anywhere in LA please, thx!
4’x8’ at any Home Depot or Lowe’s.
Try door skins, they look like the paneling on the inside of cheep trailers, real thin, around 1/16th, no maybe less. But its flexible dense material. Masonite only thinner and alot cheeper.
I think any lumber yard will have them, but i dont know about lowes or the home despot.
You can make 1/2 width, full length templates up to 16’ long with one sheet of masonite, Elmer’s, and concrete blocks by ripping the masonite into 1/4s length-wise and gluing them together masonry style (staggered).
I like the wood door skins. There easier to sand when truing up the template. I got mine from Home Cheepo.
Door skins are better.Much easier to plane and sand.I make 1/2 length “spin” templates for longer boards.A spin template has the nose to center on one side and the tail to center on the other.DOC??? Can you do one of those diagrams for the guys???
Sure can
Shown- a spin-template for a diamond-tail longboard.
For a longer board, connect-the-dots with battens.
This puppy is going in the glossary
Here is a more effecient (using less template material) way of doing the spin template, and you can draw the template a few inches past midpoint so it is easier to line up. Spin templates are good, but I like having a full length template so you can see how the curve you are using realtes to the whole board at once. For longboards you can cut off the nose and tail so you have the majority of the curve (8 ft of it) nice and smooth and then take a nose and tail template to blend into the main curve. It is easy to get a kink around midpoint or weird flow using a spin template.
i hope the image shows this time…
I get 10 foot tempered masonite at Frost Hardwoods in San Diego, also at professional sign painter supply, you can get a foamed plastic sheeting 5’ x 10’x 1/8". For compnay models not on the machine, I do a 9’0" - 9’6" - 10’0" full length and router cut when time is a factor (when isn’t it!)
I glass on to add length two six oz scraps each side of joint to make 1/2 templates to cut with router Ive only gone up to 12’ but no problems on about 8 or 10 tmplates some are 7 or 8 yeqrs oldambrose
You can also do it like this (see attached) to save a bit of space… and (I think) this is where “spin” came from.
So for the nose you would place “A” on the stringer at the nose tip, and “B” at the midpoint - measured out to what ever width you set it at. Vice versa for the tail. Voila.
Whoops, sorry grasshopper… guess I should read everybodys posts before jumping in…
That’s OK. My spin templates look more like what you drew in your diagram, no centerline, just nose rail/tail rail compressed together… it’s good to see both drawings.
what are you guys using as batterns and where do you get them?
While you’re gonna hear a lot of other things used, I like clear softwood, no knots, straight grained cedar or white pine. Whenever I find myself ripping some likely wood on the tablesaw, I’ll stash the rippings to one side, then flex 'em and check for flat spots. The good ones get tucked in the loft. For really long battens ( and I use ‘em over 20’ sometimes) I’ll scarph joint them or something similar with wood glue, no fasteners. I like something around 1" wide, 3/8" to 1/4" thick.
On particularly tricky bits, I’ll plane down the ends some so they’ll bend a little easier and still stay fair. If somebody near you is doing some high-end exterior trim, you may be able to talk the carpenters out of a ripping or two.
hope that’s of use
doc…