help marking rail bands..

General Discussion
1

Hi All

I have shaped a couple of boards, (with help from you guys) both with a few faults but they go good so im happy.

I have a couple of blanks to shape, and thinking ahead the part which freaks me out is planing the rails. The 2nd board i did the rails with a surform after the first boards rails end up to thin.

I can recall on shaping 101 the mention of rail bands, and im sure i saw somewhere someone marking the bands in pencil as a guide to how deep and where to plane.

Can anyone give me pointers on the position of the marks i should make - ie band nearest the rail X" deep and x" in from outline, the next band in x" in from the last and so on.

i suppose it sounds a bit dot 2 dot but i need some guidance on improving the rail shapes.

The boards will be a 5’11 old school twinnny and a 7’0 fun gun(ish)

thanks for any input

as ever

keen to learn…

2

Hi Keentolearn

This is one of those “how long is a piece of string” type questions as there are so many variables it depends on the final rail shape that you i.e. 50/50, 60/40 etc. It also depends on the deck and bottom shape you want to end up with !

As I am just along the coast from you let me know if I can offer some one to one advice. Contact me via Swaylocks email facility or ask my son Tom at Smallplanet who can put you in touch with me !

Steve

3

You could probably do OK by positioning a section of your outline template a few inches inside the actual outline and tracing it right on to the blank. Then take some measurements from the deck down along the outside edge of the cutout blank and place a few pencil marks for reference. Leave maybe 1 1/4" - 1 1/2"(?)at the edge for the thickest part - It tapers fore and aft with the foil you create. This would give a rough idea of width and depth of your rail bands. You could smooth out the corners with a flexible coarse sanding block at that point.

“Surfboard Design and Construction” is linked somewhere on this site and the author has very detailed diagrams showing rail bevels with precise angles and depths for different designs.

4

The following link is for the Surfboard Design and Construction book which has a number of 70s style boards with detailed designs including laying down rail bands on different boards.

http://jfmillbiz.home.comcast.net/swaylocks/Surfboard_Design_and_Construction_1977.pdf

5

Hi All

Thanks for the info, advice and contacts.

I will crack on with it and see where it takes me!

keen to learn…

6

it seems to me I saw a little picture in that surfers journal article about the elder curran and him shaping where he had a couple o’ stix taped together,one stikin out farther than the other…in the palm o’ his hand…

this I believe is a guage and marker.

hold the longer stick flat on the deck while running the short one up against the hard corner of the vertical plan cut rail

while running this set up along the plan shape rrest a pencil off the long stick and scribe a dupplicate template a chosen distance from the rail

this is a common use for the tri square but two popscicle stix are easier to come by

the notch provided in the end of the rule on the tri-square is handy for keeping the pencil from slipping…notch the stick apparatus if you wish

invert the stix to run off the cut vertical rail and scribe second line on corner equidistant from the hard edge junction of the deck and rail cut…

the method has become clear to me after ruminating on this little photo for a few months ,although when the courage rises up from your strengthening confidence the cuts will find this tool perhaps superflous…

exactitude has merits and is quite respectable

yet streamlining the process to a zen dance has been a personal facination

banding with a block plane like the clark foam r2d2 razor plane can give a regular cutcount option to build confidence the sure-form or sand paper option leaves lacking.

…ambrose…

7

Hi Ambrose

Thanks for taking the time to reply, as ever your words bring a smile to my face.

as ever

keen to learn.

8

Ah yes, rails. it takes lots of practice to get both sides even. using the shaping 101 method, i will measure the center point of the board length, and from the( finished) bottom, using a square on the center dot on the stringer with the 90 deg. pointing down against the flat outline edge, measure about 1" (low rails) to 2" (full) or any where in between, and make a pencil dot on the rail. hold the pencil against the foam at the measurement, and slide the square along the outline. this will leave a reference line along the board. do both sides. flip board deck side up, and using square the same way, mark on deck at 2" and 4" (or any similiar measurments-- its all realative !) and hold the pencil at those marks, and follow the outline. use planer/sureform and cut out between lines. its hard to describe by writing, but pretty simple to do on the board.

9

I do it like nelmo described, similar to the shaping 101 video, but I put my marks – and key the rail band taper off of – the wide point of the blank, regardless of where the actual center point is.

10

hi nelmo / ozzy

thanks, yes i think i will use this method to create the guides to then cut / surform.

im not sure of the numbers to use, how wide, deep ect to go. i guess its different for each board!

thanks again

keen to learn…

11

With my first two boards the rail bands seemed to be a bit of a mystery and i think it was more luck than skill that they came out ok. My third board however was a revalation as the first two boards were shaped with only an overhead light and no side lights! I’d installed side lights for the third board and crikey i could suddenly see what i was doing and this was most apparent when doing the rail bands. The shaping 101 method finally made sense i could follow it using the planer more than the surform. However i still found it tricky up towards the nose of the board as the thickness of the board starts to influence the marks you’ve put on. Basically my rail bands seem to stop once i run into the nose area of the board and i start using the surform to smooth the area out whereas on 101 he seems to go further up than i can but i guess trhat’s experience for you.

Cheers

KS

12

and Gypetto,the fledgling puppeteer,

with one eye on the telly

grasped the sharpie in one hand

while holding the framing square in the other

listening closely to the james earl jones basso profundo naration

‘Tweedlidate the sharpie maintaining the downward ink-flow angle of 10.7 degrees’

a drop of nervous sweat fell audibly to the floor with a thwack between sylables

"strike carefully alongst the blunted edge of the tape marked aluminium framing square # 7303,stanley bismark, afecting a ridgeless mark allowing the utmost resillient indication of declination from center to ends evolving slowly the Eye of Agamoto present in the traditiional rail of the wave rider of the eldest school passed down through the legions of the faithful followers

Of Stan Lee the most marvelous"

aflash of light whites out the screen rendering Gypetto catatonic with fear as the telly is rigged to inform him of the return of the master puppeteer that has banished him from the beach in order to finish the Crow puppet for the festival of darkness this coming saturday.

shufflling the surfboard tools to the box withh open lid beneath the table and pulling the basket of crow feathers back into the workspace ,deftly picking up glue and wood body as the puppet making video blinks to life a millisecond before the door squeeks wide for eyes blackend with sleeplessness to peer in to Gypettos confinement

" AAAAHHHHHHHH Gypie my lad the crow cometh forth to becon the weary

minded to bemusement,See that it is done early .We must rehearse this production for its effects will be measured by the converts…"

the door slams as if the propper cue to send the Lusting Gypetto off into

surfboard reverie…

some day, Gypetto muses, perhaps the great one oh one may come to rescue me and my tools from this dungeon of conformation,making puppets according to rules makes all the puppets the same,when the oneoh one comes we will make all the surfboards in lockstep and be free of the master puppeteer

…ambrose…

troglodytes painting waves on walls

surfers painting zen likenesses on walls of waves