Home Made Board Thread
yep have done that too, MDF template & router. My router bit is not long enough!
but it cuts *so* nice
I also find if I exactly copy the outline desired on a template, the template sees the router cut a little away from where it should at nose and tail - no biggie, the board is thinnest there and easy to carve that foam down to true outline. I use router in it's square base for stability, so I guess the difference comes from that.
Edit: the maths: think of the square base as a line, intersecting a curve. At any point it would cut the derivative of the curve dy/dx.
oh yeah, the rocker machine I built when young (no internet: had to design and build it using only WL's description in Tracks!) is nearly 28 years old now, and still cuts perfect to the milimetre. Bottom and deck rockers suddenly got consistent!
Highlight in recent years was putting chambered paulownia blank - that we made ourselves by clamping lengths - on it and cutting surfaces 100% perfect prior to shaping of rails, bottom contours with my son.
That stuff is just so much nicer on the human body to work with, and you can walk it through the house, haha.
In the Factory with Pieter
A Great Insta page
Talk of Swaylocks possibly folding.
It seems as though some people are ok with all that knowledge just disappearing.
Makes no sense to me.
https://www.swaylocks.com/forum/110183/what-does-swaylocks-need?page=8
Cripes, that would be like the Burning of the Library of Alexandria, of back yard board shaping.
Tips from Big Pieter
Hmm washing hands in acetone, no mask, but still lovely work how's running the hand down the rail to wrap the lap loved it.
Fark i cringed at the Acetone hand washing....its Evil shit
Great Home business setup.putting out old school work...love a good Gloss coat
Boards arent Cheap but def getting Top Quality...he only likes to do 2 per week..
https://pieter.com.au/
velocityjohnno wrote:Cripes, that would be like the Burning of the Library of Alexandria, of back yard board shaping.
I agree: I say without irony that it'd be a loss. Such a weird and wonderful place, even in concept: an early 2000's web forum, of not just surfers, but shapers, and not just shapers, but backyarders. That's a three way Venn diagram with a very small space of intersection, you'd think: a subculture of a subculture of a subculture.
I made a separate post asking about it (and so I apologise if this constitutes spam), but I'd love to know what the ultimate decision was about the future of the site. Caus' right now, it's down.
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Indeed the optimal foam mix recipe seems secretive. From what i can find, blank manufacturers are using a high pressure mixing gun to pour the foam into the mold for the best possible mixing, but also for practicality. These high pressure mixing gun machines are way out of my budget and only make sense for large productions.
So I'll probably never be able to acheive the same results as an industrial blank.
However the blanks im making are plenty for my needs. The foam density is evenly spread out throughout the enitre blank without bubbles (by using cooking wax realease paper instead of saran wrap, seems to let the air out). The blanks sands as good as a normal blank. Once i sand the crust off the blank, the texture of the foam is almost identical to a normal Blank. Adding a white pigment to the mix makes the blank almost white.
The mold weighs around 350 kilos, took 3 days to make, and cost me around 250$ in materials. Once the mold is made, the process of making the blank is fast, 10 minute prep work, 2 minutes of mixing and pouring, and 10 minutes of curing. I can start shaping it 20 minutes after it is poured. I could technically pop out a blank every 30 minutes. Right now a blank is costing me 40$ instead of $150+ if i import them (I live in a carribean island with high import and tax fees).
As Mako224 mentioned you can select a variety of foam density to your liking. Now, i'm trying to figure out if just by increasing the amount of liquid into the mold, does it increase hardness of the foam? techinically it increases density but does it also change the hardness of the foam? for example if i poured 1 liter of 2lbs density foam into a mold, would i get the same density/ hardness as 1 liter of 4lbs into the same mold? Both blanks would weight the same, at first it seems like the 4lbs density foam would be harder but the 2lbs foam expands twice as much, so that should create more pressure in the mold which should help with density/hardness... ? So thats where im at now. Like stonerburner said "precise mixing volume and internal mold pressure are ingredients in the secret sauce"
The mold i made was to create kitesurf blanks which is why it is so small, I would love to make a bigger one for surfboards, however the mold would be bigger and a lot heavier. Something like that is very hard to move once made so it has to be created where is going to stay, not sure if i want another massive box full of concrete in my basement right now.
Another Fine Vid from Mr Shrednaught over the West
FCS Plug Fix ~ The Proper Way
udo wrote:Another Fine Vid from Mr Shrednaught over the West
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfczJzBJFQ8
Yeah udo, his vids are good value.. very informative. Welcoming to questions too.
Add your 'Stretch' Deck Groove
Ingenious fix, stringer will be a lot thinner in the central part of the board...
= Flex..
I do paulownia over EPS for myself after talking to Markus https://www.instagram.com/kingbillysurfcraft/ in the water last year thought I would knock up some twins with channels surfed the 6'2" today actually did what its suppose to yew.
Farkn Beautiful.. Ifocus the Mastercraftsman.
I focus wrote:
That looks incredible. Well done!
Nice work Ifocus! I've been doing something similar.
Nice work gents. Mighty fine craftsmanship.
More Build Pics and more Info please.....
Here's one I'm working on at the moment. Midlength twin, EPS core, Paulownia/cedar skin. Doesn't have the rails on it yet.
Hey Tiges, how’s it going?
Make me a 7’0 Bonzer 5 with just that outline. Deep Bonza concaves, glassed in side bites in that real purty wood!!!
Come on. How much?
Talk to me Seeds, you've got my number haven't ya?
Yeah mate. I still got it.
It would be an indulgence.
That rail less one, so far, above. What’s the dimensions on that one? You’re calling it a midlength.
And the channeled twin atop that?
6'8" X 21" X 2 3/4". Both the same.
Quick question for you Tiger, if you are happy to share. Do you have the bead for the hard edge of the channel in place when you vacuum bag the skins on or do you do them separately ?
Hey blackers. If by bead you are referring to the edge/wall of the channels, I do them after. Pre shape all contours into core. Then I have different contour mats and negative moulds to form the contours/channels. Hope I'm making sense.
Ace, thanks that makes perfect sense. Beautiful looking boards.
9 years on
https://www.swellnet.com/comment/310521
udo wrote:9 years on
https://www.swellnet.com/comment/310521
Unkind but amusing none the less.
Bit of a look for those interested of the channel detail.
Tiger, that must take some seriously time consuming cocking around. Nice!
Bit of 6 channel sexiness.
That looks bloody nice Tiger, those channels look perfectly cut... what dims?
Wow, looks absolutely insane Tiger, what's the construction?
Thanks guys. It's 6'6" X 19 3/4" X 2 5/8". EPS core, Paulownia/cedar skins, XPS rails.
Thats really impressive Tiger did you laminate the channels?
A 6.0 twin I did recently Paulownia over EPS, Paulownia rails only a 4 channel and my 3rd channel board attempt.
That one looks mad Ifocus, really neat. What do you mean by laminate the channels? This board will be glassed with 4oz both sides, if that's what you mean.
Yeah I normally use 2oz on the bottom 4oz on the deck, I find 2oz doesn't really sit that well on the channels not that 4oz is much better.
My channel glassing is still a work in progress will you round those edges off and rebuild after the glass goes on?
Show us your home made boards! Here's my first three from right to left (took me about 2 years from first to last):
Board 1 5'10"x21x2 3/4 PU/PE horrible cut lap gouges, heaps of volume, I rode it pretty much exclusively for the 12 months after making it. I'd still be riding it now but it's out of action with a busted fin.
Board 2 5'10"x20x2 1/2 PU/PE ugh I seem to have a habit of doing something the second time much worse than the first. Super boxy rails. I haven't ridden this one much. Cut from a fish blank so it's got a very flat rocker.
Board 3 5'8"x19x2 1/2 PU/Epoxy with an acrylic fade brushed on. I still ride this one. Again, this one is cut from a fish blank. I tried to increase tail rocker and shape in double concaves through the fins and a vee off the tail. It technically has all of these features but at the confluence of the three it's got these weird hip bone curves right where the side fins are facing outwards from the bottom. I used peel ply for this one and a foam roller. No sanding and you can see the squeegee lines in the hot coat.
Board 4 5'2"x19x2 1/2 I re-shaped a factory second machine shape that was very kindly given to me when I when to buy a marko blank. Stringerless EPS with two layers of 4oz on the bottom and three layers on the deck. I used peel ply again this time with a squeegee and a roller for the rails. This is my go to board (or the fade thruster). It's super light and super fast and realistically it's pretty uncommon to get waves on the GC that this board can't handle. I hand sanded the rails and bottom using wet sand paper and left the deck unsanded.
Board 6 5'10"x19x2 1/3 I'm currently building. I've had the machine shaped blank for about 18 months but now with the lock down I've got a pretty good excuse to finish it. First time using the Surf Flex resin from Sanded and I'm pretty impressed with it. Coming back the following day after laminating it was really easy to cut through the glass with a razor so I reckon I might attempt a cut lap again on Board 7 or 8. This will be my most "conventional" short board. Not sure how I'm going to find riding it as I'm not used to having to generate speed. Definitely the best shape out of the boards I've done and I'll be almost certainly getting my next boards machine shaped.
I'm finding the glassing to be the part of the process I'm most interested in. All of my boards have mistakes and bubbles and insects in the glass. I'd love to be able to do this more often but need to work out how to make it cheaper / get more time. I reckon once I'm past board 10 I might be less sentimental about them and will probably start trying to sell them used to help fund the next one.