Hey all,
I think I finally got one right. Thank you for all the tips. The pencil actually made such a massive difference compared to the dumb-ass sharpy. Check it out and tell me what you think
Its a 5’6 potato with tons of volume. I just have a couple new questions.
What I have been doing for the rocker is doing the rocker shape first by measuring via a long level and then planing the entire amount of foam from the bottom to get the rocker I want. Basically after that am trying to take the rest of the foam off of the top to make a more or less straight deck up until the nose just up where the rocker is a lot higher. Is this more or less how you guys all do its (shape the rocker first and then dont touch the bottom at all ever again?)
Ignore that little dent in the nose rocker shot on the left side. The board was dropped at some point and there is a superficial dent that ill take out tomorrow.
Thanks!
Adam
Bottom rocker, top rocker, rails. Do everything 80% leaving room for adjustments. Rinse and repeat.
Sick thanks dude.
Do you plane down to thickness at all before you start with the rocker or not really. Lets say I have a fatty 4 inch blank or something and want 3 thick in the middle. Or would you take that fat blank cut the bottom rocker you want and then just mow the rest out of the foam as you want it from the top down until shes 3 in the middle?
Im assuming this doesn’t matter all that much but in my head there might be a way that your tail might end up high compared with the rest of the deck somehow but I think this is unlikely.
The other question i have is on how y’all are getting thickness to be uniformly what you want. Are you basically taking three measurements for thickness in the center of the deck at 12 inch nose center and tail and then just ensuring that it transits properly from thin nose to thicker near the middle thickest in center and then starts tapering near the back?
Or are you measuring neurotically at 20 points to make sure that it is always gradually transitting from thickest in center to thinner in your nose properly. I guess theoretically you could have one part that is slightly chunkier ahead of the nose if you werent careful? I think there is a point in my pic above slightly ahead of center that I need to take down a touch so shes smoother. However,if your bottom rocker is perfect the top really should be a reflection of your bottom as long as the top of the blank is already level. Is this correct?
View the Ben Apia Shaping video produced by Fiberglass Hawaii. Simple rocker and shaping.
The template is looking good, but (TO ME) the pix appear to show a heckuva lot of rocker for a Potato-type design. Those normally have a real flat rocker, like 3.5" or less in the nose and 1.5" in the tail. For a Biscuit or Potato stype shape in that mid-5ft length I normally just take the middle out of a 5-10 fish blank.
Im hoping that is just the picture. The nose rocker only measured out at 3.5 inches. Ill recheck it though.
Honestly thanks for all the feedback so far. The quality jump from board 1 until now has been massive with little tweaks here and there.
