I’ve got to a point with my board, where I need to put the rails on the thing and I’m a bit nervous of screwing it up, seeing its gone so well so far. The board is now 10’ out of a 10’3 Phil Edwards blank. I’ve taken the thickness down to 3 5/8 aiming for 3 1/2" for the finished board. I was going to put some 50/50 rails on, do I just put a mark half way down the square sided rail at the front, middle and rear and the plane away towards stringer (inwards) to create the rail again by a specific measurement. I just want both sides spot on. Thanks guys Peaman
Peaman, If you’re an amateur like me, and you want your rails symetrical, make outside rail templates for the middle rails. I worked up a matrix for a 12" wide template. The rail line is .95" up the bottom foam, and it has a 1.2" bottom tuck. The deck is moderately crowned. Buy 8.5 x 14 graph paper. First draw the rail line, and mark zero at the stringer. Measure along the line, and make width marks. Measure up from the rail line for deck numbers. Measure down for the bottom numbers. Pencil in the deck and bottom lines, and make two photo copies. Spray glue all three copies to 1/8" plywood. Cut out an outside bottom template, deck template, and full template with a sabre or coping saw. Measure up from your planed-out bottom, and mark your proposed rail lines on the blank at 6-8 inch increments from nose to stern. Then mark your proposed midboard deck height on the rails. Shape in your bottom contours, then shape the bottom rail to your midboard bottom template. Take the top down to meet the midboard rail height. Then shape the deck rails to your midboard deck template. From there, eyeball the transitional shapes from midboard to nose and tail. Good luck. RAIL: Width , Deck , Bottom 0 , 2.35 , -0.95 1 , 2.35 , -0.95 2 , 2.35 , -0.95 3 , 2.35 , -0.95 4 , 2.34 , -0.95 5 , 2.32 , -0.95 6 , 2.29 , -0.95 7 , 2.24 , -0.95 7.5 , 2.20 , -0.95 8.0 , 2.14 , -0.95 8.5 , 2.08 , -0.95 9.5 , 1.88 , -0.95 10.0 , 1.75 , -0.95 10.9 , 1.38 , -0.95 11 , 1.33 , -0.95 11.1 , 1.27 , -0.93 11.2 , 1.20 , -0.91 11.3 , 1.13 , -0.88 11.4 , 1.06 , -0.85 11.5 , 0.97 , -0.80 11.6 , 0.87 , -0.73 11.7 , 0.76 , -0.65 11.85 , 0.55 , -0.48 11.95 , 0.32 , -0.28 12.00 , 0.00 , -0.00
Check under boards then diagram, here you can find the rail line tool and the contour control tool that I used. Good luck. Peter Rijk.>>> I’ve got to a point with my board, where I need to put the rails on the > thing and I’m a bit nervous of screwing it up, seeing its gone so well so > far. The board is now 10’ out of a 10’3 Phil Edwards blank. I’ve taken the > thickness down to 3 5/8 aiming for 3 1/2" for the finished board. I > was going to put some 50/50 rails on, do I just put a mark half way down > the square sided rail at the front, middle and rear and the plane away > towards stringer (inwards) to create the rail again by a specific > measurement. I just want both sides spot on.>>> Thanks guys>>> Peaman
Try to have a board on hand that is at least close to what you want rails to be so you have a model to work off from. NEVER go to far on one rail. Always try to take one stroke on rail and then duplicate that stroke on the other rail. This gradual process should provide the greatest symmetry when shaping your rails. After each series of cuts ALWAYS take your hands and run them down both sides of the rails simultaneously. This will let you know if there are any high or low spots.