Show us your home-made fins ....

silmarzio · June 24, 2013, 1:59pm

I made two meranti mahogany fins to replace those broken off of my Surfboards Australia 6’10" board.

The
sequence left to right shows a broken fin as template, followed by some
more experiments as I got used to the Harbor-Freight sanding, until

I
found a nice process. If you want details of the process, you can just
look at my Account photos where I explain the tools I use.

Enjoy!

silmarzio · July 10, 2013, 4:00am

I made two meranti mahogany fins to replace those broken off of my Surfboards Australia 6’10" board.

The
sequence left to right shows a broken fin as template, followed by some
more experiments as I got used to the Harbor-Freight sanding, until

I
found a nice process. If you want details of the process, you can just
look at my Account photos where I explain the tools I use.

You may notice that the rake of my fins is always a little less than the original template. Probably due to oversanding. The cedar fin near

the middle has the best rake. LIve and learn!

Enjoy!

PS I notice that everyone else’s fins look SO professional - if I get a chance, I’ll color and/or paint some tinted resin onto my fins and make them look better - I can always edit this post, but at least I show some of the process - what do you want, I’ve only made a handful of fins so far.

silmarzio · June 24, 2013, 2:16pm

I made two meranti mahogany fins to replace those broken off of my Surfboards Australia 6’10" board.

The
sequence left to right shows a broken fin as template, followed by some
more experiments as I got used to the Harbor-Freight sanding, until

I
found a nice process. If you want details of the process, you can just
look at my Account photos where I explain the tools I use.

Enjoy!

wrcsixeight · June 24, 2013, 4:02pm

This is my most recent fin, and the third one I’ve used carbon fiber around the perimeter, just for something different.

The black around the base looks better when installed in the board too. I extended the base cause the board this fin was made for has a stretched box from 10 years of service with many different fin set ups. Also I did not want to cut into the grain of the wood for the tabs

Lacewood is pretty light. This fin floats. It is pretty stiff, and I like the way it feels in my board compared to a decade old first attempt at fin making.

All epoxy. 2 layers of 4 oz on each side with carbon fiber over the top to build out the width.

The other fin is a 9.5 inch cutaway of the same wood, but I used 4 layers of 7.5 oz cloth on each side, and they did not disappear. Not sure if the cloth had gotten damp at some point or just does not like epoxy, but from now on, more layers of lighter weight cloth.

soulfins · June 27, 2013, 12:25pm

soulfins · June 27, 2013, 12:39pm

soulfins · June 27, 2013, 12:45pm

blue fibreglass panel - 2 Quad. model MR. (FCS)

soulfins · June 27, 2013, 12:50pm

soulfins · June 27, 2013, 12:57pm

tommorth · July 5, 2013, 10:46am

Nice stuff soulfins how big are those triple tabbed fins?

Hopefully will get to test these out tomorrow. The red bled all over the show from the coremat, so I probably wont try doing that again.

soulfins · July 10, 2013, 8:15am

Hi tommorth, those fins it’s the same model of MR from Fcs quad set.

those fins it’s for use at a mini simon model and work very well.

the customer loved it.

I have a question, to use a coremat inside the fin, do I need a mold, or it’s possible with fin panel???

Aloha Brow.

tommorth · July 10, 2013, 10:47pm

I cut the cormat out and wet it out seperatly with red then put in in the panel so no mold. But as you can see it bled horribly as I played around with it quite a bit toget the bubbles out around the edges of the core mat.

I would ether only use one colour our let the resin b stage in the mat before adding it if I try again. I’m pretty sure the rtm fins have thinner coremat in them this its 3mm.

I put them in my sim loads of fun looking forward to testing them in the fish to.

MB_Board_Co · July 11, 2013, 3:12am

Nice work guys! here’s some of my most recent, first are cedar last is a set of redwood i just recently glassed onto my 5’3 mini simmons. STOKING to get it finished and in the water. SHAPE ON FELLAS

tommorth · August 1, 2013, 6:15am

hows that sim go mb?

Just put a sealer coat on this speed dialer set. Extra base depth as I’m going to glass them into the board hopfully.

shushka420 · August 1, 2013, 6:22pm

Tommorth,

When you say “extra base depth” because you want to glass them “into” the board - are you actually routering out slots for them to sit in prior to glassing in? I had thought about that once upon a time but was told that it’s a bad idea as it will tunnel out the foam around them over time - just curious exactly what/how you’re planning on setting them. Love the look though, those things are gonna fly!

thirdshade · August 1, 2013, 7:03pm

Did you hot coat those fins in the clamps?

tommorth · August 1, 2013, 9:42pm

yes will be roiting slots into the board they will be tied to the deck lam so shouldnt be any problems.

and yes coated in the clamps no pooling that way they come out of the spring clamps easy

RDM · August 2, 2013, 1:33am

deleted post - am having issues with posting images

pierna_de_pollo_sin · August 5, 2013, 11:12pm

Some examples of Finnish birch ply fins. These are the NPJ quartet’s, only
the rears are double-foiled instead of single-foiled like he prescribes. The
rears are a little uglier than I’d like, but they seem to go great.

hans · August 6, 2013, 8:08am

I think they look great! Very good job!