I am happy to introduce Greenlight Surf Supply has ProBox’s North East Coast Distributors. To celebrate, Brian Garliana of Greenlight will be offering ProBox Do it Yourself Bamboo Fin Kits.
The fin kits will come with ProBoxes and install kits if needed along with a pre-sized Bamboo blank by Greenlight to make your own Bamboo Fins like the ones shown here.
I will show my Swaylockian friends how to make these Bamboo Fins just using 3 basic tools that everyone probably has. These tools are, 1) Power Hand Drill,2) Jigsaw, 3) Dremel Tool, similar to the ones in the pics shown here.
I will go thru steps from beginning to end explaining each step on the way how to Lay-out, Cut, Foil, ‘V’ Notch the base of the Bamboo Fin, Laminate, Gloss and Polish. Please fill free to ask any questions and check this thread every few days until we have finished the ProBox Bamboo Fins together. Enjoy (-: Mahalo,Larry
Thank you guys for your support and excitement in the ProBox Movement.
We will now start with the lay-out and alinement of the fin templates to be made out of GreenLight’s Bamboo Blank. I am going to make a Twin Fin Set using the Bamboo Blank in this thread.
First draw the outline of the fin template you desire, making sure the fin template rake is running with the grain as shown in the pic below.
The alinement of the fin template is important because this is your flex support and strenght factor. If you lay the fin template more up-right, breakage will occur in the trailing edge at the tip and the base. If the grian is running cross ways the fin will break in any number of places most likely in the middle to top third part of the fin’s outline.
Now that the fin templates are placed and penciled to the desired area of the Bamboo Blank, we will support the Bamboo Blank with a fiberglass backing. This fiberglass backing will keep everything in place while cutting and foiling is being done. This stage of appling the backing I will post in a few days after I complete and take pictures of the process. Look forward to seeing everyone back then. Mahalo,Larry
Interesting, is the fitting thick enough to support the fin? I always though that wood/bamboo wouldn’t stand the forces. Actually it’s been bugging me cuz glass-ons work fine and essentially there shouldn’t be a big difference in terms of surface area contact.
Hi Tuna, Yes Greenlight will be carrying the complete ProBox line. This Bamboo kit idea we thought would be fun for the Swaylockians who are very creative and wanted to do the Bamboo Fins on their own. Greenlight has a order of ProBoxes in route now to them, that will arrive in a couple of days. Go to ProBoxfinsystems.com and click on Dealers, you will see Greenlight Surf Supply Link click the link and you will be to their website. Thank you for following this thread. Mahalo,Larry
Interesting, is the fitting thick enough to support the fin? I always though that wood/bamboo wouldn’t stand the forces. Actually it’s been bugging me cuz glass-ons work fine and essentially there shouldn’t be a big difference in terms of surface area contact.
Watching this one develop…
surfer_dave, You make a very good point about fitting thickness and the forces. I will share a few things that Brian at Greenlight and Robin Mair(hand-shaper) have come up with targeting those issues. Will get into that with Pics very soon. Thanks for watching (-;. Mahalo,Larry
Yes, Greenlight Surfboard Supply will begin selling ProBox Fin Boxes, Fin Sets, Install Kits, Bamboo Blank Panels, and Bamboo Fins Making Kits beginning March 1st.
We’re making it really quick and easy for Swaylockians to make their own bamboo fins by offering the panels milled to specific thicknesses for glassing with either 6 oz. cloth or 7.5 oz. cloth. Keep an eye on this thread to see how Larry foils and laminates the fins with fiberglass.
In addition, we’ve optimized the panel area to produce at least 6 fins ~any combo of styles ~ Thrusters, Quads, Twins, Keels, Bonzer styles….[add your vision here]
It’s Probox & Greenlight’s goal to provide total freedom of fin design and adjustability to surfers who love to experiment and dial in their surfboards’ performance. With these Bamboo Fin Panels and Probox Fin Boxes you have infinite potential…
I will soon post on this thread a few examples different fin layouts on the panels to illustrate what we’re talking about.
got a bunch of “probox” fins and keels I cut out from several of Brian’s bamboo panels last year using the templates from the probox site and my mandala pavel-like quads. Just haven’t foiled them yet or figured out what to do regarding the tabs as usually those are made out of solid glass or carbon then inserted into the wood fin like benC and sabs showed us here…
Is the bamboo tough enough to hold up as a tab all by itself?
The bamboo panels are great to work with…
since they are so light they make a good option for 4 or 5 fin boards to reduce all the extra weight in the tail…
Hi oneula, No, Bamboo is not strong enough to hold up by the Tab alone. I will show you how to reinforce the tab without having to do alot of work. Thanks for the excellent question. Mahalo,Larry
There’s a very high stress concentration at the fin/tab interface. One thing I did a few years ago was to cut a narrow slot (~1/16") with a jigsaw into the tab/fin and then epoxied an aluminum rib into it. Many alternatives to this are doable; anything that reinforces the interface will do the trick. Cosmetics are another matter tho.
yep, I made some ply keels for a buddie o mine, he had some weird finbox things in his pop out so I had to route a groove about 2.5 inches into the fin area and then basically stuff it with rovings and resin, foil the whole thing and glass it with 2x 6oz. I then could use a screw tap to make the thread for a long m6 bolt which could fit the through-deck finbox. It wasn’t exactly pretty but it did work. The only other thing I could think of would be to keep the wood component very thin and have a glass panel that extends down to the tab, sorta like the fcs keels are done.
