today marked the date of such a bad shaping experience. I was out in my shed sanding this 5’10’’ 80’s style thruster that I intially peeled all the glass off, touched up the shape, filled a bunch of big divets, shortened, changed the tail, airbrushed and lammed and hotcoated. So the board is almost done, Im just sanding it and its kinda precarious i guess because its raised off the racks with some paint cans so i can tuck the laps under easier, and i just never took the paint cans off. I go inside for one minute, and the sander that I left on top of the board fall off and the extension cord pulls the board off the racks giving me too enourmous divets in my final product. ya, i took it hard, my neighbors can probably attest to that.
I wanna know other people’s worst shaping experiences so I can feel less sad about mine.
Worst shaping experience: Ending up in the emergency room getting knit back together after the planer bit my wrist.
Worst glassing experience: Filling in for Becker’s regular polisher. On the first day of work after cutting all the sandpaper, filling the compound buckets and bottles, flipping on the stereo, I reached over and grabbed the first of 20 or so boards ready to be polished without realizing it was taped to 2 or 3 other boards. Good thing for sharp cornered work benches. Otherwise, the boards might have actually hit the carpet.
I was making a 9’11" pointy-nose Big Boy board and I cut the nose too pointy. It looked like a spear. Good for discouraging drop-ins. But it had to be fixed, so I glued on some foam and re-shaped the front 1/3 of the board. Reshaping was a hassle because the resin I used to glue it on was hard and the foam was soft. Took forever. I finally got it right, and the thing fell off the shaping racks. Big ding. Lots of fixing. I probably made about 25 cents an hour on that one. No…make that 2.5 cents. Doug
when shaping a 12’ tandem board I had shaping stands that weren’t heavy enough, managed to tip the whole kit & kaboodle over the long way… the working end of the stand put a couple of huge (well over an inch deep) gouges into the nearly-done blank… aargghh…
just the other day I knocked a board off the sanding stands… so much for that nice resin swirl job (and 2" of the rail)…
finished this bitchin longboard put 6 hrs of artwork onto it. decide… I’ll gloss it.
I glass in a paint booth where temp is computer controlled by some guy’s computer who i have never seen…
Room temp is 80 degrees I mix gloss and apply, heat shuts off room temp drops about 35 degrees in 3 min due to circulation system and outside air being in mid 30’s. Gloss resin runs righ off the board, gels after 30 min. I freak out and try to get all the gloss off the board so I don’t loose the artwork, by squeegee… dumb move #1
After gloss is hard in patchy glommy mess, I start sanding, I’m so pissed off I forget to put paper on sanding racks, board flips off rack put huge ding in nose… dumb move #2
I replace board on setup sanding racks, sander shits out…
After 8 hrs of work + 2 hrs of damage control artwork board is fixed… with acrylic matte instead of gloss!
Mine just happened as well. Actually a fin box issue. After two years of skipping around the issue, my wife finally demanded a board from me. Shaped a nice 7’6" mini-longboard and had her do the artwork on it. Very nice flowers! Got the hot coat finished and set the fin box. Couldn’t find my jig so I decided to cut it free hand, after drawing in the outline of course. Was too impatient and pulled the router over the lines. No biggy right? Just a little extra filler around the box. Came back the next day and finished sanding the hotcoat. No prob. Popped a fin in the box to check out symetry and guess what? The box was perfectly straight. It was also perfectly off center. 3/16" to be exact. The fin sat right next to the stringer! Had to cut out the fin box and reset it. Not as bad as most of these stories but remember, this is supposed to my wife’s PERFECT board. Oh Well, I hope it floats!
Similar experience to the one with the nice airbrush…spent hours making a really nice flames pattern airbrush then I was so anxious to glass it that I poured the catalyst on the measuring flask but left it on top of the table. Started laminating as usual and when I look I see the catalyst still there and…“oh shit what a dumbass!”
Tried to experiment by brushing catalyst over the entired layer but after 4 hours it was still wet. End up laminating the other side and hot coating the entire board but the glass job on the bottom took about 2 weeks to finally get hard enough to sand even though was dry on the surface. Its been 25 years and I havent done it again…I guess that was a good lesson.
Well… this is my first experience in board shaping, so mistakes are almost everywhere… but this is far more the most big one i’ve done by now, haven’t tighten up enough the screw that fixes the blade of the hand-planer… a big scratch in the foam oouch! i was so saddd think i can cry now!
Once I was moving the planer cord out of the way and the blade caught the tip of my finger. The neighbour came around and craped on my head because her kids heard me.
Had a board with a wicked spray job glassed it on a nice hot day but didn’t compensate for temp when mixing the catalyst it geld while I was doing the one rail. I paniced, left it to dry and had to pull the lot off and reshape the board.
Did this cool resin swirl with red and white. “Duh red an white makes pink you fool!” Oh well If I keep it for 8 years I can give it to my daughter.
but this is far more the most big one i’ve done by now, haven’t tighten up enough the screw that fixes the blade of the hand-planer… a big scratch in the foam oouch! i was so saddd think i can cry now!