Still learning a ton about shaping and glassing. I work as a groove smoother for a company, but handshape all my boards and have been laminating about half of them the others I have been taking to various shops. just asking for some thoughts and feedback. Ive been just frankensteining templates and playing around with different concepts. I havent really gotten to far off the path of “this is what works and that won’t” yet. eventually once I get to the point I make something that feels magic then I’m planning on getting to the point I can duplicate rockers and foils and all that jazz. But for the time being Im just trying to get more and more comfortable with the planar. But would love to hear some thoughts on the few that I posted pictures for. as well as any advice or some tips and tricks. Ive shaped a few with a couple old school legends and have been blessed with a ton of knowledge. But always looking for ways to better myself and maybe pick up a few things. I only have so much free time to go and hassle a shaper until they finally give in and show me a thing or two. figured I’d give you forum guys a shot and see what you have to say.
They all look fine. Cutting Channels is one thing, Glassing them another tho. Don’t fall behind on your “day job”. Looks like they’re piling up back there. Where are you located?
I’m out of south San Diego and not falling behind, most of those are miscuts waiting to be made into stock boards later on. I glassed one of the ones with channels, second attempt ever of working with poly, ended up giving up trying to work the airbubbles out. sanded them out after it kicked and layed up strips of 4oz through them. Laminating is a complete different animal than shaping. Most of the boards Ive glassed have been with epoxy. The few times Ive laminated with poly Ive used solar just because I dont know ratios for catalyst to resin to amount of time Ill have. Definitely have a lot to learn about poly lamination but Im finally getting to the point I can do a quality epoxy lamination. My next step is to learn how to work quicker so that when I do start trying to laminate with poly Ill be able to not worry about when its going to unexpectedly go off on me. Any laminating tips would be much appreciated!
I find certain cloths to be easier to work with when it comes to those pesky bubbles. I’m using Hexcel right now and have to babysit every hard edge and butt crack. Get it all laid up and squeegee of the excess, turn my back on it and little bubbles form along the hard rail at the tail. So babysit and keep pressing them out with a hard squeegee or my finger until it kicks. I never have to babysit BGF Aerialite. It’s been a few years since I have used JPS, but I remember it being easier to saturate and very drapeable. Hexcel wravels and threads pull like crazy. I get a much cleaner freelap with BGF and no bubbles. Having said all that; you gotta be good to do a bubble free channel bottom.
I’m just a backyarder whos built a few board start to finish. But I’m proud of what I build and have fun riding them. Those shapes all look damn good to my untrained eye. keep up the good work! There is tons of info in the archives. Any concerns/quiestions you have regarding shaping/glassing have probably already been beat to death on this site haha. A bit of reasearch goes a long way! Looks to me like you could actually be giving out some tips of your own . Thats some good stuff ya got there!
Yes - very nice work on those shapes! Just keep doing what you’re doing.
I do not see anything wrong with any of those. A couple of things I have tried and that seem to help include the ‘double dowel’ thing - tape a couple of straight wooden dowels parallel and across the bottom at various distances apart. Look from the end of board to see if dowels are parallel. Any twist will show up but on belly and vee, it gets tricky doing this method.
I also make a point to sight down the top and bottom edges of stringers to eyeball the rocker and deck curve. It will often show things that I miss if I’m looking at just the foam.
Here is a pic of Terry Martin doing something to help eyeball the deck curves…
I appreciate your response! I’m guessing this method helps with finding bend in the stringer as well. In the photo you posted it looks like they are doing it on the deck side so I’m guessing that they are checking the deck foil. So would you do the same thing but on the bottom to measure rocker? Also to measure the amount of roll or vee put into the bottom how would you go about doing that? If your dowel method is how I’m picturing it I would imagine it not working on any convexed surface.
I’m also not too sure if I follow what your dowel method is. Are you talking about putting the dowels perpendicular to the stringer and paralel to one another?
The main thing Ive been trying to improve with is cleanly planing the stringer when I finish up without scaring the foam next to it. Any tips for that? Ive tried to keep using new blades as well as various different blade angles. Also just maximizing the amount of work I do with the planar so that finishing goes a lot quicker. I just hit board 50 and the planar is beginning to feel more natural. I’ve found that the faster I move with it the smoother and more even my cuts become. For some reason I think its because I tend to be more confident and overthing things less then. Any tips for maintianing even cuts from side to side?
use a sharp low angle block plane to take down the stringer. I have a stanley Sweatheart and it works nicely. de-tune the sharp edges on the base of the plane. If you geta really nice low angle block plane (veritas, or lie neillson) those will prob work even better. But my stanley does the trick just fine.
Most of what I do for them is stringerless. But the few that I groove smooth that have stringers I can make presentable just not to the point where I’m satisfied with them. also not a ton of them are getting color nor polished so I really doesnt matter to much to havethem perfect on those. However on my own boards I do color and polishes pretty often so I’d like to get them absolutely perfect so there is no scaring.
“So would you do the same thing but on the bottom to measure rocker?” — No, use a straight edge or ‘rocker stick’ for rocker.
“If your dowel method is how I’m picturing it I would imagine it not working on any convexed surface.” — Correct. It won’t work on convex surface.
“Are you talking about putting the dowels perpendicular to the stringer and paralel to one another?” — Yes. Works on flats or concaves when checking for twist or uneven rocker.
“The main thing Ive been trying to improve with is cleanly planing the stringer when I finish up without scaring the foam next to it.” — I use a mini-plane with a sharp blade set very shallow. I also ground off the corners of the blade so it’s more of an arc rather than square across the edge. On a good day my final pass with the mini-plane is the last step… no sand paper or screen after that.
So The 6 channel roundpinI just talked with the guy Im Having laminate it and I totally screwed up how I cut them in because Not too drop the fin boxes he had to grind them down and they arent going to be completely flush. I believe what I would need to do is cut them in with less of and angle or from a flat into a transition then the channel and make them wider. any recommendations for a board like this and channels? Probably would been better if I just made it a 4 channel.
You’re definitely more advanced than I am but I’ve gotta ask, is that fish assymetrical? One side of the tail looks like it goes in, almost like it has a slight wing/stinger. Maybe it’s just the angle of the camera. Anybody else see what I’m talking about?
Glassons would’ve definitely been the call. but gotta do what the customer wants right?? Anyways I think I know how to approach it for boxes next time to get them to drop in flush. Still working on the whole thinking 5-10 steps ahead. I’m also a production manager at the shop I work for and so Im constantly trying to figure out how to meet deadlines and how to work the schedules of our staff to get boards done. Just when I get out of that rhythm and start working on my own boards thats when I forget to think a head cause I’m just to psyched to be working on something fresh instead of the same 10 models I work on weekly and just go through the motions at this point.
You’re not seeing things haha. I made that assymetrical, inspired by the assym fish Burch made in the “Handmade” Surfer film. Ive made a few traditional and sidecut fishes and have liked aspects of both. For this one I decided to go with Burchs’ theory but tweak it to what I would think would feel good. I did a slight sidecut to hip on the heel side and kept the toe side a traditional fish. I also foile out the deck a little more on the heal side because my backside feels alot better on smaller/thinner boards. Only time will tell if it works the way I shaped it too.
