Glassy but not calm

Nice morning this morning!

I thought I'd whack the glass on the bottom layer and let it cure while Jsper played at Creche. All stoked, I mixed 450ml Laminating resin with about 8 ml Catalyst. Looking good - gave it a stir and waiting a minute then poured it on the board. I squeegied all the base pretty well and went to wet the rails to pull them down and the resin went hard. The pot started cooking - literally smoking.

To make maters worse I didn't have gloves on (dumb ass) and I got resin all over both hands. So while I frantically mixed up a new batch of resin and tried to stick down the rails, disaster. The rails look like a dogs breakfast. Next I see that the first batch of resin is now nearly on fire (dark yellow with smoke coming from it). My concerns turn immediately to my hands - covered in the stuff. I run them under cold water for ages, then add in a little soap and thank god they wash up ok. I had visions of tried to call the poisons hotline with sticky figures and burning red hot hands.

So, I think I basically fucked the board! The bottom looks ok, and is pretty smooth, but the rails are a mess. I will take a photo and show you (if anyone's watching) and then I guess I'll try to trim what I can and sand what I can and hopefully get it back to a decent state.

Spewing, because the board was looking so good.

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.