How many shaping machines are out there now?
I’ve heard of KKL, I think there was one called
CET(?). Any feedback on which ones are any good?
Yea, I know…nothing beats a hand shaped board,
I would personally ride nothing else. Just curious
about how the technology has done in the last year
or so…
Anyone out there stay on top of things like this?
I’m not sure what kind it was, but on a recent visit to Global Glassing, I saw a machine that belonged (I think) to Chris Borst.
I can’t help but think that the younger crop of groms won’t give a rat’s ass if their board is hand-shaped or machine shaped.
And if it means competing successfully with the Chinese producers, I say, why not use machine shapers where there is demand for it, at least for the initial process?
My feeling is that if you are making your living shaping boards you first have to find your own niche (what YOU do best), then stay on it in search of the best ways, the best tools, the most efficient way to meet the demand for the product YOU make. If you find satisfaction in crafting a few boards as a hobby or sideline, then perfect your hand skills using hand tools, enjoy the process and make masterpiece surfboards without any thought as to how the Chinese do their machine thing. Bottom line: You gotta enjoy the ride!
I have 7 programs I shaped the masters to for Surfboards Hawaii. The Stylist 1 and Stylist 2 were off stock 9’4"B’s.
The Japanese market always likes a much more relaxed rocker. This weekend Bill Bahne cut them from 10’1"Y’s with lowered nose rocker, he dropped the nose rocker 700 thousandths. Tommy Maus was looking at them and really liked the rocker. In the right hands, the machine becomes a very versitle tool for R&D. Same board, different glide.
Every board I hand shape, I give what could be used for a master, but I have hit the wall on how many I can hand shape. So with my machine boards, I have exacting duplicates of what I want, with out all the rocker foo-foo’s that I get from Walker and the time it takes to shape Clark. Nothing beats an exacting reproduction of a magic shape and hand shaping is no guarantee of this, from me or any other shaper
A pretty safe bet would be from santa barbara to the Mexican border, there are 10 machines Hope that answers your question
I know for a fact that DH has been heavily involved providing design input for a machine being made on the Gold Coast and my understanding is that its got some measurement/plotting feature that allows incredible detail to be gathered on the shape. This is then sent to a computer for cutting.
Therre is no hocus pocus to the way the machine gathers information, one method is for the scanning feature to follow the exact tool path that the cutter will take while running over the master. Another method is to scan from center of stringer on bottom to center on deck, 90 degrees to center. The scans become closer together the closer it comes to the ends of the master, then with the mathimatical wizardry of the the software, creates a near perfect line through all these points. In this way, it illiminates a lot of the shapers flaws that went undetected during the shaping. Daryl Hanly gets boards cut here and has them finished in San Diego
Can anyone suggest a place to get a few boards machined, I’m in San Diego but will travel a little if I need to.
I machine my own boards but it takes me a lot longer than someone that is all set up would take. I have the design in the computer already, and I have 3 blanks on order.
I’ve talked to KKL but their set up fee is brutal. I don’t need to have the board scanned in so it seems to me set up shouldn’t be too much.
Any help would be appriciated.
What is so brutal about the fee for scanning your board, I paid it and so did every other customer. It takes a very long time to do the scan and this machine is out of service to cut foam while the scan is taking place. Channin charges more for their scan, I don’t know what Rough House charges or Pro Cam or Oak Foils, but it won’t be free
My opinion may not have credibility, but I think it does. I have four boards now that I feel are “magic” boards. They are stunning in both look and performance, and I would miss them tremendously if they broke. Two were hand shaped, and two were machine shaped. They are:
6,10 Rusty Pirannah, tripple wing swallow, yada, yada. Best shortboard I ever owned and the first off the rack shortboard I bought since the eighties. I felt bad when I bought it (big corporate guy against small-time shaper conflict made me feel guilty), but now I am SO glad I bought it. Incredible shape. Rusty is good, regardless of his business politics. Anyway, it’s machine shaped and I can get it over and over and over again if it breaks. Thank God. Because I was THIS close to giving up on shortboarding, and now I’m hooked again.
Hand shaped 7,6 tri-fin pintail by Craig Hollingsworth. Amazing board. Seventies nose and modern tail. Rides stiff in small surf, but fun. COMES ALIVE in 8-12 foot faces and turns on a dime. Best bigger wave board I ever owned and I’ll scan it when it breaks (with Craig’s permission). If he says no, I’ll DRAG him to the machine to scan it. Another work of magic.
8,2 Jim Phillips mini-log, or speed egg (I’m not sure what the hell to call it). I think it was hand shaped. I ordered an 8,3E from Clark, had the nose rocker dropped two full inches from center for a total of less than 3.5 inches of nose rocker. Many people told me it was too little and wouldn’t work (two well-known shapers told me it was a mistake). Not Jim. He crafted that thing into a work of art and I can’t tell you how fun it is. I only ride it once or twice a month, but it never fails, whether in one foot surf or eight. It was meant for everything. I’ll get that one scanned if it ever breaks. I don’t know what I like best, the nose the rails, the tail? Hard to say. But the bottom. That’s pure magic!
Finally, my 10,0 noserider. Craig Hollingsworth again. It doesn’t actually noseride that well, but with the balance of weight and rocker make it the fastest paddling board I ever paddled. I seem to usually be the first one up when in a crowd at Cardiff, San-O, Tamarack. Nothing special about the ride. It’s great. Fairly easy to turn, okay about three feet from the nose, fast in hollow sections. Just a typical single fin longboard with volan glass. But somehow paddles like a freaking dream. It was made by a machine.
I have two other boards that don’t work for crap. No offense to the shapers (it’s me, not you), but they just don’t work consistently.
So, by machine or by hand, it’s all goooooooooooooooooooood.