First off I would like to thank Mike P and all the mods for giving us such a great web site. Over the last few years I’ve gone to several Swaylock’s events at Keith’s house. I went to the Big Sur camp out in 2005. It’s amazing how many new friends I’ve made in the last two years through Swaylock’s. In the fall of 2006 there was no Sway’s event but I got invited to go on a road trip with Surf4fins and MarkSSD. Funny how out on the road we got on the topic of Who’s the Sheriff of Swaylock’s…No bad vibes on this tread…take it some where else…
Surf4fins had a block of 2# EPS foam in his garage. He offered Mark and I a blank. All we had to do was come over and cut it out. Two weeks after the road trip Mark and I went to Tim’s house and got foam. The rocker template is a Melville/Resinhead/Brewer gun type. We cut the foam using a hot wire set-up made completely from threads on Swaylocks. Thank you Airframe. The nichrome wire is the hot ticket. The next week Mark came by my place with some balsa strips. We glued up the balsa stringer using 5 minute epoxy. The epoxy worked much better than the Gorilla glue that Shipman and I used last summer. From there I made a 7’10" egg. A little bit gunnish but still an egg. I shaped the whole thing by hand with a sur form, 36grit sand paper and a sanding screen. Lots of time on my hands and no money…
Today I glassed the board. Plusoneshaper has said time and time again that temp is very ,very important when working with epoxy. I made a room out of tarps in my garage and bought a space heater. Hot dry weather today in SanDiego county. Every thing went off well. We’re post curing right now. The temp in my shop never went below 70 and most of the time is was close to 80 degrees.
Thank you EVERYONE on Swaylock’s !!!
Now for questions…
The board is eps/epoxy. 7’10" x 21 3/4" x 2 5/8. Rounded pin. Slight concave middle to double concave at the fins to flat out the back. I’m going to use ProBox fin system. What do you suggest for fin placement? I want to use ProBox fins ,what fins do you recommend?
Resin used was Resin Research 2000 with fast hardener 2100F and additive F. Takes about 2 hours to kick off. Can I kick it off faster ?
I’ll try to post photos…
Ray
Thanks again. So many good people here at Swaylock’s !
That’s awesome, I can sense your stoke as you brought that board through!
Good Work!
Quote:
Resin used was Resin Research 2000 with fast hardener 2100F and additive F. Takes about 2 hours to kick off. Can I kick it off faster ?
We use a built up enclosed oven and the boards are sandable in about 45 minutes. This is with the same stuff you used, but at an elevated temperatue, going too hot will cause a blowout or thermal shock, so go with moderation.
Tarps are allowing heat to escape in radiated form (in spite of the area being 80+ degreesF) from the wet resin.
If you put blankets up, but in a smaller chamber (assuming you did the wet work and want the board to kick off),
then the board should kick off faster. Temps in the room can be close to 90F as measured by thermometer.
Idea: never tried it but you could sling a blanket over two ropes a few feet apart in your closed garage. The board would be up high in the blanket chamber. Heat rises, so just have the heater centered on the floor below, and have the ‘chamber’ up at normal working height. Cap the ends of the chamber with small blankets. Put thermometer low in the chamber, in a corner. Clothespins? I don’t know, just an idea…
Here’s a photo of my oversized sawhorse / glassing rack. Custom made so that the space heater would fit. One of the maintenance mechanics at work made me an over sized extenision cord to run the space heater.
I’ve really learned alot from your posts. I can live with my current set up for now. Fire safety and ventalation were very big concerns while setting up this whole garage thing. As a joke I mowed my lawn during one of my 2 hour waits between coats…Planning on doing nose and tail blocks too!
Here is a image that shows the most common layout I use for a thruster setup for this type of board.
I don’t do my layouts the same way as most people do in that I measure to the front of the fin as that is what I care about where the fin is actually located. So if you are using a fin with a wider base that what I have used here then you need to adjust accordingly.
One dimension note shown on this drawing that is also very relevant is that the back mark on the side fins is setup 1" in from the rail.
As far as the fins go I have my favorite fins for this type of board if you are interested in seeing them let me know.
Thanks Robin ,I printed that page. I already have the ProBox boxes but I still need to order fins so all suggestions will be considered. It’s going to be a thruster. Here’s another photo. I wasn’t really trying to make a gun. Just looking for board options for guys over 40. I painted fake redwood stringers on the sides of the balsa to hide our less than perfect glue job. I’m really stoked with this project!
Here is a photo of the fin I would choose to use on this board if setup as a thruster. This is one of my own designs so I might be a little biased in selecting it, but I have sold a lot of them to other people that really like them so I thought I would show it too you.
This fin is very fast with a lot of drive. I have used them on everything from short boards to guns, always with positive response!
I was going to say that since you are going to make it a thruster, blakstah’s surf trux may work well on it (because of the toe-in going to neutral when not turning), but you already have the boxes…
Bought the fins , did the nose and tail blocks ,made some dirty little errors…
The nose and tail blocks were installed after the hot coat sort of like a repair. After that the fin boxes and leash plug were installed. I then power sanded the whole board and did a second hot coat (gloss coat). Keep in mind that I’m using the same space to sand as I use to apply resin. I’m normally really good about cleaning up between steps but this time I got lots of dirt specks in the resin. I expected it but I also had another little problem. On the last mix of resin I forgot to shake up the additive F. Whoops ,a big glob of stuff comes out of the can and into my cup. Well I’m at the end of a three gallon kit of RR and I can’t stop now.
So added to my dirt specks I also have little white specks too. It should sand out fine but my wood will not be as perfect as planned. Overall I’m really stoked!!!
I was going to say that since you are going to make it a thruster, blakstah's surf trux may work well on it (because of the toe-in going to neutral when not turning), but you already have the boxes...
JSS
Aw, shucks, thanks for the plug (blush).
I was real happy with an 8’6" gun that had fins at 5 and 13 inches (rear to tail) with 1/4" toe-in and 4 degrees cant.
Yours is a little shorter, and for smaller waves, so you may want to use a fore-aft spread as short as 7.5" (instead of the 8 inches used on my gun), and possibly move the front fins back a half inch.
Hand-shaper’s got numbers that fall very close to what I would recommend. Definitely in my ballpark for that board.
Its also important to check boards YOU like. If you like a fore-aft spread of 7 inches even on longer boards, use a shorter fore-aft spread. If you like more toe-in, or more cant, use more than the norm. If you like ultra stable thrusters with 8.5" of fore-aft spread, don’t be afraid to stretch a little in that directon. For me, I like 1/4" toe in until the boards get ultra gunny, then as little as 1/8", and the fore-aft spread always always always stays between 7 inches on the shortest boards and as long as 8 inches on 10 foot uber guns.
Thought I would give you guys an update on my 7’10". I surf mostly in Carlsbad. If you know the area you know we have quite a mix of beach breaks and reefs with several jetties and “sort of” river mouths. I mostly surf the mushy spots with my little yellow egg or my long board. I needed a board that would work when the reefs got good. I also needed a board to get me surfing the more powerful beach breaks. This board is working great at the beach breaks. Does not work well on mushy waves but thats OK. Took a ride up to Churches a few months ago and scored awesome 4-6 foot low tide glass. The board really came to life out there. So I’m not really into messing with fins but I have moved them around a little. Started with the 8 degree inserts but am currently using the 6 degree. Bottom contours ,blah blah blah,backyarder ect. The 6 degree insert with the double concave is giving me close to 5 degrees. I like this.
As far as moving the fins forward and back…I grew up in the days of glass ons!!! Too many options… Arghhhh!!..I’ll keep messing with it…
Looking at the Clark catalog this blank is very close to a Rusty
Really stoked
Fun surf today in small beach break. Water is soo warm!
glad to hear you’re enjoying your board Ray. I meant to ask you this the last time I saw you but forgot. did you use a special technique to paint those false redwood stringers or did you just mask by hand and spray? Even up close they look real.
Bought the fins , did the nose and tail blocks ,made some dirty little errors…
