first i’d like to say “thank you” to all of you who share the wealth of knowledge and experience you have gained with those of us who are new to this.
i have only been shaping for a very short time. i am getting ready to start on my sixth board. the problem i am consistantly running into is with the placement of the fins. i have been told to take my placement measurements from the rail, which i have done, but in doing this they never point to the same reference point off the nose from board to board. in reflecting on this situation, the question has come to my mind about the arc of the rail and how this effects the tow angle of the fin. would it not be better to measure the tow in angle from the stringer once you have placed the trailing edge of the fin measured from the rail?
Good question and I hope someone with more knowledge chimes in. I learned to measure from a set distance from the nose and toe them in from there. You have to get a straight 8 foot metal doohickey. Say 18 inches off from the nose you can mark 4 1/4" from the stringer on both sides and from there you can line up your toe in with your back fin marks. The numbers are fictional and have no relation to real numbers whatsoever.
You may not need the 8 foot metal deal to measure toe-in. If you know how far from the stringer the rear of the fin is, and how far from the nose it is supposed to point to, use some trig to figure out toe in. It’s easy to punch into a calculator, and keeps you from having to keep 2 ends of an 8 foot long piece of metal in the right place over a curved surface, one end of which is on a point in ‘space’ in front of the nose of the board…
All of that is way above my second grade maths comprehension certificate. Plus my metal doohickey is bendy to wrap around the rocker while still keeping a true line.
It sounds like your all have all seen shaping 101 too many times. This method will over toe the fins in some cases.
Depending on what your making:
Parallel
1/16"
1/8"
3/16"
1/4"
Is it a tow board? Paddle board? High Performance Longboard? Retro Frish? Modern Quad? Big Guy Shortboard (Hybrid)? Rhino Chaser? High Performance Shortboard?
Fins are set according to the style of board you are making. Using the straight edge method is too random. The Math equation looks interesting? I will use it to compare it with my fin placements on the different boards I make and see how it translates?
It’s kinda funny, that nose thing. You can round and snub a nose on a fish and end up with a board that has the same tail, but a nose a foot shorter. What’s that do to your toe-in, and why? Maybe that whole rule of thumb is just to get in the right ballpark, but I thought 1/8 to 1/4 to maybe 3/8 was the whole range. Typical fish toe would be 0 to 1/8, maybe 1/4 for some, and 1/4 being standard thruster.
