i get most of my supplies at home depot. Fiberglass, cloth, paint, gloss coat, foam etc.. It is not the top notch quality materials for making a modern perfomance shortboard, but it gets the job done if you take your time and practice. Try making fishes, retro type boards where you have more room for error on the first few boards.
foam you can get foam at home depot?? i got all my stuff from http://www.foamez.com/ it was all pretty good quality but i found it really hard to shape. well the actually work is easy but getting it right is very time consuming, plus i had a tiny space to work in, and it was cold out. you also need alot of weird tools that you can get from home depot for pretty cheap though.....like a saw, and this thing called a fred tool...im not joking. anyone else ever try shaping and have any success??
yea its 3'x2"x14' syrofoam..cheapest way you can goi cut it in half and lightly glue together. I would NOT recommend buying the foam, just buy a blank from the websites listed above, where its already there for you. (Way better quality) I just get the syrofoam for free off my Dads jobsite so i have more to mess around with. Good Luck
Hey, has anyone tried one of those kits off that site? Or would it be better just to get as blank and get the rest seperatly?
I bought a bunch of blanks (same shipping price to ship 6 as it was to ship 1) and the fin plugs and fins from foam-ez back before clark foam closed. It was really fun but super frustrating at times. Watch the shaping 101 dvd with john carper..he made it look so easy, then i went out and shaped a mutant! Foam-ez is the ticket though, they have lots of little tool sspecifically for shaping that Home Depot doesn't have. Luckily there is a resin place down here in s. jersey so i bought it there.. Its called Mahogany, its in mays landing. Oh and one more thing, get good respirators and masks..its toxic work.
Shaping needs research! B4 u shape, research untill your brain fills up and explodes. I am very intuitive and impulsive, but that type of tempermant does not work for this craft! I reccomend printing every page of this out and using it as your shaping bible. It is to the T! http://www.surfersteve.com/introduction.htm I have been shaping for quite a while and I have a degree in the arts, so crafts are my thing. But this guy speaks in a language that is easy to understand and its totaly free. Get your materials from: www.fiberglasssupply.com NOT HOME DEPOT OR LOWES. That is the dumbest idea I have ever heard! Save your money and by the right tools and the right supplies. Make sure you have the PROPER protection. The only glass that I will ever use is called ResinResearch. It is awesome and the price is competitive. www.fiberglasssupply.com delivers quickly. (By the way if you are thinking it, I am not surfer steve) Don't jump into this untill you memorize the shaping bible from surfer steve. The reason is, the steps go quick and you can not stop and read directions when you are laminating with gloves and resin covered fingers...GOT ME? Do your homework and save for quality gear and you will suprise your self. I am teaching some friends in Delaware this coming January how to do everything. Its fun. We sit around, drink beers, skate the half pipe and shape on a rack next the pipe. If anyones interested in the sussex area I'll help you get started. I am not a pro. I surf Hi-performance shortboards and when I shape I make eggs, fishes, discs, longboards to mess around with and create artwork on (They are my blank canvases!!!). When it comes to a board that I need to trust at big dumps, I am not trusting my own shaping AT ALL!!! I have several ways to paint boards also!
I read about the first 1/3 of Surfer Steves book. It has a lot of good advice. I,m a cabinetmaker, and plan to make a balsa board as soon as the blank arrives. Steve doesn't appear to talk about balsa, but I assume that most of the design considerations for foam will hold. Does anyone have experience with balsa?
does ne1 know how to make wod boards or where you can get the wood and what kind of wood you need for a shortboard
I built a wood longboard out of a kit from grain surfboards, it came out pretty sweet. I dont think wood lends itself to performance shortboards, but they have some cool fish shapes and retro board kits too. The grain boards use cedar, which is sorta weird, my board is about 24 pounds, its a 10' log though. They use a system thats more like boat-building (which is also a hobby of mine), you build a skeleton frame on top of a rocker table, and then plank the skeleton with thin cedar boards, then shape down the final product you want + put a very light glassing on top. The finished product is very nearly hollow inside. I only use the grain board in knee-waist mushburgers (the rest of the time i shortboard), but it works great in that so far, wood is a very different feel from anything else.
been building balsa skin / eps foam boards for a couple years. Love them. I learned how to do most of my shaping and glassing from this site. www.swaylocks.com Its a huge online forum for surfboard builders. I started out buying pre-cut blanks from online sites, got tired of the costs and quality. Hotwire cutting out blanks from blocks of foam is the way to go, i pay about 10 bucks a blank now. Its really time consuming to do the initial set up, but if your going to make a bunch of boards its the way to go. Home depot foam is a waste of time. I order my balsa wood from this site http://www.specializedbalsa.com/products/index.php
My little brother makes hollow wooden surfboards. I am not going to give his # out on the net but private message me and I can help you out!
I would recommend against kits altogether. Do a bit of research, and buy the blank, resin, cloth, and fin system separately. Don't pay someone else to do your thinking for you. As Oblovesaid, these guys are friendly, have a great catalogue, unbeatable prices, and have all the components you need to make a board. http://www.fiberglasssupply.com
Greenlight is the place to get your shaping supplies on the East Coast. If you're looking to make your own board, why pay crazy shipping charges across the country? We stock blanks, fiberglass, Resin Reseach Epoxy, ProBox Fin Systems, tools, etc. Of course you can make a board out of Greenlight bamboo materials and methods we developed as well. Complete kits were created specifically for first time shapers and come with all the materials, tools, comprehensive video instruction, and online support. We even have downloadable templates to make it easy. Check it all out here: www.greenlightsurfsupply.com Feel free to contact us anytime with questions ~Brian www.greenlightsurfsupply.com
Making boards ... I have made a few. You can learn a lot if you go to www.swaylocks.com.It is an international surfboard design and construction forum and the people on the forum will be happy to help you. Concerning materials you have to be careful. The polyester resin ( like Silmar ) used on surfboards is water clear. The stuff at home depot is the color of gasoline and stays that way after it sets up. Makes the board look 10 years old immediately. You might be able to buy a gallon of Silmar poly from a local surfboard builder. Also if you use styrofoam ( EPS ) you HAVE to use epoxy resin because polyester will melt it. Poly can only go on a polyurethane blank ( although epoxy can go on either ). Design wise there are subtleties of rocker that can make or break a board. You can make something that looks like a surfboard and even comes out with a satisfying glass job only to find out that it just doesn't work very well. That being said, if you get the right material it's fun to make your own board.
Hey Ab, No offense to most of the others above, but a kit would probably be your best bet. If you never shaped a board don't have tools, info., etc. the greenlight kit most likely would be your best bet in light of their package. Buying from foamez is fine, but their kits don't include tools plus you have to think about shipping...GL is located in philly which is relatively close to you and you could just pick it up. just my 2 cents....
balsa wood hello gentleman, if you need balsa wood please contact us. For now, we just can supply for size 1mm,1,5mm,2mm,2,5mm and 3mm. Because we don't have cutting machine to cut other size. But if you really need balsa with various size (stick) we can use sawmill factory and your minimal order must be 1 container. The price for 1mm=USD0.50, 1.5mm=USD0.55, 2mm = USD0.60, 2.5mm=USD0.65, 3mm=USD0.70 If you need balsa block, we can supply with size 4cm X 10cm X 915cm-950cm (price is usd450/cbm fob Surabaya), because Our government regulation just allow export if the block wood has thickness x width less than 4000mm. arecadeiziagrindo@yahoo.com Edit/Delete Message
If you're interested in building a hollow wooden board, check out Rich Blundell's Tree to Sea forum: http://www.grainsurf.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=20&sid=b678d033a9799fd65ae60f1b1c12197a I'm building a board from Rich's 9 foot "Wing" plans. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rickward/sets/72157609842692503/
