About 12 years ago, I bought 3 blocks of EPS foam that were 4’ x 4’ x 13" and $5 each. Left them at my dad’s house and just recently brought them to my house to use. I sliced up the foam using the 13" as the width, thinking I would add a stringer. Unfortunately, my hot wiring skills suck and I never seem to be able to get a clean cut with the crappy home made wires I have. I ended up with funky cuts and decided to skip the stringer, so I glued up the front and back halves, then glued it all together to make my blank. What I ended up with was a challenge to work with, but this is not the first time I’ve shaped messed up foam.
This is the glued up foam. I clamped these rocker templates on to keep the foam solid while I hack away the excess and make a smooth blank.
So I take my old cheap Home Depot planer (no mods) and I start cutting foam and I go until I have the bottom rocker I want, then flip it and smooth out the deck. Once I get it smoothed out, I cut an outline, but I keep it on the wide side. Then I draw a bunch of guide lines, and get the thickness worked out. The tail rocker is just at 2", the tip of the nose is 6", but it has a lot of kick in the last 6".
Using the guide lines I thin out the deck, then I re-draw the outline and true it up. Once the outline is good I cut out the rail bands. I think I have the deck flat out to about 4" from the rail, then the deck curves down to were the rail curve will be. I left the rails flat for now. I have a spot on the bottom mid joint that was a bit low, so I filled it and spackled the board. Once the fill and spackle are dry, I’ll smooth out the bottom and then I’ll spackle the deck. Not sure when I’ll glass it so I’ll leave the rails flat until I’m ready to glass then do a final shaping and get the rails turned. I’m not sure if I’m going to do a beak nose or not and I’m not sure on the tail, so I left them to be dealt with when I do the rails.
Not the best way or the easiest way to make a surfboard, but it can be done. We’re just carving out a shape.
As it is now the board is 7"6" x 22" x 2.5" Here are some simple tools I made for shaping. I like using belt sander media because it is tough and lasts a very long time. I made a tool to pull the belt tight for crowning the deck. I have an XPS block with a curve for making concaves on the bottom, and I have this soft foam that was inside an electronics box that I glued a glove to. I use the glove for final sanding. The large screen is for a vibrating floor sander, it’s great for sanding the foam smooth and turning rails. Small screen is the drywall screen from Home Depot. I have sanding blocks made from 2" x 4" and sanding belts. They work great for sanding glassed boards too.
I have a Clark Hitachi and a modified Bosch surfboard planer, but I did this with just the cheap off the shelf planer, 2 surforms (one with a curved blade to take a lot of foam away fast), and the sanding blocks.
I had about 10 gallons of foam dust when I was done.
A few tools for Artz. The grater was from the Japanese dollar store Dayso or Daiso. It works great for chewing through EPS. I always look for graters when I go to the dollar stores. I made the rail tools from a rectangular grater, but I don’t know what happened to them. They were OK when I started, but definitely NOT needed once you learn how to shape. Sanding blocks are made with sanding belts stapled to 2 x 4 and 2 x 6 lumber. The 2 x 6 is 36" long. I have 24" long and 18" long blocks. I made one with a inverted V to cut a flat V concave, and I made one with a rounded curve for concaves. I also have XPS blocks with various curves, one is small enough for bonzer tails.
More tools. I made a couple of these rocker copying tools. I found the cabinet hinges on eBay and bought all I could get. I have enough for another jig. I also tried to make a roller sander using 4" PVC drain pipe. I used wheels from a Razor style scooter and a long threaded rod. It wasn’t the greatest tool because it wobbled. When I took it apart to re-build it, I found that the wheels couldn’t handle the stress and tore apart. I may try cutting pieces of wood and re-building it but I found something else that I’m going to do first using skateboard wheels and sanding tubes for spindle sanders.
Latest Frankenboards. I cut up the second 4’ x4’ x 13" EPS block I had and I made a 7’6" x 21.5" x 2.8" round pin fun board for my brother, then a 5-10 Nugget style to try my brother’s McCoy gull wing fins. I wasn’t too happy with the Gullwing fin, but I only rode it that way once. After riding it as a quad, I can’t imaging going back, but one day I will try it again.
I had enough foam pieces for 2 more boards, so I decided to do something I started when I did the 5-10, a double ended board. I wanted to make the 5-10 a reversable board with boxes on both ends, but I just could get my head to make a nose with the hard edges and low rocker a tail requires. Well, I forced myself to make a board with 2 tails. This one is 7’ 8" x 21" x 2.5" and the wide point is off center, so it’s a pulled in single fin egg or a twin fin nugget. The rocker is about 3 inches on the twin end and just a little less on the single fin end. I’m still working on it, but it will have hard edges on both ends and a tucked edge the rest of the way. This board is inspired by seeing Emerick Ishikawa’s quiver of reversable boards.
