Hi all,
I’m a very new back yard wanna be. I’d like to use my own templates. I am starting my third board and I want to do it 100% myself. The other two, I’ve used another lad’s templates. When I asked him, he said he bought them years ago and has added on since.
How do i go about getting templates?
Is it taboo to use someone else’s? (with his consent - of course)
Do I just experiment until I get what I like? thats a lot of trial and error.
Thanks in advance.
Hey White Surfboards,
You can copy any board you want, as a hack myself, the likelyhood to make a perfect copy is pretty damn low anyway 
The intend is to learn so you can better understand board designs and hopefuly create your own templates further down the road.
A good other option is to go on the site below, print your templates and tranfer them on masonite boards if you want to keep them and replicate them, you will find a lot of info here on swaylocks by using the search…
http://www.blendingcurves.com/temps
Enjoy!
I draw them up on graph paper - then use a grid on Masonite to draw full size, cut with flexy pull-saw, then belt sander / sanding block to get the curves just right. Search archives for templates and spin templates, lots of good info and different ways.
(I added a secondary wing on the board below, when I laid it out on the foam)
Huck,
Thanks very much! Ya really have my gears spinning forward now!
That is a lovely looking board there mate!
I just get the cheap panel material at lowes, clamp it to the board bottom and trace it fm nose to tail. I like this medium because it stays in place while transferring the outline to the blank. Be careful to hold your marker flush the whole way so the curve is somewhat true. Cut it out and then true it up with the sander. As people have asked me to copy their boards, I’ve accumulated quite a stack of templates for arious types of shapes.
dcasey,
Thanks for that. I’ve had the wheels spinning like mad wanting to have all now. Like I’m gunna wake up in the morning with 20 lads kickin the door in wanting new boards and all different designs. I was advised to peek in the archives- I did. Just like I can’t reinvent the wheel, I won’t reinvent the shaping world. There are many that have asked my question. And a response that stands out is;(my interpretation) shaping is an individual art and making your own templates is the start of the process after the design that keeps the shapers craft what it should be. I’ve had some really cool lads give me great advise and links that will come in handy if I’m stuck but I’m going to try my hardest to use my imagination and not rush things. Shaping & building boards won’t pay the big bills but it will keep me at peace.
Thank you again for your time and advise.
SW
I’m a hobbyist, but I’ve been obsessing over this craft for the last twenty years, so I’ll throw in my 2 cents.
First drafts can easily be drawn up on cardboard, or even heavy-weight craft paper, then cut out with a razor knife. Plenty of people have used such templates on real board builds successfully. Obviously, they won’t last long.
1/8"-inch tempered masonite has been the professional shaper’s material of choice for a reason. With a few simple tools, you can make smooth templates with smooth curves better than you can with any other material I know of. Where I live, I can have the guy at the hardware store rip a 4x8 sheet into 12" wide strips. This makes my life a lot easier. You’ll want a jig-saw to cut out the template (just outside the line, of course). Or a pull-saw, like Huck. Then you’ll want a clamping workbench (like a Black & Decker Workmate) and a couple 2x4’s to hold your rough-cut masonite on edge. Then you’ll want some proper sanding tools to start smoothing out the cut line. Somewhere there’s a picture that GregTate posted that shows the basic idea. My favorite implements for this are some sanding belts that I cut (so they are now strips) and epoxied a few layers of glass on the backside.
So if you have no templates to your name, here’s what you can do: start with a rough draft on a disposable material. You might as well invest in a 24" wide roll of craft paper. It’s great for this exercise, and you’ll find a million other uses for it as well. The rough draft can be drawn up by plotting a few points and connecting them by tracing with whatever flexy material you have handy. Aluminum yardstick, a scrap of formica, flexible piece of wood, a freakin hose, whatever you have laying around. Draw it up, cut it out, and now trace it out on a piece of paper just like you would on a blank: draw a centerline, plot out your nose, mid, and tail points, trace it on both sides like a full-size board, and then step back and look at it. Step back 20, 30 feet if you can and look at it. You see that spot where it curves weird, or that other spot that’s too flat looking, or the main area of width is concentrated too far forward or backward. That’s why this is a rough draft. Your gonna have those spots. Mark on your rough draft where you want to push the curve out or in or whatever. Depending on how ugly it is, you may want to make a second draft on paper or cardboard before going to masonite and making it perfect using the steps outlined earlier.
Blendingcurves (mentioned by others) can help you skip some of the early pains by providing nice templates that you can then tweak this way or that to get what you want. At some point, you gotta get away from the computer screen and paper and just get your hands dirty. Then it gets fun. Template-making can be addictive.
One last thought: don’t waste your time worrying about making spin-templates. There’s nothing magical about them; they just save space.
newschoolblue,
Bang! ya got the wheels going now! I like it all mate. Except the spin temps- HaHa. But That does sound a lot easier in the long run. Trial & error is the only way starting out. If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.
Body of a 49 y/o with the enthusiasm of a 10 y/o.
Many thanks!
SW
Full sized templates of a nine foot board are difficult to cut from 8 foot material - another advantage of spin templates!
Huck,
So would I be in the ballpark by saying that the spin-templates are more vercatile and making size veriations easier?
SW
8’masonite ripped in 12’’ quarters
leaves the final panel 12’’ minus three saw kerfs…
take smaller of the set and cut into three shorter lengths
approximately 2’8’’ mark the two factory ends
as they will match other factory ends best.
glass shorts to longs with two layers on either side
by butting ends together,lay fiberglass cloth on waxpaper taped to glass pane
saturate glass with resin, brush resin on masonite,getting good coverage
lay ends of masonite flat on saturated glass after squeegeeing not quite dry
too much resin aint great… repeat on second side,of course brush on resin
then place fiberglass cloth then waxed paper.
because waxed paper alows you to inspect the acuracy of the joint
adjust joint and then put a pane of tempered glass and then weight joint with
an appropriate weight,cinder block hand weight 10# + let dry
remove weight remove waxed paper
sand ,you now have template material for
a half template 127’’ long that’s ten foot eight
less two saw kerfs.
Of course you can use plywood and a couple clamps
alebit you sacifice visual final check it will work swell.
waxed paper makes lam resin a readily sandable surface
without a hotcoat.spin templates are just fine and store well
but half templates have long term advantages avoiding
mid length plan shape bump - itus.Also alows for Router
use when cutting out plan shape. I am kinda sloppy with a hand saw
and the router gives me a credible true start.
…ambrose…
allow the method to eliminate
uck ups before they get your head
hung up in repair of screwups.
oh yeah hold the router with two hands
and clamp your template to the blank.
aloha from waipouli
ambrose,
Huge Thank you for your time! I have to get a lil more experience to completely understand what you are talking about.PLEASE EXCUSE MY IGNORANCE!
If you or someone has a picture tp share- that will probably help. My experence is very very limited and have had only a couple of conversations in person with 1 shaper. up till now(swaylocks) my resources has been a how to build a board book and like I said- the local guy I’ve chatted with.
Thanks for your understanding.
My passion is my hope!
The best thing about templates is, once you have a few, you can make just about any shape.
200+ template collection.
This is just a handfull.
Draw, bandsaw, planer, hard sanding block.
10 minutes.
Lol, Huck. Ya got me with the longboard spin-template thing. I guess it won’t surprise you to hear the longest board I’ve ever made was 7’10".
Spin templates have their place. I just remembered a couple individuals obsessing about making a spin template for their sub-6 foot one-offs. Just silly.
Barry you are the template meister, testimony to years of surfboard designing and hand-shaping, no doubt!
haha, people obsess about all kinds of weird (to me) stuff on this site, but I’m sure I’ve been one of them at some time or another, all part of the learning curve. Figuring out what’s worth obsessing about, and what isn’t.
If you can manipulate a template to get some variations, then it shouldn’t matter if its a spin template or a half-template. Spin templates just take up less space, use less material, and make anything up to 16’ possible with an 8’ sheet. Maybe a little easier to handle in a small confined shop like mine. Other than that, no special versatility (with an s) claimed. :-)
I thought the FH video was pretty good, nice and simple.
I am only a beginner, but I have found it easier to just know a couple measurements, like tail/nose width, wide point, and then make the curves fit on a piece of masonite with some sort of batton.
Good luck!
Barry,
Very impressive!! I like! Thanks for your time mate.
Huck,
I with ya now! Thanks for you time 4 patience.
SW
melikefish,
Excellent! Many thanks!!
Ye lads have been awesome! Can’t thank ye enough!