First let me say that I’ve enjoyed all the articles I’ve read on hollow baords on this site and hope I can turen out something interesting as well. This is not my first board nor my most radical idea made. Here’s some history:
With those out of the way, I’ve started another board after a several year hiatus. Since balsa is too expensive for my everchanging hobbies, I went with local pine and cedar. I generally start by selecting a “clark foam” blank plan shape to go by and jump right in. This one more of a 10’4"A rocker design with a 9’8"S shape. Will it surf well? Who knows. But I’ll enjoy making it.
Planed 1x6 pine planks down to 3/16" with 3/4" cedar between, epoxy(West) together, 2" 'glass tape on the inside, then glassed my rocker to the bottom.
The top is going to be the opposite: 1x6 cedar with 3/4" pine
The board is going to be @10’0-3" or so and hopefully less than 50 lbs. Here’s a bottom shot:
After seeing the size of the pics , I’ll post others elsewhere. I can’t seem to be able to dial mine in to a usable size. This shot is adding the cross sections. Since I go about things in odd ways, I can’t get used to making the internal frame first the the outide board. So I go freom the bottom to the top. Epoxy putty, clamps and 8 lb lead blocks do all the work.
Looks like a fun project. The bottom and deck, at 3/16", are pretty thick. This is going to be a very heavy board. I would encourage you to maximize volume to compensate for the weight you’re going to end up with. Also, you may not need to glass the outside of the board at all, depending what technique you use for your rails, especially with glass already on the inside. My 6’3 cedar fish, with 1" solid cedar rails, and 1/4" skins, has no glass inside or out, and is rock solid. It also weighs about 18 lbs if I remember correctly.
The thickness is mainly due to the first board I made several years ago. 9’6"x24"x3", 3’4" stripped top and bottom, random pattern of cedar, spruce and pine. Strips were 3/32" thick and right about when I was going to stop sanding, I sanded thru !!!2!!! spots. Made a purty fire though. I plan on planing this a little(hopefully not thru). The rails are probably going to be mostly cork. I have a nice partial roll of 1/4" cork; easy to sand and shape. I’ll probably make some sort of rail like I’ve seen somewhere, where the rails are built up before the deck is applied, then the deck will cover the upper edge of the rails to be later shaped down to them. Ought to make a good, watertight joint.
Sounds similar to the method some of the guys on “tree to sea” forum are using for the rails. I don’t get it yet, I’m going to stick with the alternating layers of cork and ply (a la Paul Jensen) until I can figure out a better way (been thinking about this for about three years and haven’t come up with anything yet.
Thinking about it I must get round to posting my latest.
I like the ala Paul Jensen style, yet I’ve never been able to get my thin ply to bend real snug around the front. I would, and I hate to, assume, my plys are not thin enough. Thats why I went with the mostly cork which is a rather different look .
Looks like a fun project… My 6’3 cedar fish, with 1" solid cedar rails, and 1/4" skins, has no glass inside or out, and is rock solid. It also weighs about 18 lbs if I remember correctly.
Good luck!
Pat
Got any pics of it. It sounds interesting…a cedar fish. Actually a fish was going to be my next board. Since I’m 6’4" @225 lbs., anyone got any great ideas on what might be needed to float my bulk?? I started to cut out the stringer set up tonite. Its 7’ long with the string thickness, from front to rear at: .75,2.25,2.75,2.25,2.125,1.75,1.375,1.00…all inch measurements; with the nose @5" off the bottom to start. Why??, it looked nice! I thinking somewhere around 24" wide with a twin fin set up(glassed on).
Not bendy enough? I hear you brother! I’ve just had a bit of a disaster with the rails on my current project. I tried to cut and re-position a section of rail at the nose as It somehow got stuck down wrong (must have been tired), anyway the section is refusing to lie flat and snug now so I’ve been had to indulge in a little creative clamping to hold it while it sets. Hopefully it’ll be OK to carry on shaping tomorrow.
An idea tha I used on the last board I made was to score the inside face of the ply with a stanley knife every 6 or 7 mm to help it bend, that worked. his time I just went with continuous layers of 4 mm ply cut at about 20mm strips, which at first seemed to bend very nicely into the compound curves at the nose, but obviously didn’t like being taken off.
Let me first say that I am unable to figure out how to post large nice pics without going over the size limit. Therefore, I’ll continue to post them on webshots.
I’ve done quite a lot of work on my board since I last wrote. Made the deck, joined, epoxied, 'glassed the backside, and bent it. These pics show, since my boards are rather thick, that I wanted to bend the board a little to help when I epoxy it down.
Then just a side shot. I’ll probably plane both the top and the bottom a bit to smooth it out a bit, crown the deck a little, and remove some weight before I start on the rails.
I’ve done considerable more more since last time. Starting with pic 100_0118, it shows that I didn’t like the way the nose looked so I cut it off and went instead with a cedar nose. Still working on it. After 3 fins, still can’t decide which one I like.
Looking great Bill. About to start my next project… an 8ft hollow/chambered mal. My last project (5’10" hollow wooden fish) which i finished a week and a half back turned out to be yet another preesent for my son, who’s a good couple of stone lighter than me. I’ve finally got an idea on another rail method which I’m eager to try.
Looking great Bill. About to start my next project… an 8ft hollow/chambered mal. My last project (5’10" hollow wooden fish) which i finished a week and a half back turned out to be yet another preesent for my son, who’s a good couple of stone lighter than me. I’ve finally got an idea on another rail method which I’m eager to try.
Always looking for a better/easier/different rail method. Whatcha’ gonna try?
