Hi Guys,
This is the contents of a PM with fins - previously chippy61 - seems there’s so much interest in making fins (I can understand why) but the basics of foiling seem to be a lost art.
I suppose the same thing happened to wooden buggy wheel craftsmen with the advent of the automobile…
When I was sanding it was a job pre-requisite as all of the fins were glass-ons except for box singles. The blanks were rough cut from blanks with a band saw and I was given an exmaple of each shapers fins for the foil.
The only boxes available were the single centre standard 10-12" and smaller sides, plus the O’Fishl’s which were being used by Frank Latta - who was making some pretty adventurous mals and mini mals.
fins is going to send me some small panels so I’ll make a video of foiling and post it up.
I have added a comment or two for clarification.
Foiling fins is actually really easy. When I was sanding I literally
got 1/2 hours instruction. I was working for John Fleck - Jams glasssing
down in Brookvale, below Aloha - became Chaos surfboards at some stage,
it’s changed again, not sure who’s there now. - This was all 25 years
ago now.
Anyway…
For glass panel fins it’s a hard disc, 60 grade paper and smooth
sweeping runs along the outline (leading and trailing edges).
This was with a makita 2 speed, 8" sander polisher and a 6" backup pad
on high speed. For practice, you could do as well with an 8" sander
polisher, 6" hard pad, 60 grit pad and some plywood.
Using finer grits on timber will lead to burning, so harsher grit,
faster sweeps/cuts and maybe a slower machine speed if you’ve got a
variable speed unit.
Addition: The pads I’m referring to are Power Pads ~1 1/2" thick foam, with a fabric cover on the pad surface, and the plastic backing which attaches to the machine. I was until recently still using disc cement on my pads, but just converted them to the hook/loop velcro.
They were clamped in a vice, horizontal, below waist high (crotch level)
This is key, too high - and you don’t have the sight line and machine control.
All three were clamped initially to cleanup the outline as they were bandsaw cut from panel.
Foiling: You actually use mostly the weight of the machine to do the cutting
and the sweeping movement is smooth, multiple passes, they’re really
quite quick too.
Imagine it like a dance move, you keep the sander out in front close
to your body and move your arms and shift your weight from one leg to
the other as you swing through.
Black glass fins are the easiest as you can see the material removed
easily, though with some fine plywood you will get the same visual
feedback for practice.
The trailing edge is simple enough, remove the majority of the
material at the same angle, working from base to tip, with the pad
almost flat to the surface you are foiling. The trick is the sweep along
the shape of the outline.
If you use a sander polisher for board sanding you’ll know what I
mean, always keep it flat and you won’t get gouges or sandthroughs.
The leading edge is simple also, now I used to have ~5 different
foils to do, 4 were the same more or less, ones for Greg Clough at the
time were quite different. close to a radius leading edge and all of the
thickness almost all the way out ot the tip, then a very straight line
to the trailing egde.
The leading edge for those was easy, first few cuts at 45 degrees,
then shifting the machine angle for the successive cuts between 45 -
horizontal and 45 down to vertical.
Left hand stayed at the same level, right hand goes up and down
accordingly.
I wish I could get some glass panel, not too keen on laying it up myself, then I could foil some and make a video
I’ll give some plywood ones a whirl and see if I can get a smooth/clean cuts.
Hope this all makes sense, if it doesn’t hang on for a video.
peace out
