Great idea, awesome pics and documentation, great thread.
My question: looks like it will be a thruster, considering the foam blocks you put in, but what do you have in mind for a fin setup?
JSS
Now you find out why the thread is “How to build a heavy HWS”. The board has ended up being somewhere between 16 and 17 lbs. That’s including glass and fins (I have already finished the board just haven’t posted all the pictures). Compared to my other foam boards that size it feels rather heavy. In retrospect I think I could have easily knocked off 2 1/2 to 3 lbs by omitting unnecessary mass here and there and cutting more and bigger holes. The problem is that in this approach a hefty stringer is needed to hold the shape of the rocker. Also a lighter plywood could be used, plus if you had some balsa for the rails it would probably reduce the weight considerably.
With a little imagination during the gluing process and in shaping some of the pieces, vee’s and concaves can be made. On this board I decided that I wouldn’t try for anything in particular and see what happened. It turns out that the board has a slight vee in the nose area, a very slight single concave (1/16") under the front foot, then a healthy vee in between the fins to a weird little concave just behind the back fin.
I glassed it with one layer of 4 oz s glass and used Tap plastics medium speed epoxy. First time I ever used epoxy and I am not a very good glasser to begin with so the finish is nothing to show off. Poly resin is much cheaper but everything I read said that when going over wood epoxy is the thing to use.
The plywood was $24 (U.S.) and I had the rest of the wood just lying around. Its the epoxy that is the biggest expense. Glass and epoxy was around $80, fin boxes plus shipping were about $24 and being that I am a carpenter I have a lot of money invested in tools. After all is said and done with misc. crap thrown in the cost is close to $200. Like I said it’s the epoxy that constitutes the biggest expense.
Making my own board always gives me a much better understanding for the price of store bought surfboards.
Rick
Great idea, awesome pics and documentation, great thread.
My question: looks like it will be a thruster, considering the foam blocks you put in, but what do you have in mind for a fin setup?
JSS
I’ll try and post the rest of the pics tonight
Please finish this thread, I’m giddy with anticipation to see the final product!!!
RKved, what an original method. Looks good too!
Quick question guys, does an HWS have at be All wood? Are there any rules about what makes an HWS ? I dont want to be picky but I use expanding foam to make my rails because its easier/ lighter but the rest is wood, so is it still an HWS??
Thanks. SF.
Where do you put the fins? Personally unless one make lot’s and lot’s of boards that are more or less the same size, fin placement is pretty much a guess. Especially if the shape is a little on the experimental side like this one is. The whole idea of this design was to build a wide tail board with lot’s of drive, so I kept the fin cluster relatively far apart and somewhat forward because the template wide point is about 4 inches up from the center. Again, considering my board building experience, it was pretty much just a guess based on Swaylocks archives, numerous surfboard websites and all the boards I currently own. I considered making it a quad but that would have been even more of a guess so I just settled on it being a thruster.
Dimensions from tail to trailing edge: 4" and 11 3/4"
Toe in 1/8"
Also, building a fin box jig and actually getting it lined up in the right position on the board was one of the most difficult things I did in building this board.
Okay fin boxes in, time to glass. Didn’t take any pictures of my usual bad glass job. I used the medium speed epoxy from Tap plastics. It seemed to work allright. Allthough I tried to keep the work space at or above 70 degrees f. there seems to have been a little bit of blushing in the lamination layer but besides that it worked more or less like they said it would. I then made a little tent and using a couple of space heaters “cooked” it at 110 degrees for 4 hours.
…scene of the crime…
…incubation tent…
Let’s cut to the chase…sanding, sanding, sanding, put in the fins, okay finally it’s done.
A few from outside…
Looks great!
You win - best logo ever.
Wood board, originality, placement, size…the perfect application.
I was showing my wife this thread and she thought someone had built something in my shop. Not just the same woods, epoxies, and clamps, but the same glues, hanging cords, unfinished walls, wood dust, lighting… but I never thought of making a lam like that. I really like your project.
Your next one will be lighter and my next one (a Royboard) will be all wood. I’ll race you to MacBeath for the balsa… 
WOW, brilliant thread, brilliant board!!!
a small tip…
never… and I mean NEVER… EVER…
put the words “EASY” and “HWS” in the same sentance!!!
EVER!!!
great job, well done and most importantly… ENJOY!!!
Thanks Benny1 (and all the rest) for your compliments, and, not everyone recognizes the logo as a lumber stamp.
Yes, my next one will be lighter and MacBeath has balsa? I didn’t know that… uh oh now I’m in trouble…this could be habit forming.
Rick
my woodwork skills and tools are well below your level. i attempted one very similar to this about 3-4 years ago. i hadnt discovered gorrilla glue then and gave up on it after the thing kept popping apart while i was trying to complete the shape. you did real nice work.
.
Nice work. I really enjoy these types of threads, especially when I am immersed in sweaty HWS construction myself. Just a quick question though: I’m wondering where you got the foam for the fin boxes (and what type of foam it is as well). I was busy reinforcing my center fin with leftover cedar when I caught your thread, and had a ‘why didn’t I think of that’ moment. Foam would definitely be preferred for my side fins rather than a solid block of cedar.
Thanks,
Mike
Post: WOW, brilliant thread, brilliant board!!!
a small tip…
never… and I mean NEVER… EVER…
put the words “EASY” and “HWS” in the same sentance!!!
EVER!!!
great job, well done and most importantly… ENJOY!!!
Cheers
El Robbo
Thanks El Robbo
How about the word “EASIER”, as in; “my next HWS will be easier”.
Rick
I got the foam from a broken foam and fibreglass board that I had laying around. It was a quick and lightweight solution. What kind of foam…uh…Clark foam? Would that be polyurethane? I can never keep all those “poly’s” straight.
Rick