Flat
EZ edge.
More!
Maintain the stoke
