I ran into a little/nitemare problem and was interested in seeing what advise might come out of these forums. One of the swrews holding the guide onto the router had come loose and after I made my pass along the bottom of what would have been my fin box hole the router bit chewed imediately throught the guide. This then allowed the router to chew through the template wherever I pushed. When I made the corner at the top things got really bad and I stopped at that point, for the first instant realizing what had happened. The left side looks almost straight but it moves out the proper alignment in the first inch or so. Luckily this was the first pass and it is only an 1/8" hole. My question relates to how to proceed with the repair. I was going to fill it with a cabicil resin mixure or should I line the bottom of the hole with fiberglass cut to fit exactly and laminate it as normal or use cabicil resin and cloth. Also can a cabicil mixture handle pigments? I was thinking of trying to get close to the green color of the bottom. Also after the filling of the hole should I do a patch for the entire tail before I proceed to routing the real hole for the fin box. Or since the hole is so shallow could I just route-out the proper hole and and use fiberglass cloth underneath when I install the fin box. Please help I want to do the right thing so that the fin box doesn’t come out once installed fully.
If it’s possible I would try to finish the box off and then fill with resin and cabosil and your box. Try to fill the problem areas as well at the same time. Don’t forget to mask off the area to stop excess resin getting all over the board. Try and kill two boards with one stone if you know what I mean. Also do you have a jig? Let me know if you don’t and I’ll tell you how to make a very cheap one quite easily (no routing of wood required).
Yes, the router is now repaired. Would you use fiberglass cloth under the fin box which would also cover those areas that are cut outside the original intended cut area? or just use cabicil and resin? Can I tint this resin? Will the cabicil make it whiter?
Also if i was to fill it before cuting the new hole would that be stronger structuraly?
Cabosil does make the reason a little darker in my opinion and I use Cabosil and resin with white pigment only. Never had any problems. As for filling it before cutting again I think you’d be achieving the same thing as continuing routing and then filling so it’s pretty pointless as far as I can see.
I can’t tell how far off the router drifted by the photos. Check the width of your box and see how far it is from the box to the final router drift track. If it is say 1/4", you might think about routing two 1/4" slots - one on each side of the box and insert a couple of 1/4" mini-stringers. Cap the whole thing with a layer of cloth. Not a bad idea anyway. Plus it will appear as if you planned it that way. Bruce Jones features boards done that way in some of his magazine ads.
you could route out a shallow recess around the box, and set a thin veneer of balsa or something else in there, on it’s flat, as an inlay.
Then re-route the fin box into the wood.
Then you’ve got a super classy looking wood inlay around your fin box.
Would probably pay to glass a cloth patch over the top.
If you use balsa, it’ll be really easy to sand the wood down flush to the bottom, no need to route it to the perfect depth, make it a little proud and sand it down.
It may not work with the look of the board though, thats up to you.
Everthing is fixable, a bit of creativity and you suddenly get something even better!
Here is a drawing I made. At point 1 in the lower left the router vears left but then somehow its staight. At point 2 I noticed it seemed to be going past the jig opening and I stopped. But there at point 2 there is a 3/4" blobby circle area beyond the intended cut area. To try to match the hole there with the green of the bottom seems to be one of my objectives. I love the balsa idea but it only vears left about 1/16" to 1/8" so the left side does bother me structuraly but i don’t really want to cut into it more than I have to. Should I tape off around the hole with a border and then sand that border before filling with cabosil and resin or tape right up to the hole? Or go with the taped border idea and laminate it as if its a cut lap or deck inlay and cut out the outline when almost hard? Because after i install the finbox im going to gloss coat.
Would you use fiberglass cloth under the fin box which would also cover those areas that are cut outside the original intended cut area? or just use cabicil and resin? Can I tint this resin? Will the cabicil make it whiter?
