I tried to spirit leveling my fins. What do you think about ?
Ummm, youâve got me curious- what are you trying to accomplish?
Assuming you have the board, or at least the bottom, dead nuts level, and assuming itâs really flat to within 0.01" or so (good luck with that), you can get the fin pretty vertical and pretty good for alignment on center.
There are also a number of machinistâs tricks you can use, notably setting up a really flat surface with one really straight edge and some good gauges/measuring tools. You can get to within a few 1000ths of an inch. But⌠youâre dealing with either hand made or molded fins, fin boxes etc on a hand shaped or hand finished and hand glassed surfboard which wonât be anything like those tolerances.
Let me just sidestep a mite- in my real life as a boat carpenter, working on commercial fishing vessels, I was helping the owner of a sea clam boat relocate a pump. A big pump, over 1000 gallons a minute, driven by a pretty healthy diesel, call it something approaching a couple of tons. Once you have them in place, you need to align them so they donât vibrate and destroy themselves. The owner was a former tool and die man, read as âtop of the line machinistâ, with high standards. We were shooting for within 0.001" or so, on three axes. Working off the machined couplings used for connecting them, shimming with ever-thinner material to where the last were thinner than tinfoil.
Except- the couplings werenât that close. you go with the worst tolerance you have in your system, thatâs as good as youâre going to get. We got it to within 0.01" or so, the pump and the engine worked fine, no vibration, and that was as good as it was going to get.
So the thing is, how good are you going to get that. really, considering what youâre working with? Will much simpler measuring and aligning gear do the job adequately? And as well as youâre going to be able to?
And plenty good enoughâŚ
hope thatâs of use
docâŚ
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Iâve always found my âEyecrometerâ reasonably accurate (within the tolerance of âIt looks straight when under waterâ) 
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So does that make the board go straight? What happens if you try to turn?
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Nice story.
It was the easiest way to me. I had no Protactor.
Do you told me what i did isnât possible ? Not enought good ?
Nop. He/she still no binaryâŚ
If thatâs the tool you have and youâre comfortable with it, by all means use it. Iâm thinking itâs going to be good enough for your needs and more.
It might be easier to put the laser level on a flat level surface in front of the nose instead of on the board, then adjust the board to level by measurement and line up the centerline of the board with your laser line and work from there.
Keep up the good work, this has real possibilities.
hope thatâs of use
docâŚ
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Thanks for your reply. Iâm finishing the board. It seems correct. Itâs the first time iâve done this.
Thanks doc !
De nada, man. Itâs interesting to see what youâre doing there, certainly something I hadnât thought of. And Iâm now thinking about other stuff I can do with lasers.
We all learn. Kind of the purpose of this whole thingâŚ
docâŚ
Yeah, laser levelling is the new must have. Used everywhere now for positioning/leveling, simple an effective. I think you do it well, first âflatâ on bottom, then aligned .
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Massive over-engineering/precision overkill, but . . . whatever floats yer boat.
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Thanks for your reply. Iâde never seen this before.
May be overkill but easiest way for me.
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If you enjoy it, do it!
New tech and new/different approaches are a significant part of what Sways is all about. DIY and production builders, to each their ownâŚ
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