Over the last twenty or so years ive picked up on some nifty ideas that make diferent parts of surfboard production easy.
Im sure allot of people that contribute to swaylocks have home made tools / tricks of the trade/ gadgets they have made that you wont find at a shop to help production ,preparation ,safety, and quality
It would help new builders and senior pros if we share
Why not start it off
Ohh and if one pays attention, there are TONS of awesome tips posted all the time.
I’m a woodworker by trade = most of my boards are wood but this old school, home built marking gauge works well for any need.
Ideally this tool is made from a tight-grained hardwood like maple…
Pushing the proper end of the smaller dowel locks/unlocks the beam which can be made as long as is required; slight adjustments are made by tapping lightly on the ends of the beam once you are close… The beauty of this system is unlike the screw operated gauges there’s no creep and a rap on the correct end of the locking dowel will secure it for rough work.
The beam is a one inch hardwood dowel with a flat worked into it. There’s a cutter on one end made from a one eighth inch broken bit or hunk of drill rod filed to a knife edge and on the other end a hole that is a tight friction fit on your basic octagonal pencil.
For woodworking it really helps if the cutter knife’s edge is just a hair’s breadth out of square so that as the gauge is pulled toward the user, the work is pulled into the reference block; for foam work this is not needed.
The adjustment/locking bar is a half inch hardwood dowel with a bevel cut into it that levers against the flat on the beam inside the reference block’s intersecting holes.
The reference block/fence is a chunk of hardwood with intersecting holes arranged just so…
I’d wager this tool is older than some of our posters here…
Home made pin-wheel sander. Made from a dowl and the cardboard core that blueprint paper comes on. This thing is great for shaping the nose of shortboards and blending rail bands up in the nose. I use it on every shortboard I make.
Pictures removed so nitpickers don’t become distracted by the dings and color work on the boards in the background.
Who cares about nitpickers, the device I think it’s brilliant I’m glad I got to see the photos thanks
I use several sanding blocks made from 2x4 or 2x6 lumber. I’ve created both convex and concave surfaces then add belt sander media. My favorite grits are 36 and 50, but I have them down to 120. I also made a couple of rail templates from cheese graters. I use off cuts from foam to make marking tools for rail bands.
You’re welcome. Its proven very handy for me.
I’m very happy and pride to partecipate in this tread!!!
Until a few years ago in Italy they could not buy special tools for shaping and glassing. Only solution to build everything myself …
… Sometimes with poor results !!!
Here they are.
In order of apparence:
& 8. FCS jigs angled supports
Planer support
roll holder
glassing rack
Wow, these are all great. Please contribute more!
Great gadgets, thanks for sharing.
