Here’s my first attempt at making fins. Never thought I’d try this but Oldy’s story, Chip’s many fin pics and Bert’s “Fin making for dummies” thread gave me the inspiration to give it a try. Well… to be perfectly honest it was the sticker shock of seeing how much a set of canard quads cost that really inspired me, but those other threads get an honorable mention. Now that they’re done I gotta tell you the price is justified. A lot of work goes into making fins.
I got impatient finding a source of decent 3/8" ply so I just used some crappy old 1/2" pine layin around my garage. Once I finished sanding it smooth it was 3/8". Yeah, I know now that Frost sells 9mm 7ply baltic birch, so the next fins will look better and be stronger. Anyway, I’m kind of happy with them. One thing I learned was that you need to switch from 36 to 60 grit to finish the trailing edge, otherwise it splinters off. Here they are.
The fins look really good. Shape and foil have a good flow. I like the amount of clear bead you made around the outside of the wood…
I have glassed a handful of fish boards for Shipman Surfboards. He uses birch plywood. I was told that sometimes you can find small sheets of Birch plywood at Michels craft store. I have lots of scrap 6 oz glass if you need any for installing those fins
Nice work! So how did you get the nice glass bead around your fins? Do you have any pictures of the intermediate steps? I ask because I am about to do the same thing.
Thanks for the encouragement guys. Swied, I do have intermediate pics at home but really I just followed Bert’s illustrated how-to thread (http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=161667;search_string=wooden%20keels;guest=1009267#161667). He’s got pics for pretty much every step. I think he was making fins for a box so at the end he made the tab fit his fin box. I’m glassing them on so I just cut off the tab when I was done foiling. Roving helps get the bead on the leading edge. You can get some good thick roving at DMC in La Mesa. I bought a yard of 18 oz cloth from there for maybe $6 (which is about the the price of gas to get there these days) and the strands pull really easily. For a shiny, non-stick surface to do the glass work I experimented with a few materials and ended up using clear plastic sheets like what you use in the cheap do-it-yourself spiral binding systems. Just tape them together on the back side.
Well I finally finished the board to go with those fins. It’s a 5’6" that’s very similar in shape to the last 5’8" keel fin I made. Besides the different fin setup I also made it a little heavier and with softer rails than the 5’8" which was a bit too corky for my taste. Took it along with me on a “family getaway” to Las Gaviotas last weekend and test drove in 5’-6’ right pointbreak waves. Well, after three good sessions I think that if I could only have one board this would be it. The fins hold well on bottom turns but I can still get the tail to release on top turns. Overall I feel that it has much more control than my keel fin fishes. Thanks to everyone here at Swaylocks for the inspiration and great advice that went into this board. Here are the pics and dims:
5’6" x 20 1/8 x 2.5"
glassed 6B x 6+4D warp E
stringerless 2lbs EPS
polycrylic gloss coat (bad idea)
I forget the weight right now, and anyway my scale is only precise to within a half pound. But it feels just right.
I guess now I have to stop laughing at all those 4 fin boards…but that’s ok. I can still laugh at the five finners.
Ray, no bottom contours. I’ve never put bottom contours on a board. At this point I’ve got so many things I’m trying to get right that bottom contours seem like adding extra shrapnel to a handgrenade. And being stringerless would make it even more tricky. I’ll PM you about that Cardiff event. Sounds fun.
Doug, glad you like the Grasshopper. The story on that one goes back to another Mex trip a long time ago. I went surfing as soon as we got to the break while everyone else went about setting up camp. The rest of the trip my buddy’s 3 and 5 yr old girls were calling me Grasshopper man. I put one on every board I make now.
Reverb, there is no stringer in this board, but I’ve seen professionally made boards both ways so I’ve always thought it doesn’t matter. I’ve never had a leash plug pull out before so I don’t worry too much about it.