hello to all. does anybody have built a fin box,? if yes, can you tell me how? I know the are unexpensive, but the reason I want to build one is because they aren’t available in my country. I’ve been looking in internet, but found nothing. also have no idea on how they work, since i’ve never seen one. the only thing I know is that they allow you to try several fins 
any help will be apreciated. Jack.
Howzit jstephen, I've known a few people who made their own fin boxes, unfortunately they all broke. Check the resources for the Bahne web site, I'm sure they will mail one to you. I get a special 15" box from them a while back. The other alternatuve is to find a local board builder and see if he will sell you one. Aloha,Kokua
Umm maybe they broke because they are built light. weight doesn’t really matter to me. can you tell me how to buil one? I know that maybe I can order one, but i would like to build it. does anybody has detailed pictures of a fin box? i would really apreciate if you post’em here. thanks. Jack.
Why re invent the wheel?
Every country has windsurfing gear, go there and buy a box…A box, E box, Tuttle Box, Power Box, Meritex Box, O’Fishl, Lokbox, RedX, FCS, whatever
If you make your own box, you’d have to make all your own fins too.
It that’s fine with your, get some lexan, some plastic glue, and thru bolt to the deck of your board. Make a lexan box, drill hole thru to deck, fill with resin, redrill smaller for the fin bolt.
So your fins have a bolt from the deck to the base of the fin.
Man, i live in mexico. this is third world, nobody does windsurfing here. believe me, i’ve been searching for a fin box for 7 months now and found nothing. tehre is no lexan too, i thinki to build it from poly and choped strand mat, thats all i have. and i dont have any problem building my own fins, that’s the reason i want to build a fin box.
You can make it with 5 pieces of 3/4" plywood, screwed and glued together.
Then glass the inside with 3+ layers of cloth, fit your fins by sanding, and the retention system could be a thrubolt thru to the deck with big washer.
Howzit jstephen, Go to this web site for fins unlimited which is also Bahne fins and see if they can ship one to you in Mexico. I’ve done quite a bit of traveling there and there are surf shops in some of the tourist surfing areas who should have them. But try the web site first. Aloha,Kokua
there are some pretty decent photos of fin boxes here:
http://www.fiberglasssupply.com/Product_Catalog/SurfSailcom/surfsailcom.html
If I had to build a finbox from scratch, I’d probably be thinking around a pair of pieces of aluminum channel or angle, set under the glass, with more glass below.
You could rout out a squared off channel into the foam, before laminating, maybe 20" long x the width of your two pieces plus the necessary gap, plus some glass & resin space, all the way out to within an inch or so of the tail. Line the channel with glass & resin and then lay in the 2 pieces of aluminum with the gap the right size for a fin. Get those to be even with your foam, and laminate the whole board, going over the front & back 5" of your strips of metal and leaving a 10" long gap where your fins go in & out just like a plastic finbox.
After you’re done laminating, you could stand your board on its tail and drip in lightly catalyzed resin to fill the bottom end, between the pieces of metal and under your glass lamination, and once its set, stand the board on its nose and do the same thing for the front end. The shorter your gap is, the stronger it would be, but also less adjustable. The size of the full-width gap, under the top flanges which are spaced for fin-size, wouldn’t matter, since your fin tabs and screw plate act against the underside of the flange, not the inside sides of the box.
Sorry if that’s hard to follow, but I do think it would work…
Stephen, A homemade fin box is very doable and I have made many without any problem w/ breakage. In fact I’d say that mine are stronger than mass produced ones. They are some what labor intensive but in the end are very satisfying. Let me know if you are game and I will let you in on the method. Aloha, O.J.
thanks man, i’ll really apreciate if you tell me how yo make them. i’ve always prefered to build my onw stuff. I’ll be waiting for it. Jack
This reminds me of my first longboard I shaped and did all on my own. I made my own finbox inside of the board - as in it was glued to the foam before glassing - thinking that as long as the dimensions worked out I would be fine. It got glassed and I realized that it wasnt quite on what I thought it was, and had to make my own fin for it, but it was fun.
Honestly, I think the easier and probably more productive route would be to order a Bahne box, they ship anywhere. Or put a windsurfing box or something similiar on it. Where do you live? Worse comes to worst, I can help you get your hands on them. I have a few laying around in my shaping box.
Aloha
Bryan
J, O.K. Here we go on making your own fin boxes. This is going to take me some time to explain it in a way that does it justice and thus make it easy for you to understand and actually pull it off. Believe me when I tell you that I am sure that in the end you will be very satisfied. These boxes when installed in a board are unbreakable! Since it will take me a while to put these instructions together and also because I’m pretty busy, I will have to do it in installments. Please trust me and get the materials as we go.
The very first thing that you need to acquire is a piece of window glass. Go to a good hardware store or a glass shop. It’s dimensions need to correspond to how long you want the box to be. Is it for a long board single fin or a three fin? A versatile piece would be 10 inches by 6 inches. By the way, a piece this size will make approx. five 6 inch boxes or three ten inch boxes. It needs to be minimum 3/16 ths thick (which will turn out to be half of the boxes track width/and half your fins thickness). Once you get the glass (be careful not to get cut or break the glass) take a sanding block and sand a half round from one side to the other, if you are making long boxes just round over the six inch ends. From here on I will refer to the rounded side of the glass as the TOP, the side w/ the sharp edges will be the BOTTOM.
Let me know when you get this far. Good night
G$S used to have an all glass box called the Glass Slider.
It was the same dimensions as the FU box, but it was made from a glass mandrel that was crreated by wrapping a mould release center the width of a fin. The core was pressed out of it and slices were bandsawed off the depth of a fin box. Bottoms were glued on and it was inserted into the board the same as a normal box. With a router template over it and centered, a bit was plunged into it and the internal portion of the box was routed clean. The result, an all glass FU box.
I did an all glass side fin box in Fla. using polypro for the insert, it was an excellent release medium
ok let me see if i understand. look at the picture, do i have to sand the glass (1) like 2 or like 3. if it’s like 2, i’m ready for the next step. if it’s like 3, give a day more…hehe. Jack.
Number 2 drawing.
Next you are going to put mold release wax on the glass, or surfwax if thats all you have handy.
First put the sheet of glass on something that will elevate it off your work surface about 2 inches. a short piece of 2x4 would be just right. Use double sided tape to attach it so it doesn’t move around. Cut about 6 layers of fiberglass that will hang over the rounded edges by about 1/2 inch. They can be even, along straight side of the glass. but must hang over the curved edge.
Then comes what might be the most crucial step,
Using laminating resin (coloring it is a nice touch) wet out the FG (fiber glass) with a not too fast, not too slow mix. Make sure that you put some of the resin directly on the sheet of glass first. After you have all the FG wet and in place squeegee any excess resin off and then tuck something against the over hanging ends to make sure that they follow that curved edge of the sheet of glass.
It is most important that the FG takes the exact shape of the sheet glass. You can even put a flat piece of wood or glass on top to make sure your FG is touching the Sheet glass.
Make sure you let it cure before moving it or doing anything else.
When it hardens, DO NOT REMOVE IT FROM THE SHEET OF GLASS!
Next, with the set up the same, cut some more FG the same shape as before. Depending on what weight glass you use, you want enough layers to end up with about 3/8 ths inchs of hardened glass. Your first layup probably got you about 1/8 th inch so now you want about 12 to 15 layers. Its not crucial, just know that after this next step you will have built the side walls of your box. You can always add more if you like. Mix your resin (Laminating again) (it can be slower now and this is also when I go to a different color) and lay it up.
Have fun, be back later with more, Aloha