Ive had no luck finding a shaping bay to rent in SC, so I’m moving on. Ive got the approval from my better half to put up a small shed. The location Ill be placing the shed might need to be accessed in the future so I can’t put in anything too permanent. So I’m thinking about this 10x8 lifetime shed.
Does anyone have any experience in shaping in anything like this? The benefits to me are that I could take it down in a few hours if it ever needs to be moved, it will have sidelights (on stands), all my tools can be left in there, and the mess is contained. It will be a lot better for me than dragging everything out onto my driveway each time I shape. I know the size is not optimal, but from the archives Ive read it can be done. I’m just wondering if there is a negative that I am missing.
Have you seen one of these in person or are you just looking at them online? the thing I see that might hamper you is the height at the eaves on the inside. It’s only 70". If your even average height(5’9"?) it seem like your going to be close to bumping your head everytime you step away from the board or walk round inside…
No, unfortunately I haven’t been in one. I’m 6’ tall, but I read that there is 80" of head room, truss to floor. I see the 70" to 94", but with a 6:12 pitch, it is 70" in the corners, but 6" in it will be 6’3" and up from there. I will have 6" shelves so I couldn’t stand against the wall anyway. Again, I know it isn’t perfect, just appears to be my best option at this time. thanks for making think about that though
It may not be perfect, but it is way better than shaping on my driveway. I think I could do a 8’, but I’m usually in the 6’ range. It didn’t feel too tight width wise and it was great using side lights.
…a guy here who build boards but mainly do repairs (so he really do not understand what s really going wrong with his ideas about surfboards) was doing his new shed (he has enough space to do a bigger and better designed one) and I asked about for what s that place? he told me “you know, you can shape in whatever place etc”
well, you cannot actually. You need a big enough room to develop an eye for the curves and lines, that s not possible in an small room without proper lightning and dark walls.
Of course you can shape a boards there but remember that to do great shapes etc, develop your skills (less touches to the blanks) so less hours in the bay to obtain special shapes etc is better to have more room.
Ok saying that, your shed looks good and seems your only solution for now so good on you.
-May be in the photo the side lights look too high¿?
Interesting you think the lights might be too high. I was wondering if they were too low. I put them 5" above the top of my racks. I have space to move them up an inch and a lot of room to lower them. It is a couple screws to move them so I can play with the height. Thanks for the help.
Everyone has different needs… like the guy that mentioned too short a room when you’re trying to shape a longboard…
When I built The Surfing Underground in the old Radon Boatyard in Santa Barbara, I enclosed boat bays and even poured our own floors using surplus cement the trucks would want to dump at the end of a day… we built all our forms and were ready for them to pull up and off load thru their chutes. It was a gut buster, but the price was right.
Then , as I got into sailboards (1980’s decade) we started to grow quickly and I moved from one room to the next space next to us and on and on until I had a really incredible full blown factory spanning 4500 sq. ft.
Those days are long gone now… I shape at home and sub out glassing to my longtime trusted friend who employs one of my former guys that I trained way back when.
As far as shaping rooms, I built two side by side 10’x20’ shaping rooms in the Underground. Dick Brewer borrowed my room and really liked it.
That was then, and this is now… nowdays I’m just shaping in my garage at home, so I guess I’ve come full circle.
…again, may be is the photo perspective. To obtain the right height do this:
-put different blanks in the racks (each one at a time of course)
Each side.
-move the lights up and down until you see the right shadows/light contrast.
–If you have the lights too high kind of a light “washout” is what you obtain; so have light but not the necessary shadow/lights contrast.
