hi y’all,
I have a 6’2" single fin template that has a 14" nose measurement and 20" mid measurement and 13" tail measurement.
When I draw the template onto the 6’ 2" blank, I go 12" from the nose and measure half of 14" on each side of the stringer. I do this for the tail as well.
It doesn’t true up. Any ideas why this is so? I know I’m doing something wrong but can’t seem to figure what that is. Thank you guys for any or all of your
suggestions.
Thanks,
Stand at the tail of the board, and look down the stringer, eye level from the tail to the nose, and if you have a keen eye, you will see that the blank’s stringer is not truly straight. If you have a lazor level it will be easier to see, but definitely not necessary…
When blanks are glued untrue for many different reasons, they will not measure the same on both sides.
.Delete post…Ghetto has the reputable answer…
From my shaping room I hear, “This machine is F’d, this board is 3/8” wider on one side", I go into Steve Clark’s room and he has one of Joel’s Keyo Nat Young models on his shaping rack, I ask him what’s wrong and he reiterates that the machine has cut the board 3’8" wider on one side.
I try my best to tell him the machine can only mirror image the left to right, but he insists it’s wider on one side, he pulls out a tape and sure enough it is further from one rail to the center than on the other side, but the stringer looks like a hard left turn.
He couldn’t get his brain around the fact that the board was true but the stringer was not running down the center for the whole length of the blank, he was stil insisting after I walked away that it was wider one one side, even after I had snapped a chalk line to show him that the stick was 3/8" off center in the middle.
I may not be a genius, but at least they call me one
Jim the G, When you have a moment, would you mind illuminating the line snapping process? I have an idea but the concept of snapping on a convex surface just goes against my grain. Thank you for any attention to this matter.
You CANNOT snap a line on the bottom of a surfboard, sure you can, but it will NEVER be accurate, you HAVE to snap it on the DECK side ONLY and snap it several times before taking the tension off it.
If you have not pulled the string straight up over where you want the line, it can deflect off to the opposite direction
Ok, members of the Peanut Gallery, does this show what i explained ?
This was a “Pro” glue up by US blanks, they did not understand that when you cut up a blank into this many pieces, it no longer has a “spine”, it becomes gutless and will find a “natural” center, that is where ever it feels like, the balsa had a crook in it and it determined what the rest of the blank did
Jim’s pics show exactly what I was talking about, and while snapping a line is tricky on the bottom, a lazer level will demonstrate the same thing much easier. Its kind of an advanced shaping trick, and most of the time the level will never come out, but when its needed, hard to live without, but most guys will never get that into handshaping, because good to great handshapers, are underappreciated, and every wannabe cool guy just copies some program and fakes their way to cool. Of course if you’ve actually shaped for quite some time, the machine is a tool, but nice to handshape boards that knowledgeable people think came off a machine. Machine shaper’s are so over-rated.
Howzit g-rat, Prime example of why all blanks should be chalk line snapped before laying the template on the board. I have seen some really bad glued up stringers in my career as a board builder. I used to see it a lot when painting boards also,especially doing stripes on both sides of the stringer,I would measure off the stringer and then check if they were in sync at the nose and tail and most of the time they were not inline so I would use my center rule T square to make sure the stripes would line up at the nose and the tail and if you looked down the board you could see that the stripe had a slight curve to it but it was harder to see than if the stripe was closer at the rail at the nose or the tail or both ends. Aloha,Kokua
Thank you Jim the G for that illistration. I've always used a straight edge instead of a line. I'd rather trust that to snapping. From years of experience snapping lines as a carpenter I know how easy it is to get a bad snap. Just the line rolling a bit will throw accuracy out the window. I also know that it can be done but prefer the static quality of a straight edge point to point. I've also seen crooked stringers on blanks and finished boards. Thank you for your response. Now....Back to Howdy Doody and friends. Cowabunga Buffalo Bob!
Gotta check both sides too. Put some twist or cant into a stringer and it’ll take a while to figure out why the deck matches but the bottom doesn’t…
I figured it out.
The first time I did it, I laid the template on the deck. When I laid it on the bottom, it was easier to place the weight and line up the straight edge to the stringer. yay!
I decided to add 1/2" on both sides of the stringer so I can get a 21" width. I crossed the lines on nose and lined up the lines for the tail. It’s perfect !!
I’m loving this “shaping your own board” thing.
Gracias everyone. PEACE!
I have to say, as much as I loved Walker Foam, their approach to gluing bad wood was par none. As Lee said a twisted piece of wood can be a real nightmare, Leucadia Surfboards got a bunch of returned blanks from Dewey’s shaper, the wood, 2" balsa, was bent and twisted, so the blanks were a complete cluster F.
Shape out a twist from hell and snap line the crooked stick, the centers were almost 3/4" out of line in the middle, made for some really thin rails
