On Closer Look...

Australia Day - gotta love a few days off work!

I was planning on getting some glass and resin and going for it, but I had some visits from a few mates and got to look at the board with fresh eyes.

Among the things I had overlooked in my excitement are:
- one side of the board near the first foot from the nose is about a half inch wider than the other side.
- one side of the tail is about a quarter inch wider than the other.
- the concave is a little uneven
- there is an uneven part on the mid rail on one side.
- the stringer is sitting up a little too much and needs to be planed back.
- the nose is sharp enough to be a lethal weapon, so I need to round it off a little.

I was going to blow them off and just go glassing, but in the few days I had to reflect on it, I have decided I want to get this as good as I can, so I'll get back out with the rasp and paper to fix those things up.

Finishing

So I go out today to tidy up the rails a little bit more and while I'm sanding, the friggin' tables fall over, sending the board tail-first into the studio wall. I compressed one of the swallow tails about a quarter inch, and gauged 2 bumps out of the deck. I was pretty pissed.

I got it all back on the legs and made sure it was all stable again, then worked all the rails and the deck to try and remove the 'dings'. I slowly finessed the board up and down to the best I could. I am pretty happy with how it is looking.

I still need to work on the tail. as the stringer is sticking out in an ugly fashion.
Tomorrow I'm off to buy a small file from the hardware store to try and file it back a bit.

Sanding

Thats about for the photos until this semi-finished state.

I was so consumed with the board that I spent about 2-3 hours straight sanding and shaping it. Once the base rails were done and semi finished, I turned over to the top rails. I took a large chunk out of the foam lining up the side rail mark and the first deck mark. This was approx 30degrees. I did this in a circular motion, planing one side of the board, then the other etc..,

Next I planed mid way between that cut and the deep deck marking. (marking got from jig mentioned in previous post). Again I worked in a similar fashion to above - in a circular motion around the board.

These 2 cuts left me with an idea for how the deck rails look. I took to it with the block sander and evened everything up, while making them rounder and rounder. The rails were kind of thin lines rather than smooth rails, but it really showed me how the board was going to look.

I kept on sanding and worked on smoothing out the rails more and more, all the time checking for symmetry and similar feels on both sides. Each time I picked up the board it felt better and better.

Finally, when I was happy with the feel of the rails and the look of the board, I took a sheet of 120grit sandpaper and wrapped it on the rail, slowly dragging it in several light passes until the rails blended seamlessly between bottom/top, deck/rail, bottom/rail.

At this stage I also cut the tail and refined it too.

All was looking sweet.

Sorry no pics.

On Rail

So onto the rails.

Jim gave me a great little jig he made up, with foam cutouts glued to a piece of timber at the correct distance for the rails (upper and lower, deck curves). I went around the board and marked up the rails on all edges so I had guides of where and how much to shave off.

I marked a clear 2.5 ft from the tail to allow for a knife edge rail. I marked this point on the rails as DO NOT SAND PAST HERE. Then I marked another grad line approx 6 inches away. this was to be the gradual transition from Hard to soft.

I started with the rails on the bottom and stopped briefly to take a photo of the rail profile. Then I kept motoring.

Be Square

Next I sanded the deck and base square again, so I could draw accurate rails on. At this stage, I got well buried in the passion of the board and started to feel like I was sculpting something magical. The use of sanding blocks on foam really feels organic.

With the outline and rockers cut, the board started to feel like it was coming alive.

Again, I was super excited, so I kept on working, no taking photos - sorry.

Now we're rocking

After speaking to a mate of mine, I discovered he had some aesome tools that would come in handy. I hassled him into lending me some of them. Among them, I got a rocker profiler tool and his Al Merrick Fishcuit to copy. So I set about working out the rocker, then transfering it to the blank. It turns out the blank's rocker was pretty close, but I had to shave some off the tail and mid-nose area.

I'm afraid once the planer came out I couldn't stop, so not too many more images between this and the next.

You can see here the deck after I had planed it down to suit the rocker. I red a bit about using the planer, and knew it was important to work all around the board, not just up and down the stringer.

I planed the stringer, then took a layer of foam to match on either side, gradually working to the rails until it was one even layer of foam removal. This kept the board close to square.

You can see the finished result of this planing in the image at the bottom.

Doubts

So after looking at heaps of boards at patagonia, quiksilver, ripcurl and Base, I am thinking my board may well be too short. Perhaps I should have gone for 5'6? Anyway, It is cut now. I found another 5'6 board with 20 1/4 width, and that got me thinking I've made a small-en.

I have just drawn up a rocker template, based on the template in the link below and from checking out other boards and decided that the rocker on the blank is pretty good. I will use this rocker and shape the nose and tail to suit an al merrick-type shape.

I go about drawing and cutting out cardboard templates for the rocker and drawing them on the blank. This gives me inspiration again - seeing the profile shape on the foam.

And hey if it's too short Jasper gets a long board for his birthday.

The Old Rocker

So now I need to get a rocker template. I scoured google and found this template, but I'm not so sure about it, so I drove myself off to Quiksilver in Torquay with my trusty iPhone. I grabbed a business card on the way out and marked half inch marks on it for scale.

After a lengthy chat to the boffin selling boards, I managed to lay the board flat on the carpet and take a few shots of the nose and tail rocker:





Now I've got to try to make a decent shape. While I was looking at other boards, I started to see things I hadn't even noticed before. Things like how very different rails are. From Boxy to Knife-sharp, and where than transition begins on the tail. I could spot boards with dodgy glass jobs and others. Really eye opening.

Squaring the rails

Using a small rasp, I started grading the rails down to clean up the crooked saw cuts and to make them square. I realised it is important to work in a complete motion along the rail, after I focused on a small section and lost the curve of the rail. Luckily this was only a small part of the rail and I picked it up before I had taken away too much foam, so was able to correct it. So now all the rails are square with the base of the board and in the profile of the board. I have decided to leave the tail uncut until I resolve what I am going to do with it.





I'm pretty stoked with the general outline now, and I want to race on to the next part of shaping, but I will need to do a bit more research into finding out the right dimensions for the rocker and profile sections...

Get the handsaw

Knowing full well I will make mistakes with the planer and second guessing the outline shape, I started to cut the outline from the foam blank with a regular handsaw. I make sure I leave about 10mm outside the outline. This will leave more work for later, but it will allow me to get the rail edges truly square with the deck and base surface. A must for measuring accurately.













Cutting the foam is a good feeling, the saw goes through the foam like butter - as you would expect. The saw is squeezed with pressure as you cut the curve from the foam block, and I try to keep a constant pressure on to cut it in a smooth curve.



















For the whole, this worked out well, and I have enough room to sure up the rails. I decided not to cut the tail out yet until I am definite on the shape of it. I can now get a sense of how the board looks next to my normal short board:

What's a shaping rack?

So after seeing the shape on the blank I get super excited. Now I want to cut it out and get the planer out. But what should I cut it on? I thought that leaning it on a workbench might not be best for the soft foam, so after a bit of reading on the net, I worked out I need to make some shaping racks. I found some good plans here for a temporary set of stands and set off to the timber yard.

I bought the following:
2 buckets
a bag of cement (quick set)
3 lengths at 2400mm of 2x4" structural pine
1 length at 1200mm of 1x4" dressed pine
4 x L brackets & screws
Some wood glue
and I salvaged some wood screws from my shed.

I finished assembling the stands in about 2 hours.

I then stapled on some carpet underlay on the flat ends and then glued (with Nail Bond cement) strips of carpet to make a sway to hold the board on it's edge. Here's a completed pic of the stands:

Positioning the template and marking it up

Because my blank had a slight rocker in it already, I positioned the blank in a spot where I felt I wanted the bulk of the thickness to be. Then I carefully aligned the template with the stringer and outlined it with a HB pencil.

Creating the shape - cardboard

Once I was happy with the outline, I printed it out via my Roland Stika Cutter onto a large sheet of adhesive material. This gave me a pretty good shape that was true to my design but, at full size. Then I stuck this cutout down onto some 1000gsm (2mm) cardboard sheets and slowly cut out the shape. This gave me a template for the board:

Creating a Shape

In thinking about the board I wanted to shape, I wanted to get a good hybrid-type fish which allowed for errors in shaping, yet still worked reasonably well in smaller waves. I decided to base a shape on a fishcuit-type design.

Given my normal shorty shortboard is 6'0 x 19 1/4 x 2 5/16 I settle on a board with the following dimensions:
5'4 x 20" x 2 3/4

To start the process going, I created a digital file of the outline (in Illustrator), which allowed me to play with the curves and shapes till they look kind of right:

Buying a Blank

With a leap of enthusiasm and a a lead foot, I raced in to Martini's in Geelong to pick out a blank. With a large variety of blanks, I picked out a 6'5 fish blank with a 3/16" stringer. You can see it here.

Thinking about Shaping

So, with the summer swell patterns approaching, plenty of daylight and a lack of a board suited to small waves, I have decided to try my hand at shaping a new fish. With only a vague idea of the process involved in shaping a board, I have decided to dive in the deep end and paddle my way out.

Though I am highly optimistic of creating a new board that surfs well, I am also aware that it will be a challenge and could fail dismally.

So here goes...