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.

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.

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.