planer question

General Discussion
1

hey guys

i have a question about planing surfboard foams

when you plane electrically, you plane with your planer at an angle to the outline

for example, when you go from tail to nose, you angle the front to the inside, and your exhaust [rightside on planer] is on the stringer side

now, when you do the other rail, do you start at the nose or the tail?

thanks

2

Back from my short vacation, I was actually offline for almost 5 whole days! Unplugged!!

Returning to subject, I usually start at the tail for both sides. more oblique approach for the tool helps get the cut going correctly. That's for the FIRST pass all the way out on the rail. After that I turn around and go nose-to-tail, then back tail-to-nose, and so on. Outside (first) pass more pressure on shoe, subsequent cuts more pressure on baseplate. The baseplate rides the previous cut as a guide. The subtle dance of pressure back and forth is learned over time. There's also some variation in technique from shaper to shaper, so others might not do it exactly the same.

What was the name of the thread about this a while ago? I wrote in more detail there

3

Thanks Mike

where is the shoe [at nose?]

and weher is the baseplate? [back?]

Regards

btw, i prefer planing railsthan hotwiring for sure, more accurate, more feel.

 

4

You got it....

5

I just shaped 2 boards with my first planer - what an experience. I made several boards many years ago - all by hand (surforms, etc) and what a pain.

It is an amazing tool. If you have not used a power planer before you’ll get a smile on your face as soon as you see how it automagically keeps a flat plane and levels bumps out. Even a hack like me can keep things really even and true with this nice tool.

To the point you brought up about the angled approach to the first pass on the outside - this is just to get a thickness cut started. Once you have that pass done the others will true into it as you work toward the stringer. When you want to contour the nose and the tail you’ll make the same motions only into the length of the blank starting at either end. You’ll see what I mean when you get started.

If you’re nervous at first just set your cut depth to small values, you’ll open it later as gain comfort.

Hopefully your planer has a cut adjustment that you can use on the fly. You’ll need it on the rail bands and to do the contours properly. Mine is a bit crappy, so I end up doing some clean up with a large surform.

Have a great one!