There are those specialty plastic fittings you could use, but personally I prefer brass or stainless. I’ve experimented with several methods. This is a stainless steel T-nut. It gets counter sunk into the planks, held in by tiny ss nails
This is a bronze (threaded) insert. It you go this route you’ll need to make a dowl insert (like a bung - in the next photo). I thread the insert in from the bottom (so the flat surface mates with the rubber o-ring)
Can’t seem to get more than three photos in one post so will continue in next…
Here’s a bronze screw with rubber o-ring. Tip: try to find slotted “Truss” screws (not Philips head). That way you can always use a coin if you forget a screwdriver (trust me nothing sucks more than standing on the beach with a f-fing screw in your hand as head high peelers come in. Truss screws are very flat. Here’s another tip: Always keep your screw in your leash strap (the one for a key) in fact keep an extra, and a penny (for tightening).
I ususally take me screw out right after a session just so I dont forget. You can always tell its working becuase you board will usually suck lots of air in as you take it out.
how thick would you say your stringer and cross ribs are? and once you have lain the planks along the board and you have cut out the outline, how thick are your rail laminates? 1/4" seems a little tough to bend.
by the way, killer boards, the rails look beautiful.
Hey Rich is there a valve in that board ? - I looked but cant see one.
Do you cut the timber for the deck and the bottom into the sheet thickness shown on your website. If so, what tool is good for this job? Sheets or planks in 5 or 10mm thickness’ are not so easy to come by here.
I place it up on the bottom of the nose for the following reasons:
I figure that spot spends the least time in the water. I doubt it really matters but the idea is not to cause any drag with the water.
So people won't drag themselves over it on takeoff
So i don't have to look at it all day
We start with 3 1/2" x 3/4" dimensional lumber and “re-saw” it on a table saw with a thin kerfing blade - ending up with two 3 1/2" x 1/4" planks. Re-sawing is not the same as “ripping”. The wood is held “on-edge” against the fence with a feather board. Then those planks are glued edge-to-edge on a gluing table with bar clamps into a 2’ wide sheet…get it?
If anyone is interested I know of a wooden board building method which hasn’t been discussed here (as far as I know)
It is a three layer method which is very similar to our parallel profile method, but which produces a tapered profile board rather than a parallel profile board, and which does not require rails to be added after the blank is built.
I don’t use this method myself because I prefer parallel profile boards but I have been aware of it for a while, it’s basically the method used by tom Wegener and ( I believe that Pat Curren uses it too, or one close to it)
It’s really very simple and I’m surprised that it hasn’t shown up here. . . . it is also easily adapted, by that I mean that there are quite a few variations to the basic system which can be dialled up.
Interested!? Hook it up Santa! Any additional info posted on this thread about wood board construction is much appreciated. Cheers to Mr. Jenson for his inspiring threads. Congrads to the boyz at Grain, killer site. Wegener is a bloody legend! (sorry just had to throw that in there).
OK the general idea is to laminate three or more panels on to a rocker table.
Two of the panels are the deck and bottom, leaving one or more inside panels.
The taper is introduced by tapering the inside panel (or panels) prior to lamination .
The tapered panel consists of fore and aft planks in the rail area, with cross members of varying thickness (depending upon their position in the taper).
A taper template can be used to mark the edges of the stock used for the fore and aft rail timbers, which are then run through a bandsaw.
The rail can be shaped directly after the blank lamination without any further ado.
This method can be used with Balsa or Paulownia and three one inch or so thick layers (Which is what, to the best of my knowledge, Tom W and Pat C do) . . … . this allows the board to be shaped on the bottom and deck as well as the on the rails, as there is plenty of ‘meat’ there. Also, more taper can be introduced after the lamination by thinning the deck and bottom panels if thick top and bottom panels are used.
By using thinner deck and bottom planks and a thicker middle layer (or layers) a hollower board can be built.
I have been toying with using this method for a few weeks but i have a question and stumbling point
With the laminated rail in place tappered to suit is it still possible to do a rolled rail/deck as i see it it probally is you would just have to bevel the rail to suit the top planks comming in which wouldnt be a big issue just adds in time and if you have x-frames every 12" you have a good guide to do the bevel.
With pawlonia the thickness of each rail lam would need to be about 8mm thats the maximum i have found that produces no spring back.
I am currently building a 6’4" fat boy fish (16.5,23,16.5,WP 4" fwd and 12 " tips with steve lis nose rocker pushed a bit at the tip and 1.25" tail kick) and have built the roker table, middle stringer and have bottom panels ready for glue up,
Do I need to glass the inside of my core as per (PJ) method or will a layer of glass (5oz) be enough over 5mm skins.
If used wisely, these techniques could help reduce the weight of a wooden board although they may not meet everybody’s aesthetic requirements.
Use this at your own risk, but if you soak a piece of wood in anhydrous (not household) ammonia and then form it around or into your mold and leave it until the ammonia has evaporated, it will assume a permanent set very close to the desired shape. You can attain very tight radius bends or compound curves without splintering or breakage and with little or no loss of strength. Try it for hollow rails. The ammonia acts on the lignin that binds the wood cells together.
Also, a very lightweight honeycomb arrangement of material may be used as a core to support deck loads so that thinner skins may be employed. The aerospace industry has various such core materials available if you don’t mind going with a non-wood product. A resin-soaked paper (from wood) may be sufficient.
Are we talking about the same construction method? I use several different methods all based on thesame principle: several flat panels laminated together like slices of bread in a sandwich. To get a tapered board simply taper one of the flat panels.
Here is a rail cross section for a five layer board and some pictures of board panels prior to lamination.
As you can see all the rail material is already part of the panels prior to the lamination. There are many variations possible with this system.
I was wondering if we are on the same wavelength partly because you mention that timber thicker than 8mm gets ‘springback’ . . . . not sure what you mean because we bend and laminate timber up to 25mm thick without any kind of ‘springback’ (except for the ‘springy’ flexibility of the finished board of course)
The ability of a lamination to hold a curve does not depend upon thi thicness of the layers, it depends upon the number of layers, 4 being the standard minimum number required.
I probally wasnt to clear in what I said, i have had trouble with tight radius bends and spring back, for example trying to put 35mm of rocker into a 1400 long board (kite board) but admitedly that was only with 3 layers. Also with the fliped up nose of a short fish 3.75" over a couple of feet i dont think i would be able to bend anything thicker than 8mm without water or steam. You would be ok on the longer sweeping bends of a long board with the thicker material.
I have recently laminated up 5 layers of 8mm timber on an outrigger for my canoe and got about 5-10mm spring back over the not so tight curve at the end.
thanks for the sketch on the rails, with the fish (SL template) i am building the deck roll begins ~4 inches in I am not sure if i will get my deck to pull around that. If i have trouble i will go to thiner (width) strips rather than the 100mm wide planks i am using at present.
I like your idea of varing the width of the planks so that at mid span you dont end up with unwanted thickness.
Yes, I read about your work in Corpus Christi Caller-Times, our local newspaper. You (and your team?) have put together some beautiful surfboards, obviously with a feeling for both the God-given materials and gift of waves.
Hi Kirikore, the most extreme rocker curve I have done was 7 inches over 3 feet 1 inch, and that was an elliptical nose rocker which accelerated toward the nose so it was quite a tight curve at the tip. . . but we managed to bend 3/4 inch stock around the curve. . . . having the 3/4 inch thick frames and blocks running at 45% to the centerline helped (if they run across the board they bend very easily). . . . there was some creaking and groaning from the wood and the crew, but only about 5mm springback which was pretty good. My current board has a lot of nose lift too . . 6" over 3’6" …
Ahh I mustn’t be trying hard enough then…or getting to scared when she creaks and groans. I see from your site that you also use a pretty substantial rocker table, definitely more robust than mine which would help crank that wood around, That’s still a good effort to pull that much rocker into a ¾” piece of timber, did you use water to help?
I have used water to help bend 12mm solid sheets of Pualownia into the correct rocker for kiteboards, I over bend it by 120mm and leave it to dry clamped, then with spring back I get ~35-40mm of rocker
I will be over your way just at the other end of the bay (whakatane) in Feb. Hopefully I will have this fat boy fish done, I am still not sure if I will bring over my LB or buy one over there. I am over for 6 months of rest and surf with the family.
