Hey guys,
I was thinking about building my first surfboard and am wondering what route to take.
If i should just buy a kit like this http://greenlightsurfsupply.com/Surfboard-in-a-Day-Kit-1.aspx, or just buy all the materials seperate.
I wont have to pay for shipping as i can just drive to them and pick it up.
Would i be saving that much money if i did it the 2nd way?
Thanks
Fil
You understand that there aren’t any shaping or glassing tools or consumables incuded, right? Those are going to add to your costs.
If you knew you were going to build at least 3 boards it would be significantly cheaper per board to buy the epoxy in a larger quantity.
Yea i know that it doesnt come with tools. I thought i would purchase all that seperate.
Is there some sort of list for everything to make a complete board.
I checked the sticky’s on the site but most of them dont even load up or the links are dated.
“Is there some sort of list for everything to make a complete board.”
Such a simple question.
I wouldn’t recommend EPS and Epoxy for a first board. Get a US Blank PU of your choice, 4oz cloth, surfacing agent and a Gallon of UV Cure Poliester lam resin and have at it. So many fewer pitfalls for the first time builder doing it this way.
Cool Thanks for the advice! I will probably end up doing it this way.
The new format sucks terribly…tried to help you out with a materials list but it won’t let me post cause I put links to the items.
If you plan on making more than one board its always better to buy in bulk. You can get better deals on glass cloth and resin when you buy larger quantities. There are also places on the internet that sell glass at very good prices with free shipping. Unfortunately for me living in Hawaii, I have to pay a lot for shipping. I think I saw the name Thayercraft for glass.
You don’t need power tools to make a board, but it makes the job easier and faster. At a minimum you need a hand saw to cut the outline, a surform type tool or several sanding blocks with grits from 36 up to 220 to cut the foam down. A power planer will cut through the foam like butter, but a surform or sanding block with very course media and a little sweat equity will get the job done. Here’s a shot at some simple home made sanding blocks, food graters, and a tool to draw guide lines. A friend of mine who is a very good shaper here told me when I started shaping to draw lots of guide lines. I like to make long sanding blocks so I can sand the bottom nice and flat. The long block is wider than the board. I’ve made some that have an inverted V and the reverse to cut an inverted V. The rails tools were for cutting EPS block foam, I haven’t used them in a long time. PU blanks will be close tolerance, so you don’t have as much to cut away.
Thanks Sharkcounty, i will deffinetely be going tha route with the materials . Those sanding blocks look easy enough to make myself.
My dad has a bunch of different sand paper so that should be covered. I will order myself a sureform tool. Are any certain ones recommended?
As for the Planer, will a 40$ Harbor freight due or should i just stick to hand sanding for the first board?
If you plan on making more than one board, a power planer would be something that can make life easier, but there’s a lot of different opinions about what kind of planer to get. I have a cheap Ryobi and it’s been working for me. I don’t do that many boards, maybe 2 - 4 a year now. The harbor freight planer would be enough to get you going, but if you plan to make more, think about getting the Bosche 1594 planer. There will be kits available to convert that one to a full-on pro shapers planer. You can make that conversion down the road if you think you want to make boards for a long time. I like the long surform, but I have the 6" one too. I have 2 long ones and one has a curved blade. I use that to cut lots of foam with each stroke. You’ll only need the flat blade. Those sanding blocks have belt sander media that I cut and stapled on. The shorter one is uncut and just stuffed some heavy EPS foam into it. I use spray on glue with wide pieces of foam for regular sand paper. The foam is just about the same size as a sheet, and I have hard XPS and EPS blocks, and very soft foam. I saved the softer foam from packing boxes like computer drives and cut it to size. They make great finishing sanding pads.
I haven’t seen a new PU blank for a while, so I can say how hard it is to skin it. The older blanks were a chore, but I’ve had a few that didn’t have a hard crust on them, so a surform or sanding block was enough to work the foam down. I used a larger block plane (jack plane?) to skin some of the harder crusts on PU blanks before, but that’s a nightmare. I strongly recommend getting one of these small planes for the stringer. I have both and they are great for getting a smooth clean cut. I just used the blue one to work on a balsa board and it was so nice to use to take the wood down. Find which way the grain runs and work with it, you know because going against it tears wood. going with it, cuts smooth.
Is a Surfboard kit worth it for a first time builder?
No…it’s a big waste of money…Learn ding repair first. Learn about resins and cloths. Learn how to fix glass on fins and blown out FCS plugs. Replace a longboard fin box. Understand what is a “buckled board”. Fix a big delam. And put a straight edge on every single board you repair. Learn about rocker and bottom concaves from the boards you repair. Make homemade tools as you go…I know you won’t listen to me…
Buy a blank! Go For It!!!
Your right i should have but right now i dont have any boards to repair or learn the real basics.
Im freshley unemloyed and cant stop thinking about building one, so i think i might just get a blank and go at it.
Learn the hard way.
So
Blank: http://greenlightsurfsupply.com/us-blanks-60R.aspx
Glass: http://thayercraft.com/1652.htm
Resin: http://greenlightsurfsupply.com/UV-Cure-polyester-resin.aspx
Surfacing Wax: http://greenlightsurfsupply.com/polyester-resin-surfacing-agent-4-oz.aspx
Fin Box: Which one should i go with ? Pro Box,FCS,Future?
Hand planer: http://www.foamez.com/david-combi-plane-p-161.html
Varios sand papers grits on foam and wood blocks
Levels
Stand: http://www.surfersteve.com/stands.htm
Possibly BoschPlaner
Pencil
…I should be ok right?
Ray is right, but on the other hand, I’m glad I jumped in.
I cringe when I look at my first boards… Worth the experience, but really, lots of mistakes.
If I had to do it over again, rather than buying a blank and doing my first, I would get some trashed boards, strip them and shape something new. Then I would throw the thing away, and try again. Learn to use the tools first! Then spend the money on glassing. I would have taken up the offer to watch an experienced glasser work.
And with the greatest respect to Shark Country, and anybody else who shapes with just hand tools. The longer the shoe on your planer, the straighter the cut. Nobody will ever do by hand, truer than a machine. It just isn’t possible. A $200 dollar planer costs less than the crooked hand tooled board you just threw away because it is so wiggly.
Polskifil, My advice is to start a new thread. State your location, and ask if there are any members near by that would let you look over their shoulder on a few.
Oh yea, and to answer your first question $210 seems a good price for all that stuff. But maybe save a little, and do glass ons rather than fin plugs. And get a longer blank. The ones listed seem pretty small.
Hey, whichever route you go, kit, buying in bulk, sharing, trading, whatever, I just want to say its great you’re asking questions and planning ahead for building your first board.
My first few boards were hollow wood surfboards (I have done a lot of carpentry in the past, and still do some). Then I got some old blanks that had some problems, but were cheap, to shape my first foam boards. I just finished board 15, (probably a half dozen were foam, the rest wood).
I still shape my foam boards mainly by hand, with cheese-grater (sureform) and sandpaper, I only use my power planer for taking the skin off. I do all my own glassing, epoxy only - I’m no pro by a long shot, but I have a lot of fun building and riding my boards, and for me thats what its all about.
If you have half as much fun as I have, it will be worth the cost.
Thanks for all the Replies guys! Im really excited to try this and trying to take the best route possible.
I was honestly thinking myself it would be awsome to watch someone build one first but didnt know how i would go about finding someone. (Staten Island NY btw)
Ever since ive started surfing it has just been consuming me in every way and this is just another step.
One of the things I did when I started shaping Poly blanks again was to buy seconds. You can make a decent board from one of those. I got several for $35 each. Not sure what’s available in your area, but you could check around.
Thanks Sharkcountry i will deffinetly ask the guys at the store if they have any seconds.
Also is the fiberglass cloth i linked to fine? does it have to be straight 4.0 becasue i can get it cheaper online then at greenlight
We call it 4oz, but most of that cloth is actually refered to by the manufacturers as 3.7oz. What we refer to as 6oz is actually manufactured as 5.7oz.
The style from Thayercraft that would most commonly be used for lightweight surfboard construction is the Style 1522. It has a “loose” weave of 24 x 22 strands per square inch which makes it easier to wet out and to wrap corners and rails. That’s most likely what you’re getting from Greenlight if you buy from them.
Here’s Thayercraft’s link for Style 1522:
http://www.thayercraft.com/1522.htm
As you can see, at a 25yd roll you’re not really saving a lot of money on a per/yard basis when compared to buying 6 or 7 yards from Greenlight. On the other hand, if you ended up doing 3 or 4 boards you can save a few bucks by ordering more.
The 4oz cloth you linked to has a higher thread count, meaning a tighter weave. Everything else being equal that cloth will be a little harder to wet out and wrap. But on the other hand it will probably take a little less resin to fill and finish. My guess is that it would work for you, albeit at a slightly higher hassle factor.
One thing I should comment about on cloth widths and that is that a 27" width is okay if your boards are narrow or moderate in width. But longboards and other wider designs typically require the use of wider cloth, 30" widths being pretty standard. That’s where a 38" wide cloth might come in handy for you. It just depends on what you’re building.
By the way, you can buy a Sureform at most any hardware store. It’s a pretty common tool. You don’t need a level but you do need a pair of stands. Lots of people just use a pair of sawhorses for their first couple boards. That could be a Craigslist purchase for you. I’ve also seen pics of people using chairs and stools for shaping. Just getting the blank at a comfortable height for you to work on it and having enough room to walk around at least one side of it is half the battle on racks. I’d rather have a shaping stand that would hold the board on end with a rail up but people have shaped boards without it.
Most people will make a pair of stands long before they’ll spend $400+ on a prefabbed pair of racks. A couple of 2x4s + 2 5-gallon plastic buckets + a small bag of cement could get you there.
If you’re only going to buy one handplane I’d personally opt for the spokeshave type because that will work on both the flats and the inside curves on your decks. Just keep it sharp and well adjusted.