The moment you’ve all been waiting for, or at least I’ve been waiting for- I get to make a board. Some of you know I make one board a year (when my wife and daughter are in Italy and I can make dust with impunity). I have put up a thread for the last two. The last one was the paulownia bonzer.
Nice looking but doesn’t work too great- definitely on the heavy side- (around 8 pounds with all the fins and wax), too thin (for me), floats me at the nipples, knifey rails (catch going off the top), and it slows down when the wave goes soft and fat. Bonzers don’t necessarily need size but they need steepness. At least this one does.
So for this year’s board- a Griffin style five fin. I figure it would have the drive of the bonzer, but, with a flat bottom, would still go in the flats. This time I hope to get the rails and volume right. Also, I’m going with all balsa to get the weight down. So here we go…
I would love to make more. We have a room in our condo which is converted to an art studio, so it’s not like I don’t make a mess when my wife and daughter are around. But the first time I shaped EPS in there and the dust was sticking to vertical wall surfaces my wife flipped. So I have to wait until she’s gone. This year she even said, “Why don’t you make two while we’re gone?” Really? So I’m planning on a second board.
The first is the 6-1 five fin. The board I make will basically be a vehicle for these-
Full house! Hand foiled epoxy fins from Greg Griffin. These things are like a work of art. The guy at Moonlight Glassing said Greg is probably the best fin foiler in the world.
Thanks Greg. I might add that these cost only a pittance more than standard fiberglass FCS fins.
So this was my first glitch. The balsa I used felt pretty stiff. The tail section of balsa pulled off the blank. So I clamped it down a second time. When I pulled the clamp off this time, the rail pulls off… with the eps atached. Damn!
I decided I would put the tail block on. Clamping it back on the third time had me cursing. Th clamp kept slipping off the angled surface. Finally I flipped the bar over the board instead of letting it hang under and that did it. Duh. Third times the charm, eh?
Not really. When I took off the clamp, for some reason what had once been 1-3/4" of tail rocker was now 1". What the ??? So I try to employ some Bennytech reverse engineering and weight the thing to get more rocker back in the tail.
But , for some reason, that made the rail band pop off again. ARRRRGGGGHHH. Maybe I should make poopees? I’d be done already!
I’m trying an old school fix. It’s a pity you won’t see this when the skins go on. It seems to be holding. We’ll see… The weights got 1/4" of rocker back into the tail. I’m going to plane it down a 1/4" more to get 1-1/2". Not what I originally planned but better than 1". The tail will be pretty thin. Hope that rail doesn’t pop off again!
ARRRRGGGGHHH. Maybe I should make poopees? I’d be done already!
HA! Man, I hate to say it but that post is too funny! Been there done that!
What Ive notice about clamping is the potential amount of blank twist. Good reason for a good rocker bed on final vac’n. Btw I have the same vac pump…$80 on ebay.
Btw #2, marko eps with epoxy glassing is a good compromise between pupee and full-on sandwich.
We’ll see… The weights got 1/4" of rocker back into the tail. I’m going to plane it down a 1/4" more to get 1-1/2". Not what I originally planned but better than 1"
You can set any rocker you want, within reason, when final vac’n the skins on. You can partly dice up you rail wood to bend it more.
Dont compromise your rocker dude! That would be foolish.
I hear you about the rocker. It’s in the bag now on a rocker bed. However even that didn’t have quite enough so I propped it up and am weighting it. I have a stick on it so right now, as it is set up, the rocker is on the money. We’ll see what happens when it comes out of the bag. How many hours should I leave it in there? Only the bottom skin on now. I figured I wanted that on there to hold that rail on before I do any shaping and further reduce the tail thickness. Plus bagging the deck will give me one more opportunity to tweak the rocker.
sugio- attached os the brd.file. I wanted as neutral a board as possible, to kind of give the fin set up a chance to be felt. Wide point and rocker apex exactly at center. Flat bottom.
I recently adjusted the tail rocker on a board by more than 1 1/2" while vacuuming the deck skin on. Hang in there. Looking forward to watching this thread develop.
Well, The weights didn’t work. The rocker stayed the same. Not even the pineapple helped.
Today I did the initial shape of the deck. I took over half that rail balsa off. Now I think it will be easy to set the rocker. It’s back in the bag with the deck skin on and blocks to set the rocker.
Can’t imagine what my wife would say if she saw this!
I’m working in the master bedroom of our condo. My wife and I sleep in a bunk bed in the living room. As I’m working I think how different this is than making polyester boards. For one I have not spilled a single drop of resin on the floor (carpet), and there is zero waste of resin. Compare that to a poopee with the lam resin just pouring onto floor.
Shaped. The shaping process for a compsand is a building process and kind of happens in stages. It’s not like plopping the blank on the shaping stands and mowing foam for an hour or two (or three…and a half, if you’re like me). The one part where I felt like I was shaping was doing the rails. I get so into it it’s like a meditation. Every time I do it I always think how lucky you guys who do this for a living are. Of course, if you had to do it every day, all day, it might get old, but does it?
It ain’t perfect but I’m pretty pleased.
ps can you see a wee bit of the butterfly joint poking thru?
I was gonna say overshoot a bit on the rocker table to allow for springback but you’re past that point. A little bit of tweaking is still possible during the glassing but it looks fine to me as is.
But I just can’t get past the carpet and wood floors. I’ve got a concrete floor, epoxy splatter, dust everywhere workspace that my wife tells me at least weekly is only mine temporarily.
Again!
