i just started a board today, i want it 2 3/4. after i planed and cleaned up the blank it is now 2 7/8. how close to the finished thickness do you like to be left with? thanks
I like to have at least a 1/4" before foiling the thickness.
Keep in mind your bottom contours, like concaves when roughing out the foil.
I get pretty close with PU… maybe a fat 1/8.
I leave more with EPS… almost 1/4… to allow for bead tear-out and LOTS of finer grit work.
I think you mean ''skinning'', and that means just the first pass on each side that removes the skin. Since EPS doesn't have a skin, I assume this is a PU blank. After the first pass, you're into the ''foiling'' stage. Most pros are doing bottom contours, deck roll, and rail bands at this stage also, that's usually called ''rough-out''. If you follow Barnfield's protocol (shaping from bottom first, working around the rails and towards deck center last), you might leave thickness 1/8'' short, but if you're going to foil blank first, I wouldn't leave more than 1/16'' on a center-stringered PU. Unless you're adding concave after foil you shouldn't be taking off much in the fine sand.
MD is right by calling it “skinning” other terms are: milling, roughing and gunning. But the point is to take it as close to tolerance with the skinning tool, most likely the planer. So the answer is how good is your rough shape? The better you are the closer to the finish shape you can go.