Buddy of mine gave me a blank he’d started on, but due to time constraints had no time to finish. I brought it home, and did a decent job of shaping it up. Ended up with a nice 6’9 roundtail. The blank he’d bought was a 2nd quailty, so there were a few holes that needed patching up with some filler. So, instead of doing something simple, like spackling, I had the bright idea of using cabosil and resin. DUH… try sanding that down without ruining the area around it. Where did I get that idea from?!! Anyway took a prefectly good shape and basically ruined it, live and learn. Maybe a nice resin swirl would hide it somewhat. Thanks for all the input guys this is a great place!!
…it’s resin and sugar,and you need to sand it flush before it gets hard,like rubbery,man.Herb
It happens…you did the right thing by laughing.To many guys get ballistic over mistakes.Just recently I hung an overhead light over the shaping stand,I have 10 foot ceilings so I am used to slinging blanks every whichaway.So I shaped a little 6’4…fine screened ready to go…picked it up to flip it over and smashed the nose into my brand new light. R.B. (I would like to hear more about stupid mistakes…we can laugh and learn at the same time.Anyone willing??
My little mistake happened right after a board was completely finished! I (like a doofus) stood the 9’4" longboard up on its tail, leaning against a wooden saw horse. I put a towel around the top of the saw horse as to not scratch my pretty gloss & polish finish. This was all done just so I could photograph the dang board. Naw, I couldn’t lay it down on its side, I had to stand it up! Well, when I started this doomed photo project it wasn’t windy. When I got a couple photos done, the wind picked up just enough to knock the board backwards, landing right on top of the saw horse. My thin towel was hardly enough protection to dampen any damage. The new board ended up with two rail fractures / dings that had to be repaired…GEEZ. Since then, I have always photo’d my boards laying down on their side, propped up against a wall. I don’t remember laughing much at the time!
Hank of Pure Fun must consume alcohol to work. He brings a newly glassed and finished board out to the deck on the office we share, stands it up against the front of the metal building and steps back to admire his work. I had to admonish him on how slippery the board was against the metal surface, so he took the board down, until I left. He then put it back up and gave him self an atta’ boy on how great the board looked, for about 5 more seconds. It started sliding across the wall and slammed into the faucet on the outside hose bib. The ding was only about 3 inches deep, in a nice dark blue tint! Come to think of it, he did this with a whole room full of Linden, Brewer shaped sail boards, lined them up in the lam room and they all did the domino effect. Some people never learn from their mistakes!
freind of mine brings a board for me to glass one day- beautiful 9’0’’ all painted with yellow and blue stripes that crossed(color to color) and accented with red pins…the paint job was beautiful and the guy told me he spent 12 hrs taping and painting. anyhow, he brings it into the glassing room and we set it on the cloth prep rack- we go outside and take a break; come back in and start eqivicating over choice of cloth- i chose the 6oz silene and begin to pull it off the roll; my friend interupts by simply stating ‘‘gee if only we had some 7.5 silene’’- i looked up above the roll of 6 and thought aloud: the regular laminator does occasionally use a 7 or 8 oz silene but i’m not sure what that particular cloth is. he cks it out for a min and says; ‘ahh i think it may be silene’ off the roll it comes and draped this gorgeous 9’0’'. laps trimmed, i began saturating the cloth- as i am finishing lapping the rails, my freind bends down to ck out the lapping process-HOLY F’N 2@%$#^#%@#%^$^#&%^^(%- THAT WAS VOLAN!!! viola- OH!,I REPLIED- my first ever volan freelap! after shitting ourselves we laughed harder then ever and through his expert craftmanship, did help to save the board. it was a long and itchy experience for me and rest assured, i never want to go thru that again.
Last spring I made a super-tanker 10’6" for Florida summer slop fun. Triple cedar stringers, matching tail block and sawn veneer diamond inlays for my logo on the deck and bottom. Beautiful! While laminating the deck I slop sun-cure resin onto the stand during the process. Take board outside to kick, looks great, no blems, my best lam job ever, all is well with the universe, put board back on stand. The pooled resin on the stand never kicked in the incandescent lit shop and acted as a solvent to the bottom lam. I wound up with a piss-yellow spot the size of my fist on the bottom. Finished the board, rides great in 2’ slop, looks great too, exceptwhere it appears my dog dribbled on it. Now when I’m done glassing I turn my disposable latex gloves inside out over the stand knobs to protect against drips.
On those seconds with holes which happen to luckilt ly on the flats: There is a router template and plugs you can resin in, the same system Norm Abrahms uses on wood projects.
…Ah yes I can see it now(goofy never ages,dammit!),Here we have Mr.Swell,a mild mannered surfshop owner,but at night in his shaping room he becomes MAC THE HACK!!!STAY OUT!!DON’T TOUCH THAT…YOU WANT IT WHEN?..OR Mr.Curl become timid tim…i can’t do that,don’t look…you want it when?Herb
I’m not a shaper, but was in the Beach House(Yater’s showroom)in Santa Barbara checking out boards. This guy from Los Angeles comes in and buys a beautiful Yater balsa longboard…must have been over $1000.00. Leaves the store and I’m still walking around checking stuff out. 20 minutes later he comes in huffing and puffing saying that he didn’t tie down his board good enough and it flew off his roof rack. He asked if he could replace it with another one! The sales person was perplexed…and said no. The guy couldn’t understand why he couldn’t get another one. The board had some major dings and when the fin hit the cement it ripped out the fin box. Salesperson said you’ll have to get it fixed and the guy was just dumbfounded. Don’t know what ever happened after that…stupid, stupid, stupid guy.
I swear the best board I ever made and rode was a total reject that was twisted so bad it looked like a propeller.It was stolen and I never could duplicate it.It only went left which was ok with me.Maybe some of you techno design computer guys can explain this phenomenon…maybe a whole new design concept. R.B.