Looking for advice on planer techniques. Example, when i make my passes to remove thickness off the bottom sometimes i get a stairstep effect or each pass has a different depth. Im trying to figure out how to make cleaner even passes. Any advice is appreciated.
Hey jason, I’ve been wondering the same thing. I’m just finishing up the sanding on my first board and started shaping #2. Had the same problems on both boards and the nose area is still giving me problems as well so I just use the surform from about 16" from the nose up. Don’t know if this is feasible for you, but I’m figuring it’s going to just come down to practice. My idea is to call Clark up and buy about 4 or 5 reject blanks and plane them till I can’t plane anymore. Don’t really care about making boards with them. Just want to have something I don’t care about that I can use to hone my skills. I figure the expense now will save me later if I buy an expensive longboard blank or something that I can actually shape w/o fear of ruining it. I did a lot better with #2. I’ve got the Clark Hitachi and it doesn’t take much to drop the blades. Only gouged the nose once this time. 
I also seemed to have more control but still had the steps you described. Not as many as with #1, though, so things are looking up. Good luck!
plane slowly with smooth even pressure applied the same on each pass. keep the planer level. it is easy to slightly tilt it to one side or another giving a tilted cut. for the bottom rocker, follow the rocker line with the same pressure and speed until the planer comes off the board (dont get nervous and figety - just keep the same motion). for the deck, try skinning it with a block plane before foiling with the planer. make sure the depth adjustment on the planer stays the same. a little quiver in the knob can make a difference. overall, just loosen up and feel the flow. give it the old mind game - you control the tool, not the other way around, so make it do what you want it to do. and dont try to correct gouges right away - most of the time, the following steps in shaping will take them out without any direct attention to them. http://groups.msn.com/thegrasshoppersurfboard/shoebox.msnw
Allright… someone come to the rescue? …I know you are all getting sick of typing about FCS fins and surftechs. I don’t recall seeing this covered in detail in the last year. I used the generic planer for my first 6, and got pretty good with it. But Santa (me) was kind enough to give me a Clark Modified for Christmas - that’s a whole new ballgame. If I go slow, and cut a little at a time, I’ll get a few passes that evenup, but I can’t keep it up. I’m also having some conflicts on weight displacement, forward, back, or center. Forward feels better, but I don’t seems to get the matching cuts and it tracks more. Thanks
Ive been practicing on an old longboard that i peeled the glass off. My planer cuts are uneven and wavy. Seems like the hardest thing to master is planer control. I can get what i want with a sanding block and sureform but it takes 10 times longer…really inefficient. Watching a good shaper makes planer work look easy. Smooth even cuts, like butter. Some can even get an almost finished round rail with just a planer…amazing and frustrating at the same time.
Get and watch the “Master Shaper Series.” Jim Phillips makes it look so easy, it’s sickening. He says to take shallow cuts and go slow but I have a funny feeling that there’s a little more to it.
Jason, The key is to put the pressure on the middle of the planer, not on the front where the cutting occurs. You will duplicate whatever the planer body goes over. Good luck with your shaping! T
Thanks guys. I see from the last response the planer will duplicate any mistakes i previously made.
Well back in the shaping room things are a little better. moving slower and taking finer cuts helps. Also paying attention to where to apply pressure on the planer and watching where the planer is going as well as what i just cut behind the planer. Still really tricky though.
quote surfnerd wrote: “Hey jason, I’ve been wondering the same thing. I’m just finishing up the sanding on my first board and started shaping #2. Had the same problems on both boards and the nose area is still giving me problems as well so I just use the surform from about 16” from the nose up. Don’t know if this is feasible for you, but I’m figuring it’s going to just come down to practice. My idea is to call Clark up and buy about 4 or 5 reject blanks and plane them till I can’t plane anymore. Don’t really care about making boards with them. Just want to have something I don’t care about that I can use to hone my skills. I figure the expense now will save me later if I buy an expensive longboard blank or something that I can actually shape w/o fear of ruining it. I did a lot better with #2. I’ve got the Clark Hitachi and it doesn’t take much to drop the blades. Only gouged the nose once this time. I also seemed to have more control but still had the steps you described. Not as many as with #1, though, so things are looking up. Good luck!" --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hey surfnerd, Yeah im having the same problems. My friend showed me how to foil the nose area with my variable speed sander and a grinding disk then surform. Works really well. For practice i wouldnt use those seconds blanks since you can make a board out of one and you still had to pay for it. Try finding a computer shaping machine and ask them if they have any screwed up blanks they want to get rid of. Sometimes they will have blanks the the computer made a hole right through or ones where the foil is screwed up.
keep your fingers outta the way
quote jason: Hey surfnerd, Yeah im having the same problems. My friend showed me how to foil the nose area with my variable speed sander and a grinding disk then surform. Works really well. For practice i wouldnt use those seconds blanks since you can make a board out of one and you still had to pay for it. Try finding a computer shaping machine and ask them if they have any screwed up blanks they want to get rid of. Sometimes they will have blanks the the computer made a hole right through or ones where the foil is screwed up. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Good idea. Don’t think anyone around me is doing computer shaping. I might ask around the local shapers, though, and see if they have any ideas. My shaper’s been a great help with the glassing aspect. Might need to borrow a little more of his time and have him watch me shape also. Glad to hear you’re making more progress, and thanks for the nose tip. I’m wondering if cutting in a single direction would help. So rather than say planing tail-to-nose nose-to-tail, would it make it any easier to go tail-to-nose move back down and make each successive pass tail-to-nose. Watching Shaping 101 and other shapers it appears they’re very fluid in both directions, but just curious if it’d help while getting accustomed to the tool.
If your having problems foiling the nose you could do shallow cross cuts if you don’t feel safe doing this try a spoke shave or a japanese wood plane to get the skin off or even a surform or a sanding block with 40 grit you’ll figure it out. also check your blade depth I had my planer right where I wanted it and bought an 03 and back to square one.
surfnerd wrote: “Glad to hear you’re making more progress, and thanks for the nose tip. I’m wondering if cutting in a single direction would help. So rather than say planing tail-to-nose nose-to-tail, would it make it any easier to go tail-to-nose move back down and make each successive pass tail-to-nose. Watching Shaping 101 and other shapers it appears they’re very fluid in both directions, but just curious if it’d help while getting accustomed to the tool”. ---------------------------------------------------- Ive seen it done both ways. Ive seen shapers plane only in one direction and some go both ways. Seems like you have to figure out whats most comfortable. Again the planer seems like the hardest tool to master