I've decided I'm going to build a board

your itchin to use your little sawhorse! lol

first of all, unless your a midget, its too low. and how you gonna shape rails? plus, the board will move all over the place. go watch some videos first.

 

Just ask the legend RS himself, he'll tell ya!

 

I say break out the sawhorses, grab one of your dad's sureforms, and have at it. I would make some of those junky stands with buckets, and let her rip.

Worst case, you make a mess and a turd. I do that daily.

My buddy did this in his parents basement many years ago. It came out decent. He picked an odd shape that none of us would normally ride (old school single fin), which was clever because no one really knows how good or bad the thing is. It sure looked cool in our apartment, and he loved it when a girl would ask about it, and he could go into how he hand made it blah blah blah.

He had someone else glass it though. He figured the smell of resin permeating through his parents house probably wouldn't be too pleasing.

Revealing my age here, but he did this following the steps outlined on a VHS tape from John Carpenter on how to build a surfboard. Pretty good video for teh time, but I'm sure now you can find lots of vids on youtube now that would work.

 

blank prices have doubled since then. glassing too. sh!t greenlight will charge you over $100 plus shipping. probably looking at $150 at least.

paying someone to glass it is prob the best thing but get ready to pay $200+. and it will suck if you hack it out like a caveman. the stands coming out of buckets thing is more work and ****tier outcome then doing it right. it's like those dudes that spray-paint their own car and claim it works fine. good luck with that.

just take a trip to greenlight first and let them teach you in a real shaping room.

 

i guess what im trying to say is, do it right and you can make boards that will work. close-tolerance blanks, templates you can print out, supply shops online, tons of available info out there... it's not out of reach to make something worthwhile a few boards into it now-a-days

you want to pass the time? how much time? you off work for just a few days? or do you live with your parents and don't work? if the latter is the case, move out for a while and go be surf bum somewhere with consistent waves. you'll pass lots of time.

 

hilarious and true

i have a few friends who "shape boards" their boards are awful. if you enjoy it and have fun making a ****ty quiver why not but dont expect it to be any good

 

Good, heavy racks will be your biggest step toward a decent result. Pass some time by building a good rack you can use to shape, and build T stands you can screw into them for glassing. You want them heavy... unless you're bolting them to the floor. This is good advice for a novices, hobbiests, and wannabes alike. Build 'em heavy, strong, with the right sized "yoke" and pad 'em up good.

I wouldn't worry too much about lighting... you probably don't have the skills yet to fine tune anyway.

Keep your shape simple... flat to vee bottom, use the natural rocker of the blank, and don't overshape (probably the number one newbie mistake).

A hand saw, a mini trim plane, sanding block with one side padded, a surform, 60/80/100/150 grit paper, and a cheap electric planer... If you don't have one, I recommend the Bosch for a starter; affordable and decent.

Use Epoxy... safer, slower, and no smell. You'll need all the "slower" you can get. Don't waste too much and you'll not have to spend much more than poly.

For sanding, you'll want a variable speed sander/grinder/polisher type machine, but you can get away with a good orbital, or just get nice big Popeye arms and block it out by hand!

Glass on your fins. No jigs, routers, etc. Tack 'em up and if they don't come out right, snap 'em off and try again.

Also... consider taking the Brookdale class, if you're in the area. Four nights and you get your hands in there, building a board start to finish. Plus handouts and a design guide. Worth the investment, IMO.

 

BCN, this is the only time you've added any coolness to the forum. Congrats!

Looks like Atlantico and other's may have tried and didn't knock it out of the park the first time and quit.... so what? I bet any board you make will float at least for a while. I just finished my second hollow wooden surfboard last night. It's easily 10x better than my first one. Next one will be better than that one.

There's a stigma with surfing that if you're not riding the most highly tuned board with space age composites that the guy next to you is riding too, you're a kook wasting your time. That's cool if you want to pay attention to that. Do you ride in contests? Will you be riding this board in contests? Probably no to both questions. Just make one and let Atlantico fight with Emass, that's what they do best.

If you're nervous about it, get a beat up longboard and chop it up into a mini or something. This mini craze going around is making all the weirdest boards look like the coolest ones.

If you're off by a couple cm or even inches just tell the fool that mentions it you made an asymmetrical board to help you with your frontside air reverses.

 

This kid sounds like a naysaying kook too.

 

Lastly, listen to this guy.

 

yes, LBCrew gave me some critical advice on my log. Turned out really well. For the guy who says it will turn out ****ty, that is just ignorant. You get out what you put in.

 

exactly. i'd still go for the 'better' lighting. it's so cheap and easy to set up.

harbor freight has $30 planers. usblanks has the best close tolerance blanks out there.

use resin research ce with fast hardener to lam. workable for an hour and 3hr till cure. the slow is too slow. 6hrs or something. the foam will suck too much resin. you'll get dry lam.

take that class LBcrew suggests you'll at least know what your in for.

 

?? fight with Emass? where do you get that?

just trying to give dude advice. half my family works in production shops and i take working vacations out
there all the time. hand shaped somewhere around 500-600 boards and laminated prob more then 2000 in my life. i grew up in surfboard factories. i know what im talking about here a little more then some guy on board #2.

 

you're right, pro, if you can't do it perfectly on the first try, why even bother....

 

yes, if you can't even build proper racks then why bother. setup is the easiest part. if it's to much trouble or too hard to take an hour to build racks then how's he gonna shape a board? come on...really?

 

download the free version of aku shaper. you can design your outline, print it out and transfer it to a template. use thin masonite. this is the easiest thing you'll do. this way is much cleaner and more efficient. besides that... other then LBcrew...don't listen to the donkey's chiming in on here. go ask people on swaylocks if the internet is gonna be your guide. some of the dudes posting on there own glass shops, are legend shapers, etc and know whats up. SI has too many 'just learned to surf' dorks like clemsonSurf (from charlestown, SC?!?) and leethestud(nice name).

 

don't have clear pics of my old one's. but you can sorta see.... built these in 30min tops when i was waiting for steel bolt in racks. racks have to be connected and heavy as you can get them. build a base on the bottom out of 2x4's and put cinder blocks on it.