mainman when i’ll find you some infomation when i get back from dinner. happy surfing.
Yes…THANKS BERT for the step by step… I’m finally abreast of the “right” techniques for finning (…stands up from computer desk, steps away from screen, and applauds with a standing ovation)!
this thread deserves to be a “sticky” , permanently at the top of the page !
… just a thought …
cheers
ben
(It’s one of my very favourite threads at Swaylocks .)
Right you are Chip,
This thread is what Sways is all about. I cant belive I did not stumble upon this earlier when I was going through the archives to find out how to do this.
Cheers.
Hi Bert,
Great fins. I am wondering whether you could explain the process of actually glassing fins with pictures or in words. I am building an HWS and I am getting toward placing the top
planks on. I want to be sure that there is nothing to be done
internally in terms of attaching fins.
thanks
alex
If you are building a single fin, attach 2 pieces of wood in both sides of your frame’s stringer, this way you have material to route the fin slot. otherwise you’ll cut through your bottom plank only to find…air.
I have an unfinished fish, and for this board I used 2 pieces of foam to serve as support for the keels. This was 2 years ago and now I can’t remember it’s exact location. but that’s another story…
Hope that helps.
jack
Here are some carbon/balsa glass-on keels I’ve been working on… the other side is all black. They’re for a SUP compsand I’m almost ready to finish off.
one of the best sways threads ever! surely it deserves sticky status. i reckon you’re a good bloke bert. like to chew the fat with you one day mate.
John, wow. Very very nice. Did you had foil them. I mean really “hand” foil them? (balsa being so soft) Would you talk about the project? And, the SUP?
Hi Greg -
Thanks for the kind words.
Laid up with a couple layers of carbon fiber and fiberglass backing vacuumed to a '68 VW bus side window which has a little “hook” to it.
Yes, “hand” foiled with a 2" disc on an angle drill, mini-plane, file and sanding block. They’re pretty thin but plenty stiff.
I always leave a little glass around the perimeter of my wood fins so after foiling and the outer glass is applied, there is a protective edge around the wood.
Yo John,
Beautiful work! Protecting the balsa is extremely important as you know. I would foil and put a couple layers of 4oz of the the foil but you can do that when you glass the keels on. They’ll look da-bomb!
I’m doing panels somewhat similar to the one you did your keels of.
I still on the helix for rail fins, of course. I have found both bamboo and paulownia veneer that I can use in my panels that are thin enough that I don’t have to air bag to get full saturation and resin contact. It simplifies the process of stacking panels enourmously. I’ve found that one layer of 5.7 oz carbon gives a very nice flex pattern in the finished foil but then I’m stacking mulitiple layers of 6oz. glass cloth and the wood is such a small part of the overall lamination that it’s as much for cosmetics as anything else. I’m going to try stacking some panels with several layers of wood veneer in them to how the flex characteristic of such a panle compares with that of a glass only panel, which by the way is a very very flexible.
Gone Surfin’, Rich
Hi Rich -
Thanks!
Those are for a flat water paddleboard that probably won’t be seeing much, if any surf. The board is for my girlfriend who doesn’t surf. They are primarily for a bit of directional stability when paddling and the chance that one of us might take it out on ankle snapper days to surf.
Yes, they are capped with 4 layers of 4 oz and a pretty heavy flood coat so I hope they are durable enough. I’ll scuff 'em up a bit before they get glassed on.
Great thread, but is there anywhere on Sways where I can find scaled fin templates? I am thing if making some fins for the twin fin I am building. They would be for ProBox boxes.
Ask Chipfish he put a load up in the resources section.
or look on a fin web site, save the little pictures of fins and play with the contrast/brightness to give a good out line then scale then up on the compute or with a photo copier and print them out.
or make your own, general rule of thumb for fin area, total area of all the fins should be equal regardless of number. for instance
the area of a individual twinfin fin should be 1/2 that of a singlefin.
Quote:
I’m a beginner surfer here in the philippines, the high cost of surfboards here in my country has made me deprived of having my own board, which made me decide to try shaping my own. Sir can you pls give me the details of how to attach the fins, i’m planning to use polystyrene and epoxy with my board, if you have pictures on how to do it, it will be very much appreciated…thank you and more power to you…GOD BLESS YOU always.
hi there mainman,
just discovered your 2006 post, kumusta board project mo? i’m currently building my own from hardware-bought materials. it would be great to see what you were able to put together with locally-sourced supplies. hindi pala ako nag-iisang noypi surfer dito, ayos!
= )
Hello to you all…
First of all… thanks for doing this thread… this has been really helpful… and with this i tried doing my first fins!
Twin fins… single foiled… an attempt of replica on the lokbox pavel keel hauler ( outline measurements )…
Now… this is the look after foiling ( Not completely finished )…
Now… problem is i never had in my hand some fins like this to guide me… i only have the tri fins that i own now… so… any comments on the foiling would be appreciated!
Another thing… these kind of fins have also “vertical foiling”? What i mean… they usually are thicker at the base… and then this thickness reduces towards the tip of the fin? If anyone has shots that can show me… i was looking but only saw pictures from the side and bottom… yeah… many questions i know… but this is the place to ask i think !!
Thanks in advance
The foils used on sailboats, or boats or any kind of hull, is normally an airfoil called NACA (from Nasa)
the usual references are Naca 008, Naca 007 anda Naca 006
pretty informative!!! thanks Luis!
Search in the Net the “profili”
it´s a program of airfoils and will apeear the Naca 008 and 009 and you can make the size that you want…