Someone with good computer skills should be able to generate CNC cutting plans to pre-cut all the rail part with successive lightening holes, then an engineered light hollow rail could be built…
Can you compare that wood to Paulwonia…???..
Sounds like a nice challenge for haavard (boardcad creator) or for me. When I find the time, I’ll definately take a look at it (but don’t expect that to be in the near future).
Hans
EDIT: BoardCAD can already do this! read my next post!!!
That would be sweet. As of now everything is milled on my CBH machine (cut by hand).
As far as the wood goes, I’ve never worked with paulownia. I’d like to next year when I’m back in the states, but right now I’m working with what I can get locally here in the DR. From what I’ve read though on paulownia and balsa this seems to be very similar to balsa. It is not water resistant like paulownia and since balsa trees grow in central and south america I imagine that here in the caribbean we’d have something similar.
IMO, there's a lot of room for innovation / experimentation / refinement in hws building methods. Paul Jensen has done a great job laying a groundwork for the rest of us, and I'm happy to see guys like Chris Cook putting this stuff out there for us all to see and draw inspiration from.
There are a few other really talented people working in the hws genre right now, but not all of them are Swaylocks regulars, posting with pics - we appreciate the ones who are.
The more guys who play with this "rails first" concept, the better its gonna get!
It seems that BoardCAD already has rail template generating functionality!
File -> Print -> HWS -> rail
I just tried the latest BoardCAD, this software has become very powerfull!
Here are some new pictures and a video of the rails in the process of being shaped. These rails are definitely going to be painted. I have a design in mind to use the vent screw as the head of a stick-man surfing on a wave that comes out of the rails. We’ll see…
[img_assist|nid=1068693|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
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You should paint them falsa.
That might be neat…
I’ve had AKU shaper and I just downloaded board CAD. That reall does work well for printing out the template for the rail pieces. It takes any guess work out of it. You just need to make sure you enter at what point you want the template to be from the rail. If you plan on using 5, 1/4" strips for the rails then be sure to enter 1.25" from the rail that way the template will be the proper thickness for that point on the rail.
Here’s some pictures of the board with the “cheater coat” of resin applied.
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did you consider doing the rails outline as the template and the layup to the rocker shape? or did i miss something
I’m not sure I understand the question, but the rocker profile is cut into the individual rail slices which are then laminated together in a jig made to follow the board’s outline shape. The pictures might explain it a little better…
[img_assist|nid=1068411|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
[img_assist|nid=1068412|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=640|height=480]
Toaster I think you would lose rocker when you unclamped if you laid it up that way.
yup that is the bit I missed then. might not be an issue once you done your 5th layer.
Chris I meant that the board outline was the cutout template and the rocker was the template for glueing/clamping/layup
where you have the board outline was the template for glueing/clamping/layup and the rocker was the cutout template
Ok, I think I get it…
That might work, and it probably would have lot of flex, maybe too much.
A poor man’s leash plug. Simple, but it works…
[img_assist|nid=1069127|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]
The flat black rails turned out alright. When I look at it different ways the word that comes to mind is “stealth”.
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Here’s some finished pics from the shortboard. The weight came in at 12 pounds glassed. It has a shortboard outline, but more volume. If it were an exact replica of a normal high-performance shortboard I think it would weigh more like 10-11 lbs.
[img_assist|nid=1069167|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=480|height=640]
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This is a video of a kid here on the north coast of the Dominican trying it out. He was obviously just trying to be nice when he said it was one of the best boards he’d ever ridden, but he was definitely surprised at how it did despite the extra weight. One of the first things he said when he came out of the water was that whereas on land it feels heavier than a normal board, in the water you don’t feel the extra weight.
Video down, pictures down.
Shame 