How to: Remove thickness from blank

General Discussion
1

I just skinned my blank. The rocker is set and I need to take a good amount of thickness off the board. Anybody have any suggestions? I want to take as little off the deck as possible. Thanks

2

Planer, surform, pumas block,sandpaper, whatever works…

3

  1. electric planer is the best tool for the job.

  2. if the ebove is not an option, and your using handtools ( surform) ,

    u should do 2 things- mark a line on the rails which is paralel to the bottom rocker

    and located at the depth U want to remove. for this u use an L-shaped rail marking tool.

    if you have a trimer/router , u can set the bit at the same depth as you marked the rails,

    and run it over the stringer with a straight-edge . this will set the stringer at the exact depth you wanted it

    and now that you have a fixed stringer depth and depth marks on the rails you can easilly use a surform to remove all the extra foam.

    hope it helps,

lee

4

Thickness and Rocker go hand and hand.

Like love and marriage

or a horse and a carriage,

this I tell you brother,

You can’t have one without the other.

5

Snap, How can the rocker be “set” after just skinning? Thickness flow,foil and rocker=the planer.

6

If you dont want to take much off the deck, then just make sure the depth you remove from the bottom is even from tail to nose to keep your same rocker profile. Electric planer is definetly the way to go

7

yeah, you want to take down the bottom until (or just about until) you have your thickness…then you set your rocker, then blend nose/tail back through the rest of the board, then V/concave, then rails…the whole time going back and checking everything against each other. Stand the board up, feel, look, walk away, come back, repeat, put the board level deck up and step back 15 feet…check the rocker, check the foil. Then repeat belly up…walk away again, have a beer/smoke/shit/sandwich/nap. Return, use your hands as much as your eyes. Eyes will deceive. And become intimately familiar with your electric planer if you have one. Eventually you’ll want to use it to shape 95% of the board.