invest the money and get a clark modified planer? I plan on making roughly 6 or 7 boards by the end of this summer. I am also going to try and make my own jigs to put in FUTURES fins with a regular router. How do you put cant on a futures box? Is www.fiberglasssupply.com a good place to buy fins/planers without having a tax payer ID (I don’t have one because I don’t know anything about starting businesses or paying taxes- I’m 17)? Thanks for taking the time. -Brett…ps that shaping 101 video taught me a lot!!!
If you’ve already made 1 or more with a surform or block plane and have caught the bug, get the Clark. If you are on the fence or are just goofing around, a cheaper one will work, but not as well. All in all, plugging in makes everything go quicker, not necessarily better.
By the way, wasn’t there supposed to be a newly introduced planer (don’t know who is the manufacturer) that is more ergonomic and specific for surfboard shaping? What’s the news?
If you are planning on making a half dozen boards over the summer, i bet you will wind up making more - go ahead and get a good planer. The Clark planers are sweet but a cheaper one would work well also - they have different properties - some like one without the modificatons better, just different shaping styles. I like being able to adjust the depth on the fly, and as you shape more, you probably will also. You can make a jig for the futures - it gets a little complicated when you build in the part to fit the radius curve for the upper flange…The future jigs are machined so they just designed it to fit the curve and a machine milled it out so its very precise. It just depends on what you want to spend and what quality work you are happy with, and how ingenious are you. You can go either way on the planer and the jig.
Fuberglass supply is a great resource for the causal builder. I buy stuff through them al the time. Very nice people and they have anything you could ever want. fast service and friendly folk to take your call. Drew
When I started off I bought a cheaper planer. It worked ok but couldnt cut very deep. I ended up getting the Clark Hitachi. My advice would be to just get the Clark Hitachi. You can use the 50 or so bucks that you would’ve used toward a less expensive planer for the Hitachi.