Well I just finished boards # 36 & 37, and I’m feeling kinda good about my progress, now if I can just get more adept at using the power plane to do my rails- I’m chickin in that area still, but I realize it’s the only way I can get really fluid rails- but that’s not what I want to talk about. I’d like to share that awhile back I had trouble with my rocker - I’d shape a certain rocker and it would come back from the glasser with a different rocker, so it finally dawned on me to find out the distance between my glassers racks and now when I check the blank rocker I set my racks the same distance as the glasser- now I get much closer. I know that it also depends on whether he glasses the top or bottom first, but I’m at least back in the ballpark. Hope this is helpful to someone. Sad about Malik. Peace to us all.
Yeah, we used to also align the glassing racks, the curing racks, and eyeball the shaping stands so they were close to true.
We had the problem with twist in a few boards, cured it with that…
That’s a good point for all the people that don’t glass their boards ‘in house’.
Can you explain what the problem is? How is the rocker changing between shaping and glassing? Just typical snap back?(even with stringer in place?) And what does the orientation of the racks have to do with it?
Howzit MaraboutSlim, Poly resin shrinks about 6% which might be the cause. I must say that I have never had a shaper bring a board back and tell me the rocker had changed but I think I’ll have one of them set their rocker jig on one of the blanks before I get it and then check it after glassing. Will be interesting to see if there is a difference. I check my glassing racks for levelness from all directions to insure they are level. Aloha,Kokua
Hey Patrick,
the rocker will change between the bottom and deck laminations. Poly resin shrinks about 3 percent (short term) and up to 7 percent (long term). If the lamination goes off super quick this shrink rate can impart skin tension, and the shrink may show an influence on the rocker.
As for getting good with the planer, I can recommend a couple of things. First the Skil 100 or the Hitachi 2003 are by far above most available “surfboard” planers, so get one if you haven’t yet. Second, get your skills up so you can do rail bands all the way to finish. (I did my 7,682nd through 7,688th today, so I hope I’ve gained some skills). I hardly use the Surform, just planer to sanding block to screen. A very well-planed blank should almost look “glass-able”, well, pretty good anyways.
I found at your point in development the best thing you can start to do is finish your outlines using the above-mentioned planers. (Of course, there are quicker ways to outline but to get the skills, a couple hundred outlines will help incredibly). My blank is templated, and rough sawed. I place it in my rack on rail and wedged with scrap blank cut-offs. The key is to have a solid stance. With the planer on very shallow cut, take short passes, (and occaisionaly long smoothing passes), to get close to your pencil line. Check that your surface is SQUARE to the bottom of the board.
Remember, that you are gaining skills here, so do not give up and not try it again, keep looking at the things that are keeping you from doing this (ie. motor-control ability 
Being able to outline with the planer will get you ready to do controlled, readable, rail bands and not just hacked rail cuts.
As for overall skills, when looking at a shape, ask yourself “if I can see a problem, then go after it”. Say and do this all through the process. As you establish each phase or step, have a level of acceptability before you go to the next step.
Doing this may take longer to shape a board but the end results will be noticibly better.
Good Luck!
Howzit again Marabout, Forgot to ask if they are coming back with less rocker or more rocker. That information might help figuring out what is going on. Seems that if the bottom is done first( normal ) the rocker will flatten out. Also could be the sander changing the rocker.Aloha,Kokua
Howzit PlusOne, Poly shrinks about 6% and epoxy only shrinks about 3%. Aloha,Kokua
I couldn’t agree more with PlusOneShaper, whether it be planing blanks or sanding dings, tool control and feel is a long aquired skill. Don’t under estimate it, like most people do.
ok guys- thanks for the feedback - (deep breath) # 38 here I come!