Shaping

Back at it today. Getting ready to foil and start honing in on my thickness. Just getting the rocker just right and making measurements every 6 inches or so to check symmetry.

 

Just had my first go with the planer. I can't imagine not having one. First tom foam off the bottom. Bit of a learning curve with the planer. Had some uneven spots. Cleaned the all up and made sure everything was level throughout. The deck i did pretty damn good. Started figuring out the technique. Was able to plan smooth and even except for one little spot where i goofed. Cleaned that up. Im now at my 2.5 thickness. Got to foil the nose a bit. Maybe the tail. Got to take some measurements. Once i get this all squared away it's bottom contours and rails.

 

Haha it's actually helping me to keep track of what I'm doing, what i need to do, all that.

Just finished the concaves. Single to double with vee out the tail. Can't get any good pictures that show the contours well, maybe after glassing. On to the rails....

 

All finished for the day. Finished the rails. Hard to get a good pictures of what's really going on but here's what i got.....

So boards basically done being shaped. Was going to seal today but decided to come back tomorrow with fresh eyes to just go over the rails and make sure i don't have any high or low spots. I think i got it pretty good. But after going at it for about 6 hours i figured it'll be better to step away and come back with fresh eyes before calling the shaping process done.

This has been super fun. Not so much hard, just tedious. Honestly im just stoked its coming out as good as it is. It's definitely a first attempt at shaping but better than i expected.

 

Thanks barry, means alot coming from you haha. When i first started i was like "ahhhh shit, going with a diamond tail may of been a bad idea". I don't even own a diamond tail for reference. But after being into it and squaring things up, i think it came out pretty good. I dig it

 

Thanks buddy. Im pretty stoked on it. About to head back to my "shaping bay", going to give everything the once over and make any adjustments. Seal top and bottom with the dap lightweight stuff LB suggested. That stuff really is light, the full bucket feels like nothing. Might start glassing the bottom as well. Got some things to do with wifey today so we will see how im doing on time. Either way, i plan on stopping in after work all week to get the next steps done. Glass bottom, glass top, hotcoat, fin box and leash plug install, sand. Should be wrapping this thing up somewhere between Friday- Sunday.

 

Everything's good, just sealed the bottom. Letting that dry and going to deal the deck.

Going to take this down time to comment on the experience. For anyone whos interested in shaping, or just curious. Preparation and research. This helped me a ton. Like i said earlier iv been wanting to grey into this for a long time. Iv done my research. And it paid off big time. At no point was i confused as to what the next step was i was able to just go. Greenlight has a whole "how to make a surfboard" page/tutorial. I suggest reading through it. Breaks down everything and makes the whole process waaaaaaaay less intimidating. Big ups to LB as well. He sent me a bunch of good info. Essentially it's exactly what i read on greenlight, but in a much easier format perfect for a quick reference or just to visualize without reading pages upon pages of information. Second is don't skimp on tools. You could probably get it done with just a few small tools, but man.....i splurged on every shaping tool i could find and it was still tedious. Although i havnt perfected the art of using a planer, it saved me from alot of headache. And lastly it's just not rushing, measuring constantly, basically just being anal. I am NOT that guy. I am a handy guy, i do HVAC/R as a profession as well as some electrical and plumbing work. Im always the guy closing one eye, squinting, saying "yeaaaaah that looks straight". Well i had to put on that anal hat. Trust your eyes, but measure measure measure constantly.

The guys like LB, mitchell, and all the others making quality boards..... nothing but respect for them. They have a skill. There's alot of work that goes into the whole process. I think i did alright, and i think i did well enough to be motivated to keep at it. But i have a whole new respect for guys making there own boards, quality boards, with consistency. Alot of work for one board, and it'll take quite a few boards to really get the hang of this.

 

Here's the last picture i got. This is before sealing and fixing any wobbles. Next pictures will come once im glassing

 

Nah no glass ons for this one. Just a straight up single fin box. Was going to do a glass on but decided against it....i like moving the fin around in the box. Dont trust myself to get it all right on a first attempt at shaping so figured the freedom to move the fin would be a good idea

 

Glassing has begun. Two things....i sort of ignored some warnings. Not because i didn't trust the advice. Just because sometimes i enjoy learning the hard way/ experimenting.

1) I used the red tint. I was warned it would look pink. I honestly don't care about color too much so i didn't really take the time to make sure it'd be red..... well it's not super pink, but more pink then red. Lesson learned

2) i decided against doing a cutlap. No real good reason. I wanted the whole board A color.... not necessarily the same color/shade. I know LB said if i freelap it the rails would be darker or somthing. Well i believe him. But like i said, at this point nailing color isn't my priority. So i freelapped it. Half experiment, let's see what it looks like.

And 3) i used quick kick resin. Supposed to have flip times between 30-90 min depending on temp. I believe those numbers are right. Doesn't give me much time to work. It went quick! Maybe 10-15 min tops. I think it went well.

So i laid the 4oz glass out. Cut it all up and made my relief cuts. Mixed up the resin with a splash of color. Threw additive f in, hardner, and mixed four a few min. The whole process went smooth i think. I never felt flustered. Towards the end i did notice it was gelling a bit or starting to, but i had only a few more inches of lap to go. I don't see any air bubbles. One thing i am not sure about. I have a few spots that are white. I tried to saturate them as much as i could. Thing is, they were all wet with resin. That's for sure. I was anal about that. Not sure what that's about. Hoping someone can chime in about that. Not saturated enough? Just my pink color throwing me off? If i didn't have color i would have no hesitation about whether or not i saturated all the glass. Doesn't mean id be right haha. But yeah. I think i did ok for a first try. Slower working resin might of been nice but it was fine. If anything the fact that i had JUST enough resin made it harder than the quick kick. Anyway.... this is what it's looking like