Saw this Mike Casey HWS design which seems to be using a little diferent technique than what we’ve been seeing here.
He said it chambered, but it looks like he’s gluing in pieces versus boring them out like Jim showed us in his latest DVD.
Maybe this is the old school technique versus the “Jensen” method veryone seems to have adopted?
Any comments?
Here’s the photos.
either way it’s on hell of a beautiful board…
Casey make some nice classic stuff… Seen some of Danny’s stuff in the water from Craig Inouye’s shop and those ar esome nice clissic lines as well too, even with out the bolts.
Too bad T&C f’d and booted out all the sages right GG?
used to build glider fuselages that way (except both sides, top and bottom were all the stringer/stick build up), its very time consuming. Maybe Woody Brown came up with this method (that would make it very old)…
I have thought of a simple method that I want to try some time this year for a hollow wooden with no laminate over it - just hot and gloss coat. It goes something like this.
Cut cross sections of the board shape out of 15-20mm spruce or the like - every 200mm or so along it’s length. (minus the rail shape of course as rails will be added at the end of the process).
Cut the planshape of the board (plus an extra 10mm or so all around) out of 4mm marine plywood. This is going to be the bottom of the board.
Glue and screw the spruce sections to the plywood in their correct respective positions - 3 to 4 screws per section (through the ply and into the spruce sections).
Bend the ply with its attached sections into the rocker shape you want with weights and supports in the appropriate places. As long as your vee/concave/belly shape in your sections isn’t too severe you wont have too much trouble getting the 4mm ply to bend into a mild compound shape. The positive fixing of your screws will ensure your bottom contours are held as they should be.
Make some templates and cut your perimeter stringers and glue and screw them to the ends of the sections mounted on your ply which is bent to your rocker shape. Two perimeter stringers of the same 4mm ply per side should do the trick.
6.You can now remove the weights/supports and trim the over hanging bottom planshape back to the perimeter stringers you have now added.
Now add the deck by glueing and screwing another piece of ply to the top of the open topped, cross sectionally braced box you now have.
Trim the over hanging deck ply. You now have a watertight surfboard (minus rails of course) if you have been careful - if not then patch the gaps between the perimeter stringers and the deck and bottom ply edges.
Remove all the screws once all the glue has set and add and shape the rails as you normally would.
Drill out the visible holes left in the deck and bottom to say 10mm deep and 6mm diameter. Resin 6mm diameter dowels into the holes and then cut them off flush.
Hot coat and gloss coat the board.
This cheats method means you don’t need a whole heap of clamps to build a hollow wooden or even need to build a proper frame with a central spine. The down side is you end up with a board which looks like it has dowelled joints in it - a look I don’t really mind too much.
Of course you should lighten everything wherever you can as you go along - drill holes through the cross sections of spruce, etc, etc.
I like the way your brain ticks. I’m planning along similar lines, with dowells holding the deck to the ribs. Hadn’t thought of using screws first, then replacing with dowells. My thought was that it would be best for the deck/frame bond to happen at the same time the dowells were setting up.
Here’s the thing I’m still trying to figure out (as long as I’m still trying to find good lumber I’ve had a lot of time to sketch plans and ponder):
Ideally, you wouldn’t have any springback of the decks away from the frame. With a parallel profile board this is less of a problem, as you only have rocker to deal with. With a domed deck you have introduced a compound curve/rocker. I’m planning on using spruce or cedar planks and not plywood for the construction of the entire board. And no glass. So it’s critical that I have a great bond between individual planks, and have firm clamping pressure when gluing up the decks. To minimize stressing the joints with bending after the glue has set, I will be using a rocker table to achieve bow to stern rocker. But then there is still the factor of port to starboard flex happening after the glue has set. (sorry for all the boat terms here, it was how I learned to orient myself on the water.)
Has anyone ever experimented with clamping their planks on a rocker table with a compound deck curve built in? If I’m going to be able to get the strength I need without glass, this seems critical.
I am a little confused (not unusual) about how you are planning to do the deck. Are you going to clamp your deck planks down to a shaped table and then glue your previously constructed “open topped surfboard shaped box” (bottom ,sides and crossribs) upside down on to your clamped deck planks ? If this is the case why wouldn’t you simply glue and screw your planks down onto the aforementioned “box”. If the “box” is stiff enough (and it should be with decent sides) you should be able to screw your planks down to the ribs and get your compound shape - depends how thick your planks are I guess. Of course you must start at the front and work backwards with your screwing on each plank (or at the back and work forwards). Mind you this is all speculation on my part as I have only built this board in my head so far.
yeah, I’m still trying to figure that one out myself!
Here’s my basic theory…
Without a fiberglass shell coating the whole thing for added strength, I’ll be missing one outside layer of the fiberglass/wood/fiberglass (or any other cloth) sandwich. So… how do I plan on making up for this? Well the idea came to me while sitting at my kitchen table. It’s one of those plentiful cheap ikea tables that’s made from a whole bunch of wood pieces glued together. These tables are made by applying the glue and then clamping the heck out of it. Virtually impossible to break those glue joints. In order to get my deck with this kind of strength I’m going to need to apply some serious clamping while gluing up the individual slats. If I screw the slats down to the frame, I won’t be able to get any lateral pressure through clamping. But if I use a traditional rocker table that is flat in the rail to rail (port to starboard) direction, those glue joints will flex when making the curve down to the ribs. That’s probably what I’ll end up doing, if I can’t figure out a way to do the initial gluing with the compound curve in place.
If that didn’t make sense, I can try to get some drawings up, but my skills with illustrator are still about as good as my skills at duck diving a high volume board.
Oh hey, just thought of something that was looking me right in the face. If, instead of gluing up the entire deck at once, I did it one slat at a time on a jig, that would make it possible I think. Hmmm… would add an extra month or so, but that’s ok.
Make a nice rigid rocker table (with compound shape to it of course).
Make twice as many deck planks as you need but make them half the thickness.
Lay your first layer of deck planks onto your rocker table.
Apply glue to them all.
Lay your second layer of deck planks in on top. Overlap them by half a width with the first layer (waterproof joints).
Screw the entire lot down onto your rocker table working from one end to the other. Make sure where you put your screws is where the cross ribs will be when you attach this formed deck to the rest of your board.
After your glue has set pull the screws out (hopefully there won’t be too much spring back).
Glue and screw this formed deck to your board. If you have been careful with your screw placements then they will line up with your cross ribs.
I’ll do an experimental run and see if I’m able to rip my planks that thin when I get them. To be honest, I’m pretty terrible at woodworking, so this whole thing might sink anyway, but worth a try.
