Hi, what is the most effective way to add or remove rocker??? I know it’s best to buy a board with rocker dimensions closest to ur ideal. But what if I want to customize just a bit? Thanks-R.
just start mowing foam…take it away from where you dont want it regards BERT
Ruben, One thing to consider: If you want to INCREASE the rocker from what is naturally in the blank already, you’ll end up thinning down the nose or tail. If you want FLATTEN the rocker, you’ll end up with less volume through the middle of the board. Those features could benefit the shape, or not. You have to decide for yourself. Doug
Use a long level and tape measure or just go with your eyeballs to find the rocker line you are looking for. To remove rocker from a blank for your shaped board… cut off the ends and now your blank is shorter (to your desired length) and has a flatter rocker line. You can foil the thick ends to your preference. So you have your prefered length, rocker line, and foil along with your outline. you’re shaping… http://groups.msn.com/thegrasshoppersurfboard/shoebox.msnw
Best way to remove rocker is order a blank bigger than the normal blank size you’d get for a particalr dimension. So if you wanted a 7’ board with less rocker, you could go up to an 8’ plus blank and hack it down. Drew
On my first couple of boards, I made rocker adjustments by planing parallel to the stringer and just opening the planer more, i.e. making deeper cuts, at the nose and tail. This approach seemed to work fine, and it creates a naturally smooth transition along the length of the board, but you have to be careful to cut to the same depths on each successive length-wise band. If I haven’t lost you, I’ll mention one other method that a much more experienced shaper explained to me: Once you have hacked off any unwanted length at the nose and the tail but before you have skinned the bottom, start at the tail/ nose (whichever you are adjusting) and plane from rail to rail (perpendicular to the stringer) at a fixed depth. Make progressively shallower cuts as you move toward the center of the board, essentially making a stair step modification to the rocker. Smooth with a sureform and then proceed to skin the bottom. *When you skin the bottom, be sure to plane over the newly modified rocker sectionjust as you would if it still had the skin on it in order to preserve the rocker that you just created. Planing only the area that still has skin on it (the middle of the board) will flatten out the rocker and partially undo the modification you made to the nose or tail.
Careful now, it’s easy to add rocker to the nose and tail, it is simple to take your planer and hack a little off the tips. Taking it out of the middle or “Gutting” the blank as we like to call it, takes a pretty good eye as to not end up with alot of uneveness and flats in the middle of the board. Best suggestion I can give you. Take about 1/16 out of the middle, and try blending that back in nicely… see how that works out… then take a little more, and a little more… you know, sorta work your way up to it, don’t just jump in and rip a 1/4" out of the middle, practice makes perfect. I have seen alot of horror storys resulting from people attemting gutt jobs… thats the only reason I warn you. Have fun. -Carl
Dearest Ruben, If you already have the blank, and just need to remove a little rocker, I would use some waxpaper and a lightweight object such as a water bottle or a small Joe Wieder weight. After lamming the bottom, place the waxpaper down with the weight on it in the right zone to adjust the rocker while curing. You my have to repeat and fine tune while laminating the top. This is the safest way to maintain the cleanliness of the curves that should have come on the blank. I’ve done this without failure for many years. Love, Delbert Pumpernickel