I got my blank the other day, cut the outline and pulled out the shureform. Damn. I saw a picture once in a National Geographic (circa 1990) of a Chinese man working on a railroad cutting a rail using an small hacksaw blade. He’s the first thing that crossed my mind. I’m thinking he could saw through 4" of hardened steel about 3 days faster than I can skin a board with a shureform. Luckily, I don’t live in China. I now am in possesion of a Black & Decker power planer. Yikes! I am asking for advise in planer technique. Any suggestions that will help me not to ruin my blank and self confidence would be appreciated. JR
Take it slow! Have you seen JC’s Shaping 101? that is a good place to start. Don’t try to move the planer as fast as JC. Double check all measurments before you cut or plane. Good luck, Scott. I got my blank the other day, cut the outline and pulled out the > shureform. Damn. I saw a picture once in a National Geographic (circa > 1990) of a Chinese man working on a railroad cutting a rail using an small > hacksaw blade. He’s the first thing that crossed my mind. I’m thinking he > could saw through 4" of hardened steel about 3 days faster than I can > skin a board with a shureform. Luckily, I don’t live in China. I now am in > possesion of a Black & Decker power planer. Yikes! I am asking for > advise in planer technique. Any suggestions that will help me not to ruin > my blank and self confidence would be appreciated.>>> JR
JR, If this is your first board, maybe you should only use the planer to skin the blank. When you remove the outer skin you will find that your sureform works much better. More experienced shapers can do a lot with the planer, but this takes a bit of practice. Set your blade shallow so that you can get a feel for how it cuts while you work this board. JC’s shaping 101 is always a good idea. Good luck!
I got my blank the other day, cut the outline and pulled out the > shureform. Damn. I saw a picture once in a National Geographic (circa > 1990) of a Chinese man working on a railroad cutting a rail using an small > hacksaw blade. He’s the first thing that crossed my mind. I’m thinking he > could saw through 4" of hardened steel about 3 days faster than I can > skin a board with a shureform. Luckily, I don’t live in China. I now am in > possesion of a Black & Decker power planer. Yikes! I am asking for > advise in planer technique. Any suggestions that will help me not to ruin > my blank and self confidence would be appreciated.>>> JR Make guidelines for everything, rails, thickness at the different points of the blank, etc. I saw use the planer in combination for the first time. For example: when cutting out the rails(rail bands, mark the bevels with a pencil, Take shallow planer cuts to remove as much foam as possible before hitting the lines, then correct the bevels with a sureform. When skinning and foiling the deck do the same. This way you will get practice with the planer but not risk desinegrating your first blank. Luck… Steve
Steve I don’t own a power planer but I’ve used a regular wood plane to remove the skin from the blank with great success. Enjoy! -Joshua
I don’t own a power planer but I’ve used a regular wood plane to remove > the skin from the blank with great success. Enjoy! -Joshua josh is right. if you aren’t skinning w/ power and all you want to do is skin off the crust then a block plane works great. the blade doesn’t have to be that sharp and you should set it pretty deep. hold it at about 45 degrees and work tail to nose and nose to tail. if you use a sureform to do this you will tend to get a “wobble” where the crust is hard then soft. you’ll also drag little chunks of crust across the foam which will dig ugly grooves. only use the sureform after the crust is gone. also, i’ve found that this method works better w/ walker 'cause the skin seems to be harder. http://www.cooperfishsurfboards.com