Hey dudes, first time ever posting and I must say I am pretty stoked to have so much knowledge right here. I am just wondering if anybody would know the best way to create some kind of shaping bay that I would be able to put and take down fairly easy so I can shape boards on the weekends. I was thinking something with strong plastic pipes and tarps but if anybody got some ideas please help me out.
Thanks
Sean
Its easy glazierboy I have one right now a small 10x10x7feet high 2 1/2 Pvc Pipe setup with blue tarp and side lights and all. U need specs give me your email or something and I’ll help u out dawg no worrys. peace my names Raja.
I dont have regular access to a shaping bay and I wasnt too keen on filling the garage with foam dust so I made a portable shaping bay this summer. Heres what I did…
Shaping stands- Im not sure if you already have these, but I made a set with mostly stuff I had laying around. It cost me about $20. I screwed 2x4s into a big H shape. I dont have the dimensions with me, but it is about 40" tall. The crossbar was about 6" long and about 8" from the top. On top of the H screw 2 6" arms, one on top of each upright. I then set it inside an old 5 gallon bucket, leveled it, and secured it in place with tape. I put 2 bricks in the bucket to take up space and poured quick set concrete into the bucket. I bought a cheep foam sleeping pad from Walmart, cut it into strips, and taped it over the top of the H. Build 2 of these and youve got a cheep portable shaping stand. Its not pretty, but its functional. Sorry i dont have pics, but I could get you some if you want them.
The Bay- I used one of those 10’x10’ EZ-Up canopies with sidewalls that I got on sale at sports authority for about $60. If your shaping a longboard it wont fit so look into buying a temporary car port. They have plenty of room and arnt too expensive but might take a while to set up. I put my stands in the center of the tent with a saw horse on either side. I duck taped painters lights on the saw horses aimed at the rails of the board to get shadows on the deck. Shape at night for better shadows.
Tools- I dont have an electric paner or anything, but I made a bunch of good tools cheep. For my ‘planer’ I glued 60grit sandpaper to a 10" long 2x4. For finer sanding I used some strips left over from the foam camping pad and attached different grit sandpapers with spray adhesive. I do have a cheep harbor freight electric sander and I made my own sanding pads for that with a circular piece of .5" plywood (6" diameter), a layer of foam bad, and a piece of sandpaper. It attaches to the sander with velcro.
NOTE- If you have neighbors close by you might have some explaining to do. Some old lady was very concerned that I was up late at night (I guess 10pm is late for her…) carrying chemicals and a scale into a tent. The fact that I was wearing a sanding mask didnt help either. She thought I was making meth.
I hope this helps. Im no expert but if you have any more questions about getting by with the minimum reply on the tread or send me a PM.
Keep the stoke up
-Brian
Hey glazierboy,
Welcome to Sways.
Buy one of those 10’x10’ “EZ-Up” tents and fix some tarps to the open sides.
You can make portable side light frames with some 2x4’s and screw 8 foot long flourescent fixtures to them.
Shaping and glassing stands could be the good 'ol 5 gal buckets filled with sand or concrete to secure the racks…
Should do the trick…
~Brian
Hey Brian
top marks for the resourceful solutions there. Do you have any solutions to the difficulty of the missus always prioritising decorating the house over getting my current projects finished?
Suggestions welcomed!!
Chipper, come home!
don’t get the ezups but get one of those portable garage tents which you can use for your car too…
alot more room and they already come enclosed. you can line the inside of the white enclosure with the blue/reflective silver tarps to provide a back group for your portable lights or for UV glassing. and there’s tons more room to do stuff.
when your done park your stuff/auto under it and folks won’t complain about it being an “illegal” permanent structure.
some of these actually have wheels that you can roll out and roll back in to compress when not in use…
if you’re working in a garage you can get those clear plastic wall frames that drywallers use to create a portable sealed enviroment for the dust and vapor. They even have zipper doors for the plastic drip cloth you buy on rolls.
the 10x10 popups just don’t have enough room you really need something longer…
Portable Shaping Bay:
well a truly portable shaping bay needs a battery operated planer :
http://www.swaylocks.com/forum/gforum.cgi?post=277057;search_string=planer%20%20ridgid;#277057
you need to make some shaping racks maybe these links are less portable
http://noviceshaper.blogspot.com/2007/04/nice-rack.html
http://groups.msn.com/MyKRSurf/shapingracks.msnw
http://theshaperstree.com/shaping-rack/index.asp
something more portable but definetly not very nice for shaping:
folding adjustable sawhorse set
http://www.diyclick.com/2007/09/stanley-folding-adjustable-sawhorse.html
or just plain padded sawhorses.
Perhaps a cloth sling between two sawhorses can
get the board situatated ‘rail up’.
for some stealth shaping:
as portable as it gets may be the battery planer, tools in backpack, bicycle with childrens bike trailer,
outfitted with a blank and two sawhorses and a spot you can bicycle to, find some cover under some trees.
my “shaping bay” is one of those 10x10 EZ ups… it works pretty good but more room
would be nice. i’d like to see what Oneula is talking about cause it sounds good. where
can i find one of those Oneula?
the one thing that i found is that being that i only have a few hours here, a few hours
there to shape, set-up and break-down is critical. the faster the better. if you’re strapped
for time like i am, you don’t want to spend it messing around with PVC pipe.
one cool thing about the framing of the EZ up is that you can hook up your vacuum hose and
power cord for your planer overhead and out of your way… the idea came from somewhere on
Sways… i zip tied little carabiners to the ceiling framing and then hooked little pulleys up so
that the power cord from my planer goes straight up and over to one of the legs where i used
a water bottle as a weight to constantly pull the slack out of the cord… when it’s time to clean
up, i just unclip the pulleys and put them away with the planer, everything else folds up with
the EZ shade.
Sick man ya that would be a huge help I am just kinda stuck right now with what materials and dimensions to use. Heres my email captncomposure@yahoo.com and my name is sean.