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Wood_Ogre again, One more day and more progress. I scribed the the skin 1/2 inch oversize off the master template just like I did with the first skin. Then laid up the cloth with West systems 206 for 2/3 of the skin and did 1/3 with 207 and a sample logo. As I have not worked with 207 I wanted to get a feel for it and how it works with the rice paper logo. Every thing went fine except the 207 is real thick and some work to get an even wet out. May be tough to do large areas with.Yes it is kind of yellow but will work fine with wood. Bet it would realy screw up the looks of a foam board. When the resin had set I trimmed the cloth. A couple hours laiter I was able to put the glue on the frames and flip the skin over and clamp it down. About the skins. When I resawed my wood for the skin I cut them about 3/16 inch . I wanted to make sure I was on the safe side as it is easy for me to run the glued up skins through my thickness sander to bring them down to 1/8 inch. But it is impossible to make them thicker. They glued up fine so I learned from this that I just need them a strong 1/8 inch and one pass in the thickness sander on the ouside of the skin. No need on the inside. The finish side of the skin is so good that only a little hand sanding will be needed to finish it. About the red strips of wood in the skins. I used redwood(sequoia) which was salvaged from a house that blew apart in Huricane Iniki. Picked the lightest peaces. The reason for the balsa and redwood is that this is the way My friend Charley wants his big board to look so I thought I would try it out to see how it looks . He also wants a pin line along the rails so I will try that on this board too. Good night everybody hope to do more tomorrow. Aloha- Wood_Ogre
More pics, The The clamps have been removed from assembly. The overlap of the bottom skin has been trimmed with router and pilot bit.
Testing the bend of the red wood pin line strip to make sure it will take the curve.
Pin line is glued up and clamped.
Second pin line strip ready to glue up
Second pin line glued and clamped
First butt crack pin line glued up and clamped
So! How am I doing?
brilliant mate, beautiful to watch thats for sure!
keep up the fine work and pics (no such thing as too many pics!!)
Love the clamping jig…
It opens up the build-ability to those not wanting to buy dozens of pounds of clamps…
Looking great…!!!..
The Show goes on! Are you bored yet?
First set of balsa rail strips glued and clamped. Note the Lexan compression strip. It supports the balsa for an even bend with no gaps.
The second redwood butt crack strip is glued and clamped.
Spreading epoxy glue on balsa rail strips. On the left is an oversized pattern for rail strips. no need to glue and bend more wood than I have to.
This is the other side rail. I just put glue on to glue the balsa rail strips. The assembly is then put on the work bench for clamping.
By the end of the day I have balsa strips on two rails and one side of butt crack. Iam bending two strips of balsa at a time so I will end up with a heiring bone pattern on the rail overlaps.
After two strips are glued up I trim them. First I used the router but the dust was bothersome. So I descided to use a spoke shave. A little slower but very pleasant work.
are we bored yet?
AS IF!!!
keep it coming mate!!
thanks for all the pics. what you’re doing is so out of my league but it’s wonderful to watch.
Not to rock the boat, but y’all need to realize (as if any sentient in Hawaii may not already) that the State of Hawaii is spending considerable amounts combating invasive species. Think miconia, gorse, banana poka on the plant side and the little erytheinia (sp?) fly that has pretty much killed off the wiliwili.
What is the status of planting your own non-native species…? Particularly as I suspect no official agencies were involved in the initiation of this project? Maybe it’s okay, I know there are balsa trees in Honolulu, for instance Foster Botanical Gardens cut out a large one last year.
Moving along, another invasive species that isn’t getting much attention (maybe not yet) is albizia, which has a very light wood (maybe fragile though). This is also referred to as gunpowder tree (as I was told) for it’s habit of having large dead limbs dry out and loudly snap off at odd moments. Anyone from Hilo would remember the massive tree about a mile above the hospital, 10-plus feet trunk diameter, the biggest tree I’ve ever seen… Anyway these trees are becoming a real nuisance in many marginal or once-cleared areas where they have taken over to the near exclusion of most every thing else. Logging these would be a blessing, the wood is light, and they’re there right now, no waiting. Suggest consult your local landowner first.
charlie,You are not rocking the boat. I am a member of the Kauai Forestry Committe and have been doing trees here on Kauai for over 35 years . Because you dont know I will tell you that there is much tree farming on Kauai the past 15 years. We know what the invasive species are.Yes albizia is one as is Silk Oak. We are actually developing an industry here on Kauai using these trees. We have the support of the County, State, DLNR, Department of Forestry and private land owners. We are growing many kinds of trees. I have spent a lot of time and money experimenting with the different woods to find how we can use them. My furniture making buss- uses about 80% Hawaii grown woods. I do know a little about forestry.I spent about 14 months as a consultant for Vietnam MOLISA on their forestry project trying to develope a program to re plant native forest and to plantion crop some trees. Such as teak and Paulownia. Hue province now has 40,000 acres in reforstation plantings and are now doing a very good job at managing their forest. I wish I could say as much for Hawaii!!! For what It’s worth Paulownia was considered an invasive species in the southeast United States untill they found out the commercial value. Once you can make money off of invasive trees its strange how fast they get cut down and used. Bill Cowren of Kauai Mahogany and Lelan Neshek Of Kauai Nursery are leaders here on Kauai in Forestry and invasive species. Albizia is becoming a major player in plantion trees here. There is no such thing is a tree that is a REAL NUISANCE. As fare as Balsa, it was brought here by Dan Shook with the proper permits as a possible plantation tree and I am the one that has been doing the hands on with harvesting and milling and drying. In case you haven’t noticed there is a good market for Balsa here and on the mainland and we intend to be part of that. As for Oahu that Island could use to plant a few thousand more acres of trees . Charlie I have spent many hours up at Kokee cutting out miconia and banana poka . Have you ? I have cleared all the invasives from my land over the past 30 years. Not only that I used all the wood for building and replanted with High value hardwoods. You can expect in the near future to see Wood surfboards in this forum that are made from Albizia ,African Tulip and Silk Oak all these are invasive . In fact the next board I do will have all the frames made from Albizia and some of the skins made from Silk Oak !! Are you making anything from local grown woods. Charlie Im sorry but you picked the wrong guy ! Not only do I talk the talk I walk the walk . Wood is what I am and what I do and there aren’t many around that can walk in my shoes! So show me something ? Charlie,I re-read your post and can see that you know nothing about albizia trees. Have you ever cut one down and milled the wood and built anything with it? I think not! (as I was told) I don’t have to be told about albizia because I have cut it milled it dried it in my solar kilne and used it in building furniture. Tell me more charlie . Wood_Ogre
Interested in seeing more?? If so speak up. I would like a little imput here ! Otherwise------------------------ Wood_Ogre
I would like to see more… lots more. great pictures, great writeup, keep it coming please!!!
I for one, am VERY impressed with what you are doing, and would welcome continued coverage of your project. I’m also interested in your solar kiln. I’m sure others on Swaylocks would like to know more about it too. I’m with Keith. Want more!
Wood_ogre: well okay! You’re in the wood business. You seem to know your wood stuff. My post was a question I had to ask, and as posted I suspected the answer (balsa is already here and okay in Hawaii). I always have questions…
I wonder about wood boards, given the time requirements to build them. I haven’t made one, but I toy with the idea occasionally. Appearance and satisfaction of craftsmanship aside, what characteristic of a wood board makes it surf better than the same shape in PU/PE or EPS/epoxy?
What can you tell us about usefulness of albizia versus balsa, (beyond that the former is a lot easier to come by)? Like strength, grain, tool-ability, and of course weight? And what makes it appropriate for furniture? This can go on by PM if it gets too far off topic.
I recall one of the canoe clubs had an albizia canoe hull at one time, but I haven’t heard anything of it for many years. Anyone know about that one? I’m not certain that the original tree from which the hull was made, was Hawaii-grown.
And with many others, I’d like to see more pictures of your progress, details of materials, and of course, how it feel to ride. Looking forward to it.
Charlie
Yes, more please. 
Not just about the curent project…so far, you’re batting 1.000. From your clamping jig to aesthetic choices to forestry knowledge…you’ve definitely got my attention.
im very interested, please keep the pics coming! more = better!! really…
I never thought I would ever say these words:
but I’d like to see some more wood*.
Cheers,
Rio
*in the context of it being a surfboard.
- yay mark!
2.the Waioli was made by nick beck and the hanalei canoe club guys
I remember seeing the tree go by my place.
they kicked the slats outa the wood division and the rules committee guys
altered the rules to stifle the success of the waioli endevor
,if I am not confused…
the memory of an unfortunate mishap
taking the boat outa service comes to mind,
yes albizia{sp}
contact nick becks site I think its holopuni canoe .com or some such for further insight,maybe the hanalei canoe club has a site or just google waioli canoe
I was a great white canoe…
edit one:
Hurricane Iniki hit Kauai in 1992 and devastated our clubhouse. We lost most of our equipment, including the Waioli, our albizzia canoe.http://www.hanaleicanoeclub.com/About.htm
http://www.holopunicanoes.com/ nick becks sailing canoe site,yes commercial and committed.
EDIT TWO:
slinging a little poop
can be good for the group
when it flies through the air
though some may not care
where it may land
when slung from the hand
can make us all the wizer
when it lands as fertilizer.
appologies to the
I am bik of pentameter
and perhaps the keepers of the 8 bar code of ethix
…ambrose…
edit three:
gee I am glad
you came out to play mark.