So I’m building a model to determine how long I spend on a board build. As far as I can tell, I spend about 24 hours actually working. That is basically the time spent in the shop doing stuff which includes all the normal stuff plus clean up. Not exactly Speedy Gonzales.
I think I spend about 5 hours shaping a blank; the largest single time sink in the whole process. This is the time from planshaping to finish sanding of the blank.
When I was younger and more concerned with the actual riding of waves, I had a quiver of boards built by a shaper at Wave Riding Vehicles (WRV) in Point Harbor NC. My shaper, Jim Fuller (RIP), would turn out a shape really quickly and they were always magic boards. I still have two boards from WRV/Fuller from the early 1990’s.
How quickly do the pros actually take to shape a blank?
Plug in the machine , turn it on , come back when finished shaping , hand it off to the scrubber , then hand it to the glasser , then to the sander , then on to the finisher/polisher, takes no time at all .
I’d say the time needed is very dependent on the shape and size. While there may be some shapers that can pump out 6+ 5’6" stubbies per day, I’ve never seen anyone pump out a decent 9 footer handshape in 60 mins. I personally get out 2-3 handshapes in a full day, with most of those being 6-7’ boards. Mals take me more than half of a day to get dialled in to the point I’m happy to glass them. I’d say that 15-20mins per foot of foam would be a very good target speed, with many taking up to double that.
What a question…
IMHO, handshape or death!!!
The machine, Ah, and the programmer, (we hope that he, or she can at least swim).
This maybe could be a “John Henry vs. the,? Steam hammer".
I subscribe to the Dale Velzy School of shaping,
“The less they pay, the faster you go”!!!
It ain’t a race, unless you are the end customer if your own shape it takes as long as it takes to be right.
I usually spend about 3-1/2 hours on a non complicated shape
with an adz a club and a few
highly articulated pieces of basalt
mebe two weeks.
with a ripsaw and a sanding block
about your five hour estimate
sounds good,mebe get a block plane.
with a surface plane
(aka skill 100 hitatchi etc)
these shorter estimates
come to focus.
If you look at the clock
after you wash your hands
and pick up the pencil,
then look at the clock
after you are done
fine shaping the rails
yoou will have an accurate
number of lifetimes it has taken
you to shape the best board
in the history of the known universe.
set aside two weeks so you can take a lot of breaks
to sit and look at the job. and be sure to stop
before you over shape the board down to a sinker.
…ambrose…
every one is standing
waiting for you to start.
ryan burch shaped a lord board
in 4 minutes…