Too tired tonight, so I will post the pictures from lesson #2 during lunch tomorrow. But for now I will repeat what Tom so eloquently said tonight… “The dragon skin slayed me”. 'Nuff said.
Lesson #2
So fresh off my successful first day of adventures in foam, I returned to Tom’s place for lesson 2. Little did I know that the lessons get progressively harder. Lesson 1 was planing the bottom, cutting, and finishing the outline. Lesson 2 would be shaping the deck, turning and finishing the rails. Tom wears a lab coat to keep the foam off him and his kids nicknamed him Dr Surfboard. Last time I left his house I looked like I was raped by a polar bear and the inside of Jeep still has foam caked on the doors. So I borrowed a lab coat from work (I’m a chemist) to keep it to a minimum.
Since I’ve become comfortable with the planer and I actually enjoy mowing the foam we jumped right in to bringing the deck down from 3" to 2 1/2".
Some passes with the e-planer I’m dead on the money and sometimes I’m way off. I’m still getting the feel for how much weight to keep on it and the angle to hold it. Tom does a really good job observing what I’m doing wrong or different on the bad passes so I can re-adjust for the next pass.
It took a while to get the deck down to 2 1/2, but I got lots of practice with the planer on shallow settings and feel really comfortable with it now. Next he showed me how to use the spokeshave and I cleaned up the nose with that, a sureform, and a foam sanding block (aka cut up boogie board). He’s got a really nice collection of spokeshaves that he’s found at flee markets. That’s definitely next on my shopping list. It seems like evey step of the build I add another tool to my shopping list. But he’s also shown me that with a little ingenuity you can make a lot of your own tools.
AND NOW FOR THE FUN PART!!! Turning the rails with planer rail bands was definitely the most fun of the entire shaping process. The board starts to come to life before your eyes. With some great instruction from Tom and a really shallow depth setting I felt like I took more easily to this than any other step. Perhaps it was just those sexy rails.
However, all good things must come to an end… During each step I was surprised at how well I was able to execute. I honestly thought that every time Tom set me loose on the board I would manage to rip into the foam and ruin it. My success, I’m sure is directly attributed to his excellent teaching skills. However, I met my match with the dragon skin. For some reason I just couldn’t finesse it and control it well. So, I slipped and tore a little foam and Tom yelled “Spackle!”. Then he showed me again how to hold it and I started to adjust better. So the dragon skin slayed me. It was the first step that I really just couldn’t grasp. But by the end I felt more comfortable with it.
Finally I fine sanded with the sponge block and took a bit more volume off the rails to make them less boxy and the deck more domed.
Here you can see a few of my dragon skin mishaps… shh don’t tell anyone. They were sanded out when I took down the volume in the rails.
And here’s she is all sexy and sanded.
Rocker shot sans dork…
Rocker shot with dork.
And a comparison shot from last week.
Lesson 3 will be fin box installation and possibly some glassing later today. Woo Hoo!!!
I forgot to add that we did keep the bottom simple for the most part and left the nose and middle flat and added a light vee through the last third of the board. The rails are 50/50 in the nose to 60/40 in the middle to hard down rail in the tail. The transition from 60/40 to hard down was a little tricky, but Tom taught me a good technique.
That looks about 46 times better than my first board.
Viva Swaylock’s!
Thanks Mike! It looks 146 times better than it would have without Tom teaching me.
So we started out our Memorial Day weekend early with lesson 3: Fin box installation and glassing the bottom.
Before starting though I had a little more touch up to do with some sanding screen and a foam pad mainly on the rails and trying to hide where the dragon skin kicked my a$$.
Tom was smart enough to have me practice routing holes with the Future Fins template in cheap Home Depot foam first before setting me loose on my board.
After I showed him I wasn’t going to cut off my finger or more importantly route a hole through my board (because you can always sew a finger back on but you can’t re-attach foam) he had me route the holes for the 2 of the 2 + 1 fins and glass 'em in.
Next on to glassing the bottom. I rolled out my 4oz and gave my best “Ok enough with the camera Tom” look.
But of course he’s taller than me and beat me into submission and made me smile while posing with the awesome blue tint we did on the bottom and rails.
After a long session of playing soccer with gunner (Tom’s awesome dog) while waiting for the resin to kick we set out to cut the lap. He set me loose with a razor blade and I fell into a deep concentration trying not to screw up.
Next the fun part. Peeling up the tape and getting to see how even your cut lap was.
Notice the slightly possessed and obsessed look in my eyes. Is Tom creating an army of zombie surfboard shapers in a plot to take over the world, or is it just 11 pm and I’m uber stoked on my resin work contemplating my first wave on the first board I’ve ever shaped, or am I just about to go off the deep end because I can still see those damn dragon skin slips?
A sexy side shot.
The next morning I returned bright and early to glass the deck.
We all know that the e-planer makes shaping easier, well Tom introduced me to the e-scissor! First he made me cut with a regular old fashioned scissor. Then he handed me the e-scissor and I decided I would never cut cloth with anything but the e-scissor. Viva la e-scissor!!!
Next we pour the resin.
Then we squeegee the resin
Another squeegee shot. And right about now Tom is telling to hold the squeegee on a 45 degree angle.
Why is it every time I finish another step of the process Tom takes a picture of me standing behind my board looking like I want to dry hump it through the shaping bay because I’m so in love with it.
Don’t even ask what those hands are doing hidden below the board.
The next morning was lesson 4: Hot coat.
I dragged my half hung-over a$$ outta bed at 7am after having drinks with friends all night at the Surf Club in Ortley to get to Tom’s by 8am. I made the mistake of telling him that we had the misfortune to be subjected to a Bon Jovi cover band all night at the bar. Yes… only in New Jersey can you find a Bon Jovi cover band that can actually get work. So Tom spent the rest of the morning explaining hot coat in between singing “So I walk these streets, a loaded six gun on my back, I play for keeps, 'cause I might not make it back, I been everywhere, I’m still standing tall, I’ve seen a million faces, and I’ve rocked 'em all, I’m a cowboy, on a steel horse I ride, I"M WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE”. Well at least he was too busy singing to take more pictures of my dorky face, so all we have is this one of the top after the hot coat.
Wednesday we sand the hot coat, install the single fin box, and then I can dry hump it all I want! Actually first I have to bust out the paint pens and get something nice on there. Then I have to pray for a head high swell to try it out.
PS. Tom also introduced me to Harbor Freight tools… and now my wallet is considerably lighter. But I think I have all the tools I need to continue this obsession in my basement at home. I think my next shape will be something along the lines of a CI biscuit. A sub 6ft non-fish small wave board to get me through the summer. But first we finish this sexy semi-gun made for Jersey Juice.
“So I walk these streets…”
Lesson 6 - finish sanding, fin box and leash plug installation.
The goal for this board was a sanded finish not only because I prefer sanded over glossed boards, but also because I plan to do a posca pen painting on the deck. So, we’ll have to save the gloss coat lesson for another board. In this case we’re doing a speed finish so lets speed on into more pics.
This will be a 2 + 1 set-up so we have to install the single fin box. The tricky part was doing it without blowing through the deck of the board because there was only about an inch of thinkness. A decent amount of the fin box would need to be sanded down after installation. Tom set up the plunge router and instructed me on how not to cut off a finger. We set up his homemade template, adjusted the router depth, and made three passes at consecutively deeper settings. As I routed I realized I had just discovered ANOTHER tool I have to buy.
His template was perfect and as he pointed out, the fit was as tight as a frogs a$$. I took his word on that, but it was pretty tight. While the fin box resin hardened we started the finish sanding. Tom slapped some 80 grit on the palm sander and told me to sand off all the tits. Since I had already learned not to question my teacher after lesson 3 when we had glassed over the futures boxes and I called him in a panic later that night when I realized we never cut them out and the resin was hardening (duh you just sand them out) I didn’t question the tits. But he was right, when you start sanding all the high spots look like little nipples until you even em out.
After sanding with the 80 grit, the fin box resin was hard so it was time to grind that sucker down. Tom put some 60 grit on the polisher and taped the tail to keep me from ruining my nice glass job. Then I realized I just found ANOTHER tool I need to buy. Are you seeing the pattern here, yet? Once I got it close to the board I finished it with the safer palm sander.
Then it was time for the 150 nd 220 grits. Once I hit the 220 grit and the board surface was smooth, it started to look like a real surfboard and I just got super excited. The whole thing came back to life.
Finally we hand finished the rails with the 220 to avoid burning through the hot coat.
And here’s the finished product with the kook who will be riding it. Although it was a lot of hard work and took many hours that is not gray hair from the stress, it’s just dust from sanding.
A sexy rocker shot complete with dirt bag doing his best Vanna White impression.
And for those who would rather not see my ugly mug next to this beautiful board we have the final shot for comparison to the previous shots throughout the process. Does anyone notice what’s missing?
Yup… the leash plug. I got so frickin excited to stand the board up and oogle it and take pictures that I forgot the leash plug. We quickly put that in afterwards.
And last but not least… the picture you’ve all been waiting for. The enigma behind the scene’s, the sensei, the jedi master, the swami, the guru, the foreman, the chief, Dr Surfboard … yes it’s Tom. Keep in mind the board is 6’10"… I wouldn’t mess with him in a lineup would you?
So I have to say that without Tom being nice enough to take time out from his life and his board building to teach me, there is no way this board would have been anything close to surfable. Having someone there to show you the tricks along the way is key. At this point I think I owe him my first born child or at least a kidney, but it’s too bad because I already sold both of those to pay for all the damn tools and supplies to keep building more boards. Tom, my girlfriend thanks you for my addiction.
I think the hardest part for me was glassing… well that and the dragon skin. Anyway, next I have to bust out the posca pens and get some artwork on this stick before we get a real swell. Good thing it’s summer and I have plenty of time before the Tropics kick into gear.
let us know how she dry humps!
Eagerly waiting for ride reports.