I’ve used a 0.6mm hotwire wire from the hardware store. Honestly I don’t know why they sell it, one of those odd thing I can get around here. I also have a 1mm wire I got from an electronics store, but I have not tested it yet.
Since I finally got around to the rail bands on my next board I figured I could try and explain a little better how this thing works. So:
Step 1: Print out or draw how you want your rail to look like at center and nose and tail(1’ marks). Measure the angle of the wire against the ‘bed’ of the hotwire tool. Use this angle to figure out how deep you can make your first cut. Mark it on the drawings and measure the distance from the rail of your square blank to where it intersects the deck on the square blank. Do this for center, nose and tail. (Note that I have cut the outline 1/2" inboard of the final dimensions to allow for balsa rails and measure accordingly).
Step 2: Measure out and mark on the blank the measurements from your drawings. Find a outline template longer than the template for your board, a rocker template or a batten and connect the dots with a nice smooth line. This is where I messed up this time, the design I had made in boardcad did not add up, the only way to connect the dots would be to make kind of a waist in the center of the railband(anyone do this???). I’ll blame this ever so slightly on the straighter outline of the longboard, much easier to connect the dots on a shorter, more curvy outline. Anyway, I abandoned my drawings and just made the railband look smooth with a slightly thicker rail in the center. You can see on the pic where I made my markings (and adjusted them…) and the line for the edge of the railband on the left side(right already cut).
Step 3: The hotwire cutter rests on the flat surface of the blank so it rests securely. It cuts at the same angle every time without requiring a steady hand. (Shown on a scrap piece of EPS as I didn’t want to do the stop and go to take photos on my board)
Step 5: Remove scraps and you have a railband. Clean it up with some sandpaper on a hard block if you have wobbles. You want a smooth railband before the next step.
Step 6: Mark out the next railband on your drawings and measure them. Mark the measurements on the cut surface of the first railband. Connect the dots. Cut with the bead of the hotwire railband tool resting flat on the first railband. I’m sorry I don’t have any photos of this as I just layed down the outline template where it would look nice and marked it due to my poorly designed crosssections. After the cut of the second railband it should look something like this.
Step 7: Blend the railbands and clean up with some sandpaper. In my case I just run a hard block over the ridges and will do final shaping when the balsa rails are on. Board is also getting a deck concave.
The result is fairly symetric, smooth rails that I could not possibly do with a planer with my (lack of) skills with powerplaner. I also timed a cut this time, the 8’ I cut (ends blended with sandpaper) took ~4 minutes, quite acceptable given the amount of material removed.
Very nice. Clever. I would have gone a much more complicated route. And been sorry.
Do you have any trouble on the second rail band keeping the wood flat against the band? such a narrow surface to work with.
I started out making one with all kinds of adjustability and cutting three rail bands in one go… Very bad idea, glad I ended up with what I’ve got now. Very easy to build and works well.
Of course the tool rests more steady on the top of the square blank then on a railband. However, the first band is in my case ~3" in the center so it’s quite wide and steady. Where the bands narrow to ~1" wide you get a bit of a seasaw feeling, but you can control it well by holding the tool with both hands.
Yes, anyone who has tried to shape a rectangular cross section block of EPS knows that a LOT of planing is required to get anything close to what would be considered “close tolerance” as with molded blanks.
Hot wiring a long wedge, even if imperfect, is a slick way to go to get the basic rail taper. As you show, it is quick and easy to get the basic shape and then block sand everything smooth.
I just purchased two paddleboard blanks by Ken Ebert through Pau Hana and expect to be hot wiring some rails soon.
Here it’s kind of the other way around. If there is some kind of trash in your garbage bin that’s supposed to be recycled you trash may not be removed (if you’re lucky you’ll get away with a warning). Same thing if you take it to the dumpsite, there will be people watching to ensure that you recycle.
I’m lucky enough to have a small ‘recycling station’ nearby. It’s basically big container that take glass, metal, plastics and styrofoam so I take the offcuts there.
