I’m a little stuck with fins for the fish I am shaping. I kind of had my heart set on Al Merrick- Fish LokBox fins, but there is no supplier for the LokBox fin system in Australia and while I could get some in, I’d be stuck with a. getting someone who knows how to install them and b. getting spares in the event of fin loss.
Can someone suggest a supplier of suitable fins for a fish in Australia? I’m open to options and glass ons are probably what I am lining my self up for here as most other fin systems don’t seem to have a fish type fin.
My other option may be to shape keels out of marine ply, but I’m trying to steer away from the manual labour … I know, I know, what is life without a challenge
Foiling keel fins from plywood is not too dificult, they look bitchen, and work good. If you like foiling boards you will probably like foiling fins. I’ll send you templates. Sent them to Australia before. You get the same stoke as shaping, glassing, and riding you own board. Only, “yah, made the damn fins, too.” Its great. Mike
I shaped my own fins, its not that hard. Did you want them made of glass or use plywood? I wanted to use Lok box too, but have the same problems as you have stated. No one up here wants to spend the money on the equipement to install that fin system. If you have the cad or graphic program, draw the outline of the fin and use that as the template to cut out the fin. Then its just sanding away to make the foil.
I would shape my own out of ply. 5" tall by 8" long and glass them in, but i enjoy the labor. Otherwise I would buy a set of Geppies and glass those in parallel and straight as an arrow.
FCS is my only real option with fin systems, but I just question the strength of the system if I shape a large fin for a fish - looking like base 6.75" by height 5.5". If a painstakingly handshaped FCS fish fin comes out, it’s going to be a pain to reshape a newy.
I was really looking for some type of fin box alternative before going down the path of glassed on forevers
Hello, if you want more strength, put, at least, three plugs on each fin if you’re going to use the traditional keel fins.
Using epoxy between the wood and for making the tabs will make much stronger fins, believe me, i tried exactly the same you’re going to do, and the poliester keel fins will be broken at the tab base.
Another option you have is using short fin boxes (bahne style) as the ones that most longboards have for the center fin, but a shorter model if you don’t want so much box in the bottom of your board.
Visit Paul Jensen’s site to see a pair of NICE keel feens made out of wood (I think they’re also on the resources section here. If you want to know how to make the fins Bert has post and amazing thread here some time ago, search the archives, and you have also some information, again, at Paul’s site (www.hollowsurfboards.com).
I’m in the process of installing lokbox fish fins on my 2nd fish. I’m going to use the al merrick templates. I asked a shop that installs them and they say that you can install them using a dremel (I told them that I wasn’t going to buy a router just to install some fins). So in order to use the dremel I’m going to have to make a template from the shape of the actual box ( I was thinking lexan), then carefully routing the depth of cut on the foam. The lokbox has two depths that need to be cut. The shop said it can be done but will (obviously) take longer than a router. I’ll also need to adjust the box depending on the template fins I use. I chose the lokbox system because they already had fish templates that seemed to work well and hold up to the forces of a large base. Also, I wanted to move the fin forward or rearward depending on the conditions as well as not having to worry about setting in camber as the fins already have camber built in. If you’re really in need of some boxes and fins, I can get a pair of boxes for you and ship them to you. I’ll just charge you the shipping and cost of the boxes (I’ll ask the shop that I go to if they stock al merrick fish fins, if not ask “lokbox” to see if he has fins that he can send to you). I’m sure whichever route you take it’ll look good and work well. I get complements on my hand foiled keel fins as to looking cool and furniture-like. Anyways, 'Can’t wait to see your progress on that board.
Hey thanks for the good words guys. Sorry for the delay, got hit with a little flu bug and missed almost this whole swell. We try to get people to get our install equipment simply because it does a really clean job. A perfect tight cut which we feel is vital to the integrity of our box. Especially with the large based keels. A sloppy cut could lead to a box failure which bums everyone out. But at the same time we understand the costs, and that some people might just want to try out a set. My suggestion would be to use either some 1/4 inch lexan or other type of hard plastic or even paneling, and flip the box upside down and trace out it’s outline. This cut the (ellipse) should be 3/16ths deep, and sometimes a tad deeper for deep concaves. You may want to rig up some kind of depth gauge also. Once you have that cut using a dremel or small router, just take the box, line it up with the screw towards the stringer(towards left on rear thruster fins) over the hole and press it down into the foam. This will leave an impression of the cavity portion of the box(deeper part) into the foam. The depth you need to cut from there is 1/2 inch. If you do it clean, it will install nice. Be sure to have the cavity opening taped off or use the lokbox sticker which comes with the boxes from the supplier. Install with approx. 2/3 ounce straight lam resin, spread around hole wetting all bare foam, and press box in using slow even pressure. Angle is built into the fins so be sure to push each box in evenly. If you tilt one out or in, try to tilt the other the same. Note:(Install dummy fins come with jig) Now just spread a light even layer of resin over the face of the box, without leaving any thick globs anywhere. Squeegee off any excess resin around the box. Let harden. Now cut glass patches minimum 1 1/2 inch larger than box all the way around(slightly larger for fish boards) and apply over the box with second coat of straight lam resin.
(2 layers of 4 ounce or one 6 ounce and one 4 ounce recommended for fishes) saturate and squeegee the patch flat removing any excess resin. Hot coat.
For fins we currently make the following templates for keels:
Kane garden
G&S
Channel islands
Rusty
Pavel
Zippy
Moonlight/GH
Surf presciptions
Any of these templates can be ordered single or double foiled, as well as turbo (curved) version. Cost is $24.00 wholesale, 10 extra for turbos. Thruster sets are $30.00 plus ten for turbos. If you need custom angle built into the fins or have further installation questions please contact me at lokbox@sbcglobal.net
All fins can be ordered through rainbow fin company at 831-728-2998 or info@rainbowfins.com. Please allow 3 to 4 weeks if the template you would like is not in stock. Colors available are smoke, clear, red tint, or blue tint.