He guys,
Did a search, came back empty handed.
How does one measure rail thickness?
Is there a uniform industry standard in either Australia or the USA?
Cheers.
Wouter
Hi,
I think I’ve asked before and came back empty handed too. Describing rails as thick, medium or thin seem to be pretty subjective…
"I think I’ve asked before and came back empty handed too "
My father used to say "if it was a snake it would have bit you" when I would be looking for something and it was right in front of me. There is ONE tool that I have seen universally used by the shapers I grew up with. It takes experience over time to learn how to use it BUT in the right hands DEADLY ACCURATE.
If you are coming up "empty handed" you are not using em right. Look and feel, look and feel.
In a piece of foam draw and cut the rail you like, from here you start if it’s to thin go thicker or backwards.
Make rail templates and try them wile shaping.
Measure 1, 2, 3… inches in from the rail.
KEEP SURFING
…Im with ACE, people want all without effort
take your time, and you ll developt truly good ways of shaping a board
I saw that thing of trying to find something to cure the lack of training in lots of fields
Quote:
Describing rails as thick, medium or thin seem to be pretty subjective…
That’s true.
But then, you can describe them as being “medium thick” or “medium thin” and it’s less subjective.
Or “medium thick +”, “medium thick -”, “medium thin +”, “medium thin -”
Or maybe “pretty thick” or “rather thin”…
Or…
Thanks for the replies…
So, there is no industry standard… pretty weird!
Anyhow, i did it by hands and eyes and rail print outs on cardboard already, so i will just continue doing that.
Thanks again.
Wouter
Quote:
If you are coming up “empty handed” you are not using em right. Look and feel, look and feel.
How do you discuss ‘look and feel’ accurately with other shapers?
Unless we have a common point of reference it hard to discuss these matters. How many discussion have there been on swaylocks about how to measure rocker correctly?
An interesting discussion, and one that points out the subjectivity of this area of design.
If I were going to attempt to quantify or standardize rail thickness, I’d pick a point in off the apex far enough that rail
‘‘shape’’ didn’t come into play (on any board w/rolled bottom and a lot of bottom rail shape this would increase).
Just for discussion let’s say 5 cm. Then you’d have to measure thickness at precisely that point, which is not easy
on an existing board; gotta keep every thing square and level etc… Scans and CAD make this simple. Then you have
a measure of rail volume that can be compared without having the nuances of rail shape confuse things.
I like to quantify things where I can. I use rail templates a lot. (My first post on Sways was a method of making
permanent PVC rail templates). But what ACE says is also true; after I finish off my deck roll and have set my rail
volume, right before I do the final rail bands, I run both hands up and down the blank to feel up the rail thickness.
While that doesn’t give you a number, if you’ve done it enough times it gives you good info.
That subjectivity I mentioned at the start is one of the things that makes all this fun, IMO. Just had to add that.
Industry standard?
How could a 6’1 shorty be alignes with a 10’0 gun. Or how could a Owl Chapman Brewer gun be aligned with a Tim Patterson whatever, or a Frye fish??
way too many variables…Thats why Chineezeeee boards will always suck, and your local shaper will know best.