First board, a curvy 7'6"

General Discussion
21

If you ever want to do resin tints and opaques, especially different colors on the bottom and top, then learning how to do a cutlap is an essential skill.  And clear laminations are a reasonably safe situation to practice with.   If it goes poorly on a clear lamination then it’s no big deal.  Parts is parts - you can always fix it.  

If you wanted to try your hand at a freelap  - which is also an essential skill - you could do both on the same board.   Cutlap for the bottom lamination and a freelap for the deck lam.  A deck lam with freelap that ends on the bottom makes for an easier sanding situation insofar as blending the lapline smoothly onto the bottom contours.  

 It’s important with both to get into the habit of cutting your cloth cleanly and clipping any stragglers that may hang after the laps get saturated.  Any ragged edges or stragglers are what mess you up when you’re trying to take down the edges.   If it takes you 3x longer to cut your cloth because you’re trying to avoid leaving any corners then that’s time/effort well spent.  Smooth is better than fast.  

22

yeah that was the idea, good training

meaning that it doesn’t make a clear delimitation and therefore easier to make it look “seamless” after hotcoating and sanding?

I’m a patient man, I don’t think I’ll mind taking a long time to prepare my lays properly 

 

thanks again for all the feedback. I might have a local option at my gf’s place but it would be only during vacations so I’m still looking for a better option

23

To me, the shape looks dynamite. i hadn’t considered the fine points that gdaddy made about fin set-up and width/wide-point, but That makes very good sense too. In fact… as a novice board-builder and barely adequate surfer myself, I think Gdaddy gave you EXCELLENT advice on all sub-topics. Simple is better in this case. Bottom contours, colors, fancy tail-treatments, these are all something to mess with a little down the road. That board will be good if you come close to your plans. And if you accidentally drop-in on some local guy, you’ll be damned glad you’re not riding a board with flaming eagles and skulls and hearts and peace-signs and shit! 

24

yup! I agree and I follow them as close as possible. thank you for the enthusiasm!

 

I’m kinda sad about the pink flaming eagle skull though! but it does make sense!

25

So, I’m coming back for an update,

My girlfriend wants in in the fun of shaping discovery so we decided to do it together. Several cool things with that: first we’re going to share that and I think it’s cool, Second: I have a place to shape, her cellar, so it won’t go fast but at least it will happen!

The “design” (more a target/guidline) as slightly evolved:

  • it lost some width, following Gdaddy’s advices I brought it right under 22" to make it quicker rail to rail.

-I think the bottom contour will be flat then a slight V starting around the side-bites

  • it got a pointy nose (cuz my girlfriend said that it looked better)

  • a little more rocker (4,2"N and 2,2"T) still very relaxed

  • it gained some thickness in the tail, the main reason for that is that the most practical blank I can get will have the rocker cut to plan (not much choices around here now). and I felt like I wanted a bit more margin in that “blank” I would welcome feedback on the thinkness shown on the file. under

 

 

Second important point, after discussing it with my partner in crime we decided (as McDing was suggesting). to take our time, but do the shape by ourselve (as much as possible because as mentionned, the best blank match I found will have the rocker cut based on my file). 

the blank is getting ordered now and I will definitely have more questions now that we decided to shape ourselves (but I still will try to research first).

please don’t hesitate to criticate the new “design”. 

Subsidiary question: We are planing to use a minimum of tools and had shape it (surfoam, sanding blocks, measuring tools, david planer…) However with Christmas coming I can ask for a bit of help with a power tool. Which one would you recommend? planer? Sander? something else? (I’m thinking sander but I’m not sure and even if, I don’t really know if I should take an affordable variable speed rotary sander or an affordable dual action… heard it was easier and more… dust controlled)

thanks for reading

 

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26

For tools, if you’re just starting out then start scouting around in Craigslist or ebay for used tools.  You might very well score a good deal.   If I were going to choose between a planer and a sander I’d go with an inexpensive planer.    You don’t actually need a surfboard-modified planer to do it.   A stock click-to-adjust planer will just take more passes to take the material off, which is not a bad thing for a new shaper.  Slower is good.  Your cuts will at least be even.    

If you have mnore time than money - which is often the case - you can sand by hand and a sanding block.  Also much much slower than a power sander but again less likely to accidentally burn through.  (for my own boards I don’t even bother sanding the deck except to take down a lap line or the like) .    If you use good sandpaper you can make do with a random orbital palm sander, too.   

27

I vote planer also. I have made boards using a power planer, surform, & sanding blocks, it isn’t difficult. The other thing I would stress is a good solid shaping stand, and good side-lighting, makes a world of difference.

I have only shaped EPS one time, but found it more difficult to work than polyurethane foam, just saying. Main thing is don’t hurry, easier to take a little more off later than add a little bit back.

28

Thank to both of you for the advice, I will maybe go for a second hand planer, I was overall thinking about going full hand shape for the first one anyway… (should I consider a cheap router?)

it was just that Christmas gave me an opportunity to get something… but I’m not getting something just for the sake of it. I think it’s better to not invest too much before starting.

I’ll probably get a bit of financial help for a wetsuit instead… gotta learn to surf better!

for the stand and lights it’s a great question. For practicality I was going to get two mobile spot lights (one on each side) and build stands with this design found readily on google image. It seems to give a fairly good combination of sturdy/stable/simple.

 

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29

Updated shape looks good! Visually, I like the nose alot better. On the tools, I vote planer as well. I have probably the cheapest planer ever (a “modern” plastic Skil). I bought it on CL for $15, BUT, it is very handy for at least skinning the blank (PU blanks have a crusty outer shell), and getting it down to desired thickness. It doesn’t have “on the fly” depth adjustment, but with fresh blades,  cuts cleanly and is easy to control. I don’t do rail bands with it, but the time it saves for just skinning and thinning is well worth keeping it around. A good disc sander comes into play for glassing, but I have never used that (or orbital) for any shaping applications. I am also a beginner, having only made about 7 or 8 boards, but have done OK with the tools you mentioned and the planer. The shaping racks you have pictured look nice, but I prefer to put the uprights in a 5 gallon bucket of concrete. You still have the “portability” and luxury of adjusting the distance between them, but I think they would feel more solid with the concrete. Even with the buckets half-full of concrete, the racks will occasionally wobble around if you put some oomph into it. I don’t like the free-standing “fixed” style either (where the racks are connected), as I feel like it unnecessarily eliminates alot of creative options when dealing with different boards and doing funky repairs where you may want to manipulate how the board sits. Seems like you’re on the right track and are apparently far more patient than I am. By all means, get a wetsuit first!

30

A buddy and I recently made him a set of shaping stands out of leftover wood I had laying around. The only thing we bought were buckets and cement. A 80 lbs bag of quikcrete, the bigger bag, split between both buckets was more than enough cement to keep everything stable. For $10 a bag its not too bad. If I were making another set I would use less concrete because they weigh over 40 lbs each.

As for a new tool, I’m probably the only one that will say a new sander over planer. Overall I think a good sander is a much more versatile tool than planer. You can also use a sander for a ton of non surfboard building things. I also do a lot more wood working than foam surfboard building. My sanders get far more use than my planer. Check out Wen tools though, on a sale you can get a decent planer and a variable speed sander/polisher both for less than $80. I’ve had both of them for years now and have no complaints. The sander gets way more use than the planer though.

31

thanks for the feedback… for the nose I guess my girlfriend just has better taste than I do!

i will look into concrete weighted racks, I was trying to keep it as simple as possible, however it doesn’t really complicate stuff that much! I’ll check into a 40-50kg quick concrete and a couple of buckets!

i usually tend to rush into things but this is something I want for a long time and I want to get it as right as possible in order to continue this activity in the long run! 

hopefully I’ll manage

32

yeah that sounds like the approach I’ll take for the stand.

 

the polisher/sander is an idea, maybe later but I don’t really know what to take… my research shows that rotative are the jack of all trades but require a bit more skills than dual actions or radom orbital…

 

for the futures fins boxe, possible without a router ?

33

Futures finboxes are possible without a router. The first board I never finished I installed futures finboxes with a dremel. The dremel depthguide is very useful for this.

34

Thanks for the info, 

 

i however don’t have a dremel… it doesn’t look impossible without power tools but maybe I’ll look at something here. Don’t want to mess up the fin installation just because I went in without the proper tool! Especially for the stringer.

35

I think if you are considering to attempt it without power tools, you would just as well glass your fins on. I’m sure there is a way that it could be done, but without a router or a dremel, or some spinny-cutty apparatus, I’m sure it would be challenging. More important than the difficulty (to me anyway) would be the fact that I wouldn’t really be learning or teaching myself a very applicable process. In fact, it might fairly sour you on something that you are trying out for size. That is to say, doing it with zero power tools is not likely to end up being something that you would like to repeat. 

Of course, this is coming from a fellow beginner (also a guy whose son has the Futures one-pass set-up to borrow!), but I think a “compromise” could be achieved by purchasing an inexpensive router and improvising a jig, possibly purchasing JUST the one-pass bit from Futures (?). I DO know that the actual Futures installation kit is expensive, but works perfectly. If you follow the instructions, you get spot-on, clean, and perfectly fitting results.

Then there’s glass-ons. Some people love them, some don’t, but they have been working OK for folks for a minute (decades) now. They are challenging (in fact I know I have posted my glass-on frustrations here on Swaylocks at some point), but it is cool to know how to do them, and they sure look sick. 

Please don’t think that I somehow consider myself an authority on surfboard building. I have only dabbled, just barely scraped the surface of that universe. I am kind of an expert at doing things on the cheap, however, and have learned that time and frustration are imortant costs also…

Just as an afterthought, I know the old style FCS plugs would be far, far, far easier to fit without investing in jigs and bits and blades and blood. I prefer the Futures, and frankly don’t really know if people are still using the old style anymore or if they are available, but they require less gear to get them into the board. It will be interesting to see what you arrive at. The whole process is fun, so you’re already winning when you start.

36

First thank you for your input, I appreciate every input as fellow begginers have a different perspective than pro and both are very valuable. I also know very well that “beginner” is a very relative term and that depending on whom you ask… 10-20 board experience can make somebody consoider himself as a" beginner" or as an “advanced” altogether depending on the person! Bottom line, while I appreciate the disclaimer I very much appreciate the time you take to answer!

I think I am going to move that board a lot and I would like to be able to remove the fins… I also spent a lot of time studying the installation of the Futures… I like the way they are, so I’d rather invest A BIT in some tools than go glass on (even though I think that glass on looks very cool).

So I think that I will follow your advice and find a second hand router or some kind of “spinny cutty appartus” and make some kind of jig out of plywood!

The blank has been ordered and the build will start with 2021! I am over-excited as i’ve been thinking about shapping for more than a decade!

37

RIGHT ON. Fully stoked for you! Looking forward to the updates!

38

ok so,

I haven’t abandonned my project however the cellar I was supposed to work in was flooded (water leak from the apartment above) so I wasn’t able to do so… I hope that it will be resolved soon,

 

meanwhile I built a basic stand. the foam is much softer than it looks… I plan on putting them in concrete in a “low profile” squarish receptacle

I’ll keep you all up to date, but so far nothing too exciting.

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39

slowly but surely… the cellar option fell apart (I hope I can get it back for the glassing). I did the shaping on the rooftop… not ideal for the lighting but at some point it needs to progress! also after the help I’ve gotten from this forum I wanted to show that it is actually going somewhere!

 

I went for the “stussy rails” because it wasn’t too hard. the idea behind it is to get a maximum of volume (for beginner) with rails that stay reasonnably “thin”… It’s a first so I had low expectations but I’m happy to get feedback on stuff I should correct or should have done differently.

hope it’ll “surf”

 

 

 

 

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What you have will work, but there’s still some room for refinement, starting with getting both sides more similar to each other in terms of the shape of the rail and its taper.   You can also soften that line between the deck and rail without losing any float.   In that pic of the nose you want both sides to have the same shape and taper coming into the nose.