my buddy gave me a old ed wright fish to work on, some how a keel had been ripped off. when i inspected how they were mounted it seems as though they only used some fin rope and built up the base with sanding coat. seeing as the original fin is missing i have to replace both of them and i’m weary of the strength they would have if i mounted them the same way. at the same time i’m not sure how confident i would be to sand down a huge portion of the tail to the cloth so i can mount them with layerd cloth. what do you guys think?
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....i can mount them with layerd cloth. what do you guys think?
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In 1960 I abandoned the use of rope or roving when mounting fins. I used cloth only. Never cracked or broke a fin loose after that. I used 5 or 6 layers of either 8 or 10 ounce cloth. The SECRET to the high strength, (shhhhh) is to cut the cloth with weave on a 45/45 bias. Remember, it's a secret.
EDIT: That would be 5 or 6 layers of cloth on EACH SIDE OF THE FIN.
thanks for the tip. cant belive i never thought of that myself.
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....i can mount them with layerd cloth. what do you guys think?
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In 1960 I abandoned the use of rope or roving when mounting fins. I used cloth only. Never cracked or broke a fin loose after that. I used 5 or 6 layers of either 8 or 10 ounce cloth. The SECRET to the high strength, (shhhhh) is to cut the cloth with weave on a 45/45 bias. Remember, it's a secret.
EDIT: That would be 5 or 6 layers of cloth on EACH SIDE OF THE FIN.
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Bill, Bill , Bill............
6 layers of cloth on each side....8-10 oz cloth??????
.....yeah... no wonder they never broke.....sanding nightmare.....Super strong.......
Sorry pal.......that's way OverKill....Thraikill...
A nice bead of roving or fin rope about the size of your little pinky finger......lay it up nice and tight next to the fin...2 layers of 6 oz from the top of the fin to about 2 inches toward the stringer..........work it out.....use your fingers....
look for a little book......The Ding Repair Scriptures , by George Colendich.....It's all in the book...Foamez has the book...
so simple even a hippy can do it.....Buy the book...it's the best 12 dollars I've ever spent on surfing......
Glass ons are easy...........
Ray
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[quote="$1"]
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....i can mount them with layerd cloth. what do you guys think?
[/quote]
In 1960 I abandoned the use of rope or roving when mounting fins. I used cloth only. Never cracked or broke a fin loose after that. I used 5 or 6 layers of either 8 or 10 ounce cloth. The SECRET to the high strength, (shhhhh) is to cut the cloth with weave on a 45/45 bias. Remember, it's a secret.
EDIT: That would be 5 or 6 layers of cloth on EACH SIDE OF THE FIN.
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Sorry pal.......that's way OverKill....
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Ray, Ray, Ray,
Wrong. It was a time of thirty pound boards, with NO leashes. It was adequate and appropriate to the circumstances. Sanding was easy. It's all in how clean you do the layup. If you make a sloppy mess, it might well be a nightmare to sand. I didn't have that problem. Don't be sorry pal, pay attention and learn something. The cloth only method is not efficient in a ''production'' setting, but it IS the best/strongest way to attach a glass-on fin. There are other benefits to the method that I'm not discussing here, that relate to performance. I answered the narrow question that was asked.
B.T., I see a book in the details. Could help with retirement.
actually my question was more along the lines of , with a 4" keel do you think some rope and a solid buildup would be adequate. or should i take the time to sand all the filler off and use cloth , which would not look original. i understand exactly where bill is coming from. prodution wise fin rope is great but i believe in theory the base of the fin is where the most drag is. boxed fins don’t have that buildup. some people will never be good enough surfers to ever notice the difference and if you are good enough it won’t matter anyhow because you still know how to make the board do what you want.i dont know about 6 layers of 8oz. but i use 4 layers of 6oz and have been quite succesful.
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i dont know about 6 layers of 8oz. but i use 4 layers of 6oz and have been quite succesful.
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The schedule I referenced, was what I used on 8 and 9 inch D fins, and Reverse fins, ''back in the day,'' as they say. Smaller fins don't require as much cloth, and these days with leashes, boards don't wash up on shore like they did in the past.
i am part of the anti leash movement and i like to glass on all my fins and never put anything to attach a leash to on my boards. i guess you could almost say i have influenced a good group of kids in my area to lose the leash and switch to single fins. i believe some things have advanced in surfboards and some things just need to be done the old fashioned way.
If you check around on used boards with glassed on (or plug-style) fins, it's actually pretty rare to find one that hasn't been repaired or damaged.
After losing a glassed-on side fin during a bottom turn once, I took to building up the fillet with plenty of bias cut cloth. Sometimes I shred a few pieces and place the strands against the joint under the bias cut patches. I often use 10 layers per side - not all the way up the fin but along the base.
Fins are already a vulnerable weak spot on a board. To add a few layers of cloth during installation is cheap and easy insurance.
Funny.funny, funny ,
I was waiting for a good response from Bill....I think Bill knows I was poking a little fun at him...I'm OK with what Bill and John are talking about. Lots of layers, taper the layers.Think about laying up the cloth so that the weave goes at 45 degeee angles ,ect.......Good stuff for super tankers
But......
I'm talking about glass on's for Fish and Thrusters....the side fins are so close to the rail there's no way to do Bill's method without changing the shape of the rail....Here's a photo of a short board I just finished. You can get some cool glass ons from ProBoxLarry.....
Have fun everyone!
Ray
Thanks John and Bill!
I hate freaking fin rope! I have been surfing 11" upright pivot fins on all my longboards and have snapped a few off using fin rope and 2-3 layers of 6oz cloth on each side. I glassed on a fin today with 4- 6oz layers staggered at different lengths tapering up the fin per side. Tomorrow I will work 2 more 6 oz layers 3/4's up the fin and 2 more totally covering the fin (per side). Thanks for the tip! 11" fins put a lot of torque around the base with surfing hard in over head surf. I have always read and heard the gospel about fin rope, but it doesn’t make sense to me on longboards with big fins.. Layers do. For shortboards with multiple fins near the rail it makes alot of sense.
Sometimes things happen for a reason. Sometimes you have to go with it.....I shaped a 9'3" longboard. No customer , no dead lines, No fin plans....Surf4fins shows up with a fin he found at SanO 15 years ago.....Looks like I'm going for a little old school fin lay up!
Ray....Ray...Ray...
I'll bring over a thruster that I did using Bills no roving method. My lam is full of bubbles, and looks like hell; however it will give you an idea of how the method works. There is no fillet, and the fins are super solid on the board. You don't need as many layers as Bill said to use with a smaller fin. I used 4 oz glass.
Hi Ray -
"Surf4fins shows up with a fin he found at SanO 15 years ago....."
The board I lost the fin on was an 8'4" thruster style semi-gun. It wasn't a huge wave or anything but I took a beating when it broke free.
The guy who built the board that lost the fin that Tim found should have used more glass. LOL