Hello everybody, My name is Tyler Hanel and I’m the General Manager and head computer guy at KKL, a machine shaping shop. I’m putting together a website, to explain who we are and what we do, and to answer any questions about our system that people might have. Email me at: and I’ll try and answer any questions. If you are interested in getting boards on the machine, go ahead and email too. This looks like a very nice community of board builders, and I am quite excited to be able to participate. “Hi” to everybody that I already know and “nice to meet ya” to the rest Tyler Hanel KKL, Carlsbad CA http://www.kklmachine.com
Welcome Tyler, I’m sure you’re going to clear up a bit of my ignorance. Stoked to have you on board. Mike http://216.15.61.234/swaylocks/boards/db.cgi?db=default&uid=default&Validated=Yes&Category=funshape&view_records=1&nh=1&mh=1
DITTO!Herb.
DITTO!Herb. Hi Herb, This could be very interesting but at times new stuff is scary. I would prefer my board be hand shaped exclusively, as I prefer my vehicles be equipped with points and condensor type ignition systems whenever possible. Old school, old guy, old everything. Aloha, Old Longboarder
Original artwork opposed to a reproduction or print. There’s no need to say that surfboards are a work of art directly related to the talent and imagination of the individual shapers, My hat is of to all of you! Aloha, Old Longboarder
Original artwork opposed to a reproduction or print. There’s no need to > say that surfboards are a work of art directly related to the talent and > imagination of the individual shapers, My hat is of to all of you!>>> Aloha, Old Longboarder Here, here, we all know hand shaping will never die. But I’m interested in the process. Tyler, once you program in a shape (I assume its done with CAD/CAM) is it easy to make rocker/thickness/width adjustments? Thats one thing that seems to be a problem with the epoxy surf companies (surftech), you can get a nice board but if you want an extra 1/2" of rocker in the nose or an extra 1/2" in width your @#^$ out of luck. I’m sure they’ll get it to where it all can be customized in the near future. Also, whats the price breakdown? Do you have to order 10 or 20 of one shape that you’ve programed in to make it worth your while? Or can you do one of a kind single orders which is what your average backyard shaper will want? Bottom line: How much per blank?
Hey Tyler, Up here in Canada there are no machines, mind you there are very few shapers as well. I am wondering what the machine and software costs. Ball park is fine of course. How much space do you need to set up an operation like yours>?
Points and condenser, yeah buddy! How about the old faithful straight six on the PLymouth Darts and Valiants.
Hey Tyler, Up here in Canada there are no machines, mind you there are > very few shapers as well. I am wondering what the machine and software > costs. Ball park is fine of course. How much space do you need to set up > an operation like yours>? While I can’t really give you a straight number (it’s all negotiable, we can adjust the price and the system to match your needs) on here without going into wayyy too much depth, feel free to email me (tyler@kklmachine.com) and we can go into a more detailed discussion. While it’s still, unfortunately, still far far out of the reach of the hobbyist to own their own machine, we have absolutely no problems taking anybody on to our machine (as long as they’re a shaper…I.E. no, you can’t walk into Surf Ride, buy a Merrick, and tell us to scan it). Check out the website: http://www.kklmachine.com (http://www.kklmachine.com/forms.html in specific, has the pricing) and maybe it will answer more questions
Alaska Wrote:> Original artwork opposed to a reproduction or print. There’s no need to > say that surfboards are a work of art directly related to the talent and > imagination of the individual shapers, My hat is of to all of you!>>> Aloha, Old Longboarder Here, here, we all know hand shaping will never die. For sure, without a doubt.>>>But I’m interested in the process. Tyler, once you program in a shape (I >assume its done with CAD/CAM) is it easy to make rocker/thickness/width >adjustments? There are two ‘categories’ of adjustments that we do. First, the “Very Easy” stuff that is done on every single board, as part of our normal operations, and carries no extra charge, and that is: Scaling any master in the length, (middle) width, and (middle) thickness. Our software is to the point now, where we can take a 9’0" longboard master and make killer little 6’10" mini-longboard discs, all with the correct outline, thickness, and rocker flow and proportion. Second, comes the “Not quite as easy” adjustments. These take us more time to do, require somebody to actually do all the calculations and adjustment, and take a while to fiddle around with it on the CAD system. These include the nose and tail width adjustments (independent of middle width…make your shortboard into a widenose/widetail hybrid board) rocker adjustments (if you’re familiar with clark’s system, we can do pretty much the same thing. EX: add 1/4" of nose rocker in the last 24 inches) vee and concave adjustments, etc. As we learn more and more, we offer more and more adjustments. Since it takes some pretty serious work to do these things, however, an additional fee is necessary. How we work it is that for a fee, we make the changes to your master, and then save the result as a NEW master, which you then can use to do the standard length/width/thickness scaling on. All in all it’s pretty interesting. Check the webpage out: http://www.kklmachine.com>>>>Also, whats the price breakdown? Prices are at: http://www.kklmachine.com/forms.html>>>>Do you have to order 10 or 20 of one shape that you’ve programed in to make >>it worth your while? Or can you do one of a kind single orders which is what >>your average backyard shaper will want? I’ll be honest, our system is set up so where it’s much easier to produce an order of larger quantity (economy of scale and all that…) we have no problem taking on customers of any size. One-off’s do carry an extra charge (I think it’s $8.00 more off the top of my head), and we’d prefer that you do two of the same size at a time (our machine can cut 2 boards at once) we’ll do whatever the customer orders. As to whether it’s worth it for a smaller customer, it all really depends. Here is one way to look at it: Say you are shaping longboards and are getting paid $70 per board (just randomly picked the price) and it takes you 2 hours to do a board. That means you are making $35 an hour. If you get the boards off the machine, you can probably finish one in 30 minutes (sometimes more, sometimes less) which means you’re making $140.00 per hour minus the $72 that the milling would cost (two boards), or $68.00 per hour. So, if you’re limited in the amount of boards you can do by time, or you can use the time you save to do stuff that is more valuable to you (surfing!) I would say it is worth it. If you were only gonna do two boards anyway, and you use the three hours you save to sit on the couch and watch Hard Copy, it’s probably better to handshape them. I think you also would find many of our customers find that the ability to use the machine as a design tool is also worth the money that they invest in it, so even if it’s not strictly an economic gain, it pays off in other areas. http://www.kklmachine.com
Points and condenser, yeah buddy! How about the old faithful straight six > on the PLymouth Darts and Valiants. Talk about a Chrysler original…, You must mean the “slant” six. The one that looked like it had a broken motor mount and fell over on it’s side. Yep, they got you to the beach and back with no problem. And the points and condenser were easy to access. gas was cheap. those were the days my friend. Aloha, OL
Talk about a Chrysler original…, You must mean the “slant” > six. The one that looked like it had a broken motor mount and fell over on > it’s side. Yep, they got you to the beach and back with no problem. And > the points and condenser were easy to access. gas was cheap. those were > the days my friend.>>> Aloha, OL Yes, the slant in-line six. I thought my motor mount broke…kidding. The slants sixes—time them by ear, fuel air mixture by ear, could use the biggest fricken wrenches and still not scrape the knuckles while working on them. You just about climb into the engine compartment! But OL, life goes on and sanding down the points with a file or 320 wet and dry sand paper are just about over.
Yes, the slant in-line six. I thought my motor mount broke…kidding. The > slants sixes—time them by ear, fuel air mixture by ear, could use the > biggest fricken wrenches and still not scrape the knuckles while working > on them. You just about climb into the engine compartment! But OL, life > goes on and sanding down the points with a file or 320 wet and dry sand > paper are just about over. Steve, File and sandpaper?? You must have been one of the richer kids. We used the match strike area off a book of matches to clean up our points and the match book cover itself as a feeler gauge for initial point setting. They were close to .016 in those days. The same days when it was cool to see how many boards you could rope on and how many friends you could get in a VW bug and make it to the beach without losing anything on the way down there. Thinking about VWs, did you ever get behind a VW van on the old mountain road (before the toll road) between Tijuana and Ensenada? Talk about a slow, slow trip. We hated VW vans in those days! Those were the days, Aloha, OL
Thinking about VWs, did you ever get behind a VW van > on the old mountain road (before the toll road) between Tijuana and > Ensenada? Talk about a slow, slow trip. We hated VW vans in those days! > Those were the days, Aloha, OL Old Longboarder: That was probable me in the VW Microbus. I had a 1959 with a 36 horsepower motor. Never let me down, but I had to be very patient getting to the beach. It was slooooooow, but could carry lots of people and boards.