Anyone have access to a “Moonbeam”. An associate asked me to make him one. The rocker and thickness are no problem. I understand and feel that I can duplicate the ““beater” concave and moon tail fairly easy. What I need are Width measurements every six or twelve inches on a particular length. Using that length and those width measurements; I should be able to Scale the board up to something longer as most of those boards are sub six footers(5’7” etc.). Surely somebody out there either owns one or has a friend who does. If not I may be going around to Surf shops with a tape measure. Lowel
This might fall under the category: “that’s not what I asked for”, so feel free to ignore if this doesn’t help.
But the Moonbeam is well documented online, with photos, dimensions, and verbal descriptions. There is enough that I think I could make a pretty good replica just using the info they are giving away, without having to sneak out the tape at the surfshop.
And anyway, this is gonna be your interpretation, so slavish adherence to numbers isn’t a requirement, in my opinion.
Sometimes I will rough cut my template a little large, take a pic, and view it next to a pic of an outline I’m shooting for. Any blatant discrepancies show up right away.
And if it’s not quite the same, it’s cuz you probably improved it anyway, no extra charge.
@ McD
The image at this link is fairly high resolution.
Save it.
(I saved the image. Photoshop shows it to be roughly 3 inches wide by 9 inches tall.)
Print it.
Measure it in millimeters.
Measure length and divide it into to 10-15 equal intervals – more if you like.
Measure width at each interval.
Determine width to length ratio for each interval (width divided by length).
You can use these ratios for each interval to determine width for any length you choose.
(i.e. multiply desired length by the width/length ratio determined for each length interval.)
Just my $0.02.
Lowel - With those images it shouldn’t be too problematic to print them out on your computer. Take those to a copy center with a machine that allows you to enlarge or reduce. Make adjustments to give you a scaled version that will make it easy to convert… I.E. if you want a 6 foot board, make sure your copy machine print is exactly 6" long on paper. There is a formula for that involving basic math. With that new image you should be able to do some more basic math and scale it up to full size on some wrapping paper… 1" = 1’, 1/2" = 6", 1/4" = 3", etc. So make some marks at every inch and scale the dimensions up to every foot on paper. Once you have something that looks reasonable on paper, cut out and transfer to masonite. If you do it somewhat carefully, you should have a template very close to the real thing. With the profile views here you should be able to do something similar for rocker and thickness. Best of luck with rail contours… from what I’ve seen of Machado’s designs, the rails are often fairly close to Brewer rails but I haven’t seen that specific model, so…
I added some video to my posts above cuz its easy to pull up in a search, and you can get a real good feel for the board contours, including rails, by watching the videos. Looks like he carries the volume out to the rails pretty far, they taper down, and seems like a down railer the whole way, but not a hard down rail, more of a softer edge, rounder down rail, doesn’t even look like a crisp edge in the tail, but def a bit tighter radius toward the fin area.
I figure McDing is gonna end up using the rails that work for him, or for his area, so even tho he’s gonna use the Moonbeam for inspiration, to a certain extent you want him to add his own secret sauce if he’s shaping a board for you, otherwise you could just order a Moonbeam.
That concave/channel thing does not appeal to me at all…
Anybody have any info/insight into that?
In the test pilot video Rob talks about it “creating lift”.
Looks like the channel would increase pressure under the tail…
The image above was inserted into PowerPoint.
Below, it has been divided into 10 equal segments.
Measure image width at each interval. Divide each width by image length (width/length),
Let us say you want a 70-inch board. Multiply 70 inches by the width/length for each interval. That will be your width for every 7-inch interval.
[However, if you want a specific maximum width for a given length, you will have to play with (proportionally adjust) the width/length ratios:
Bluegrass Board Building: Making a Surfboard Template from a Photo or Image ]
A framing square, a piece of masonite…
Accept. Reject. It does not affect me.
Based on dimensions in the chart Huck posted, and the actual width and length of the image in post #10, the board depicted would be very close to 20" x 74".
Width intervals shown would be every 7.4".
i have has success with the projectors at work.
I insert the pic into word, project on the board whiteboard, measure the dims, on the board. then do a ratio calculation to increase the up and down and then the side to side dims (use percentage increase) in the picture format section in word.
then place some cardboard on the white board with tape and trace away.
doesnt account for the change in shape due to the curve of rocker but it gives a good idea.
All great info from you and Huck. I was rereading your comments on Scaling dimensions recently here on Sways. They really help wrap my brain around what I need to do. I also have a Masonite template for a 20 1/2" Fish that I have used recently. It has a very similar outline and curves. Lowel
I am going to give it a go as you suggest John. I have heard guys talk about scaling Computer size. Going to reread everything and try to wrap my brain around it one step at a time. Lowel
You guys are fantastic at this stuff. Thanks so much. If I can pull this off; I’ll be in the “Shape Off” at Del Mar in 2019. (LOL). If I don’t drop dead from exhaustion first. I will keep you posted on this and update my progress from time to time. Got a lot on my plate. Lowel
The blank is my favorite EPS Foam. Marko. A 6’8” Fish type blank that I will have to look up the name and number of later.
I found that semi-circle tail to be more difficult to get right than the concave. Every time I took a second critical look at it I wanted to adjust it. Difficult to get the aesthetics right to the eye.
Spackled the bottom. Finding good spackle has become a bit of a problem. My “go to” Ace Hardware Liteweight Spackle has been reformulated with an Optical Brightner, So now it’s too blue. Found some nice creamy stuff at the Sherwin/Williams Paint store.
I just tried the Sherwin/Williams spackle the other day. I really like it. Used it right out of the container without thinning. Way better than the last batch of DAP Fast N Final I had. I bought a larger container of DAP and it took a while to use it. I should have dumped it and switched when people started commenting on the difference. The Sherwin/Williams stuff seems like the old DAP mix.
For scaling shapes of boards I wanted to copy, I would use Adobe Illustrator and draw a board’s outline curve from an image (only one side). Once the outline was created, I would open the Illustrator file in Photoshop with whatever length and width I wanted. Then I would cut the full size image into pieces I could print on 11 x 17 paper. Each page has guide lines to reassemble an accurate full scale template. Then I’d print, cut, and tape them together and transfer that to masonite or poster board for a stiffer template. I think this is how Blending Curves makes their templates.
I also drew up my own designs this way. Once you have something full scale, you can move the wide point around and tweak the nose or tail curve with photoshop. You need a decent computer because the files get pretty big.
You can open an image in Photoshop and just scale it to whatever length and width you want, but the pixellation gets bad. But, if you just use that as a guide and have nice flexible battons, you can make a nice clean line along the pixelated edge. You still need to print it out to full scale.
I don’t have Illustrator now that Adobe switched to the annual licence. My old computer with Windows XP had it, but I use a Mac now.