Howzit all, I have made 8 boards so far and currently working on my 9th. Every single board I’ve done has made me want to do another and every board has gotten better. I recently brought 2 of my boards up to mike whisnant in jacksonville fl and he gave me some great advice and let my use his futures routing template, big thanks to him! SWAYLOCKS hook up! He gave me a lot of respect on my boards saying the only way he could tell im just starting out was because of how my nose wasnt thinned.
I have been getting better to the point to where I am really proud of the last couple boards, but one thing I cant figure out is thinning the nose. I use the planer and get it down to right about where I want the thickness, then use sand paper and screens to get it nice, make rails, and concaves.
Question: I thin everything out to where I want it, and everything will be going good, and for some reason I cant figure out how to make the nose (approx the last 2-3 inches) thinned out enough. It is like my top 2 feet of board will look really nice and then right near that last couple inches doesnt want to thin out. I tried to fix this by planing just the last couple inches, but what ends up happening is that it wont blend right. I also just try to use sand paper in that area, but it ends up just taking the foam on either side of the stringer down without taking the center down so it still has the thicker look.
Is there any tips or tricks to thin out the nose easily without having blending problems, or is it most likely that im just not skilled enough with the planer yet and it will come with time?
probably seems like a simple problem, but for some reason its just not clicking. Thanks all
A Stanley mini-plane or a spoke shave will get you where you want to be without any problems. Once you've got it close to where you want it; take the mini-plane and plane the stringer down to your desired thickness(check with calipers). If it still needs a little work, bring it down with the spoke shave. Be careful with the tip as it is prone to break off. Pull the plane toward the nose with one hand and re-enforce the nose with the other by placing it under the tip of the nose area. Once you've brought it down to what you want; take a sanding block wrapped in foam rubber or foam rubber and sandpaper or screen and bring the foam down flush to the stringer. The key here is to bring the stringer down to the desired thickness first. Then sand or screen the foam down flush to the stringer. All done from the deck. I usually use the mini-plane and then (if necessary) fine tune with the spoke shave. Do it as I have described and you'll look like a pro. ie no more" beaked noses". They went out with" bell bottoms".
How can you forget you have a surform...I just shaped a board with a surform and 3 different grits of sandpaper......yes it was tough work I need a planer stat.....
My first board and this thread invaluable as I have a nose thickness issues.......and evr so slight lumpy rails....any tricks if you dont have the right lighting?
I thin my noses out from the bottom with a surform rasp. If the nose is particularly thick then I’ll make a series of planer cuts, each a few inches closer to the nose starting from about 12 inches out. I shape the very end (last half inch) which is mostly stringer with my block plane.
I’m no master shaper, but that’s my method for what it’s worth.
I run the planer from the nose towards the tail whilst turning the depth adjust down from 4mm cut to zero the length of the desired thinning. This leaves a planer blade width groove out of the center of the nose tapering away, leaving the stringer flat and smooth, I then get my 60 grit sanding block and just manually blend the remaining foam either side of the cut down flush with the initial cut. Then fine tuning is done with the small block plane run the opposite direction( off the nose end) until im happy with it, usually shape the rails last then go back and fine tune the nose again with block plane and sand paper.
Thinning from the bott0m changes the rocker, adding more nose flip, so keep that in mind when you plan out your rocker.
I’ve used the electric sander to feather down the flip from the deck, and that works well, but you don’t need to do that. You can rough it down with the surform using just the last few inches of the tool, then the hard block, then finish it with a spokeshave. The surform is a bit difficult and very innaccurate, so you have to be careful. But I just hold my left hand under the nose, and scrub the stringer down with the surform at an angle with my right hand until it’s just about where I need it. Then go to the hard block with 40 or 60 grit, then spokeshave going downhill.
A lot depends on the type of board you're shaping. Fish or thicker nosed or flatter nose rockered boards the thickness at the tip is taken from the deck in a semi beak style. Most boards though, even some fishes, the nose thickness comes off the bottom. This has to be planned in the rocker. It sometimes helps to get a blank with less nose rocker so you can foil corrrectly. Blanks with the exact rocker you want in your finished board generally equate to being too thick in the nose and tail.
Apreciate all the advice. It clicks now lol. I guess in the past couple boards i’ve tried to us the electric planer more to cut down time, totally forgot I even had a surform. Just one of those things that takes a little outside advice to grasp instead of me doing the same errors over and over again
Not for the faint of heart but an accurate way to thin the nose without breaking it off. Too much hand pressure on a 2" thick board with a spoke shave and it will snap off. The sander isn’t a finish tool for the nose flip just a quick accurate way to get the curve and thickness close then finish off with the spokeshave and sanding pad.
More and more I can cut the deck nose curve with the hard pad then blend in the deck stringer line into the nose with a few passes of the planer. Cut the stringer first then follow on the foam. Helps to not drink too much coffee.
Read the information from Mike Daniel about the use of the hard disk and the sander, its pretty good stuff.
stand at the nose and pull it towards you only along the stringer. back and forth until it looks good. then use the sanding block to drop the foam down to the level of the stringer. check and repeat. spokeshave at the end.
