My first ever longboard. I was inspired by Greg Loehr’s WMD thread to use veneer. I’d always thought veneer to be aesthetic but structural inconsequential, but his thread convinced me otherwise. I started searching for veneer and found this which screamed surfboard.
I found out later that the species is endangered in its natural habitat. I decided against it, but kept coming back. The vendor told me it was plantation grown but I suspect he might have said that because he sensed his customer was a “greenie.” I finally decided it would be better off as a beautiful surfboard than as a tacky cabinet. A total rationalization I know. Forgive me mama nature for I have sinned…
Did the outline on AKU shaper. It was going to be a 9-8 but when I taped together the individual sheets I had a 9-5 ??? Oh well , mobettah.
Notice the length of the blank in relation to the space. I could only work on one side of the board at a time. Note also my ever present helper-llilibel aka Isabel.
Here’s the AKU shape. I only use it to get the outline template and a general idea of the volume of shortboards. I’m clueless as to what the volume numbers would signify for a longboard. I never use the AKU rails so the ones here are just the generic ones. The rocker I play with but then basically work with what the blanks comes with.
Was going to be a mush gun but I think it’s just a longboard with a slightly pulled in nose. I’ve been following the “pointy-nosed nose riders” thread with interest.
This is the finished shape. I love shaping. It’s a joy to do. Unfortunately it’s such a small part of the whole compsand build.
Here’s a shot of the nose bevel. It’s about 1-3/4" wide and goes back about 2 feet.
Then comes the counter intuitive part- cutting off the rails. Marked off and cutting.
Counter intuitive because you’ve just finished finessing the shape and then you go and cut it up. It always feels weird to me.
I do it mostly for the aesthetics. I love wood. In fact I’ve finally decided on a name for my boards- Wood Joints. I hae a logo in mind too which I’ll post up shortly.
I tried a wood veneer board when I was in high school after my friend brought home a Gary Young “Wooden Board” from Santa Cruz back in the 70’s. I had no idea what I was doing and I used contact cement to put the veneer on. You know, you used contact cement to put veneer on plywood so…Well, the cement melted the foam and I ended up with this lumpy bottom. Then when I hot coated the resin pooled in the holes and I had this heavy wooden board. I still have it. I should photograph it next time I’m up at my folk’s house.
I was also pleasantly suprised when I read somewhere that Bert liked balsa best for it’s lively flex. I know Paul, you don’t like it, but isn’t that mostly a water intrusion issue? The board I made what, 4 years ago and surfed heavily has no problems. Plus balsa is cheaper than corecell, or at least from the suppliers I’ve found. Finally bending corecell with a heat gun doesn’t sound that much simpler than balsa rails. I did the balsa rails for this board in about 1, maybe 1 and 1/2 hours, and I’m really slow.
But in the end I do it because I want an all wood (looking) board.
Great thread. The timing of this could not have been better (for me) as I am just about to start such a project - Marine Ply skins and Paulownia rails. Thanks for posting this. I will be following with great interest.
Hey Rohan, my first compsand build was with poplar bender ply, balsa and cork rails, 1 lb eps. Strong as a tank but heavy. The heaviness, which I thought would be a liability, turned into an asset- I love the glide and the swing weight when turning. Still, not the choice if you’re after a lightweight board. Also, be careful at the the nose flip- plywood definitely does not like compound curves!
I’m still working on it. I’m not happy with the finish. Going to Fiberglass Services today to buy some “real” polishing compound. ProboxLarry said the automotive stuff I’ve been using doesn’t cut epoxy very well. I tried every Turtle Wax product out there.
It’s in the shelves by my water heater…save yourself the money…try then buy (if need be)…small metalic container on the second shelf from the bottom between freezer and water heater on the same wall as my boards.
Not so fast there cowboy. You got to watch the whole movie to get to the ending.
Putting one layer of balsa, which goes under the skin. After the skins I’ll put three more layers outside. On this board, where aesthetics are paramount, I didn’t do Paul’s method of glueing all the wood rails first and then shaping, because then you bag the skins over the balsa rails and blend the skin into the rail. I’ve done two boards this way and the join is never as clean as the method I’m using on this board. With balsa on balsa it’s fine, but here, with contrasting woods I wanted the cleanest join possible.
Now, for the first time I tried to bag on both top and bottom skins in one go. About half way through wetting out the second skin (the deck) I ran out of resin. I was using a timer and my assistant, who you see in the pictures, was counting down (Ten minutes! Five minutes! Come on Daddy! Three minutes!). I hastily mixed afew more ounces and threw her in the bag.
Hours later and the left over resin was not gelling. Turn up the heat. 24 hours later still gooey. I messed up the ratio or didn’t mix well enough and the resin didn’t go off. The bottom skin was fine and half the top skin but the other half I peeled away. Then I had to peel away the half that set. My deck was soaked with unhardened epoxy. I eventually got it off, sacrificing two surform blades. I think what saved me was I had spackled the foam so it wouldn’t soak up too much resin and that prevented the resin to soak too far into the foam.
Here I’ve shaped a 3" thick board down to 2-3/4", which turns out to be a good correction.
Lucky for me that resin soaked eps foam dust on the floor didn’t stick to the carpet. Who has carpet in their glassing room anyways???
