those bamboo venner keels look good grasshopper… have you made that template in other material…? wanted to know if you could compare it to a one with the same template in another material…weight, flex, workability…
here are some i’ve been making recently…!! I’ve been making a fins for my boards and some more; I’ve made Quad sets, thruster sets, center fins, sidebites, and other designs; some using Volan cloth and in marine-ply…
ricky
thanx everyone for sharing their projects around swaylocks…
…to see more about fins, surfboards, alias, paipos and waves in Puerto Rico…
Here’s my first attempt at a fin, built for my hollow wood SUP. It’s made of redwood and basswood, laminated in sun cure polyester, and tabbed for a standard Bahne box. The plastic FCS side bites look downright shabby sitting next to it…
These are a set of fins I just made for Bill Johnson. Two are Balsa inserts, and the other is special Agave piece from a rare variety of cactus I grow in my yard. Chippy, I hav’nt forgot about you. I just moved my whole woodshop from my house to my shop. Just gett’in it back up and operational. Can you PM me your address. again? I seemed to have lost it during the move. Barry
I am undergoing making some fins right now, they will be for FCS fusion boxes. I didnt see very many fins with tabs for boxes, any tips on how to make them with the tips? i saw one fin th[img_assist|nid=1068186|title=My first fin, but the tab broke off :(|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=100|height=75]at had a flat bottom then fiberglass tabs added on, or maybe cut them out of wood? im still not sure. The tabs broke off on this fin, so what is the best method here?
First set of fins I ever made, started a few weeks ago, griffin template. Took me 20 hours to make this set, and I learned a lot of lessons, the side fins didn’t come out symmetrical but I can fix that with a little more work.
This is the second set I made, just finished the two side fins yesterday, G10, K2.1 template. These took a LOT less time than the first set, they took approximately 5 hours and 30 minutes to finish. I still have to finish foiling the center fin..
Thanks guys! Those are my first panels, they were definitely a good learning experience! To answer some questions
what is that panel, glass?
whered you get it, whats it supposed to be for, and how much did it cost???
G10, it's normally used for making knife liner scales or pistol grip panels.
I get some from AKS, and some panels from another supplier, it depends on the colors you want.
how smelly / itchy was it to foil and cut ?
Ok here’s the thing, I believe G10 is fiberglass but laid up with epoxy resin which has been compressed under trememdous force, as a result it’s really stiff and I think it needs to be thinner than regular fiberglass fins to achieve the same flex (I’m a noob surfer though and can’t really tell to be honest!). It’s also denser/heavier than a fiberglass fin of the same template and size. When I was making them, I would just mount them in my vise and flex the tips with my hand, then sand material off until it matched the flex of the fins I was trying to recreate.
G10 dust is JUST as bad for you as fiberglass, you NEED to have a proper ventilation system setup, aka a good dust collector if you’re working indoors. At the very least you should use a half face mask with P100 filters. The dust is not toxic, but just like any dust created during fine sanding, it will mess up your lungs pretty bad even in small amounts. It’s actually the particles you can’t see which are the problem, and they’re usually smaller than a few microns and float in the air. Proper dust collection is key when working with G10, you really should collect the dust at the source of sanding/cutting. However, when using hand sanders like orbital sanders or mouse sanders, it’s hard to collect all the dust, which is why I wear a full face respirator in addition to long sleeves. I’ve had some days when it was really hot in my garage and I opted to work shirtless, and ended up with really itchy arms and chest :/. So if you do choose to work with this material, be careful. You can wet sand it, but I’ve found that generally takes longer than dry sanding.
Cool!! I like the muti-color G10. I have used the blue & green G10. I think it foils better than Glass or wood because you have to go slower. When I do the side fins I glue them together and shape them with #40 grit like a single fin and then pop them apart. G10 smells a bit funky when sanding but is a finer powder dust that is less ichy than glass-poly panels.
