hey guys, it won’t be long now before I have the rails on my hollow wooden
I have done some searches for shaping rails and have seen “rail banding”, just wondering how this works and how to do it, my guess is that it gives you a line to work to which makes for easier shaping of the rails and a smoother, more uniformed finished product, my rails are to be 50/50 the whole way except upturned at the nose if that helps, looking forward to learning from any replies and using this new knowledge on my baby! thankyou in advance…
I saw a post that had Rich Harbour making a balsa gun on here; one of the pics is of him doing rail bands. Basically, you make facets along the rail . . . [ then { and ( to help you keep it uniform. Then you keep adding more facets until you have a rounded shape, then smooth the edges.
I’m thinking about building balsa boards, but right now have to settle bunch of finances.
Hiro is correct. Make a T Square from scrap wood. Make sure you have the longest section on the board and measure about a 1/3 of the depth of your rails, attach a marker pen to the shorter section with masking tape and drag the thing around the rails to mark the 1/3 mark around the outside of the board. Do the same from the bottom up, now you have 2 lines to use as markers. Flip the T square so the pen is on the deck, drag it around and that will give you a guide.
I posted a piccie a while ago, I’ll have a look and post it here.
yes please hicksy! I get what you have to do but I don’t quite get how it helps you shape the rails, when you said measure 1/3rd thickness of the rails is that of the thickest point? and then you draw that line right up to the nose and tail, assuming you are working from the deck down the line obviously draws parrallel to the deck and as you get away from the middle the line draws closer to the bottom skin? how does this help in shaping the rail? sorry for the q’s! still a bit confused! thanks for the input guys…
railbanding on a foam board… (I say foam because not sure how much rail build up you will have to work with, but then I expect that your ribs have already started rolling off the deck into the rail shape)
on the deck, mark ~2" in from the rail (depending on how pinched or rolled your deck is also a 4" line)
for 50/50 rails do the same on the bottom
do the edge of the board as Hicksy said
use your planer to cut a bevelled edge connecting the ~2" line and the top edge line
depending on how full you want the rail you may use a second or third band. Each additional band cuts to the next line and goes to the middle of the previous band.
for 50/50 rails do the same on the bottom.
variability… depending on how pinched/full you want you rail will depend on how deep you set your edge guide lines.
I like to put a rail apex line as well to use as a guide as I finish sand. The apex line remains until the very end when you take off the last of the flat edge.
Wood rails, same process just not going to be as ease to sand down (I expect). I just plane in my rail bands to get the general shape and then use my sanding screen (on foam) to finish it off. A pro shaper gets a nearly finished rail right from the planer/rail band (i.e. a pro blends the rail band nicely, I just use mine as a guild to start the sanding process).
Many have talked about using a hand belt sander for wood rail work instead of the planer. Just a thought.
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except upturned at the nose
b.t.w. I think for a nose rider this is backwards. I think the trend is to turn down in the nose and up in the tail. You want release in the nose and suction in the tail.
Hey Robbo, Bunnings has a tiny electric plane OZITO for $40. Its light and easy to control, even one handed!
I do rail bands with this and its great.
I could not do rails without a planer. It always ends up very even if you draw lines and use planer. Often I run the plane at almost 0mm cut. It takes a little longer but the results are so sweet, and its hard to make a big mistake. Thanks to Jim Phillips for this one.
I got one of those OZITO planers, good little machines for soft work but try getting blades for it, better to throw out the old one and get a new one when the blades go blunt.
Robbo, I got one of the little OZITOS for my old mans balsa board, its size is its saving grace. Haven’t had to worry about replacing blades yet. Being a chippy Robbo, you should have the appropriate Makita/Metabo/Bosch or other tradie brand handy!!
