Few Fun Waves … that’s what it’s all about for me.
In the process of doing the tail on the ‘forty one two’ I went back and looked closely at the tail on the board i was using as my guide. I used the yellow plastic saucer from my daughters tea set when did he ‘forty one’, but wanted to double check.
So, I layed the ‘shaping tool’ on the board I was copying …
Yep, pretty close, so I used that again.
With the machine cut for the ‘forty one two’ not here for the weekend … my gidget and I, took the spare time to add some colour to the “jazz” which is the first board I made, and which was actually made for her … when I made it, the colour and artwork were low priority as it was more about getting into the process of making, glassing, etc ..
Anyway, my gidget wanted some colour, so this is what we’ve ended up with on her board … it’s all water based kids finger paint straight onto the finished board … we have a few spots to touch up and then I’ll spray it with some clear acrylic from a spray can … it’s her design and colour choice.
While doing some research into different designs, and in this case, the vee … as I have said before, I subscribe to a R&D philosophy (i.e. Rip Off and Duplicate) … no sense trying to reinvent the wheel, right?
So, I was looking at old posts on Swaylocks and came accross this thread and in it Maurice Cole, makes this comment:
” … I have used shaping machines since the beginning and have over a 1000 programs that are the backbone of my design work … and I could not do any design work without it … I like to blow up a design so I might cut 3″ off tail, change railshape mess with concave etc … I always have a starting point that I can duplicate off the machine, but much prefer to do changes by eye, gut feel, and any recent feedback to fine tune a new design … I would be in the bottom 10 % of actual shaper craftsman … working at Rusty’s in the 90’s and with Pat Rawson and Eric Arakawa in Hawaii made me realise that for me to continue making/designing bds I would need a better tool … the preshaping machine! … ”
The thing for me is this is why I decided to use the design software and machine cutting … to get a consistent base design from which I could ‘tweak’ my design idea’s … which, as it would seem, is how Maurice has used the technology.
NOTE: If you have landed here by mistake, having searched “Maurice Cole” … you can find his website here: Maurice Cole Surfboards
So, in short, I’m pretty sto
ked to have the 1st board finished. It’s taken longer at every step, which is not a big issue when you’re making board for yourself, but it did become frustrating … As you can read from the history here, there’s been some ‘learning’ along the way.
The good … the glass job on the ‘forty one’ is much better than what I did on the “jazz” … that all stems from getting the laps onto the deck wrapped and wet … which then meant I was not chasing the smooth finish sanding and therefore no sand thru’s , well almost none …
The bad … that’s the sand thru at the front of the r’ear fin … as I posted at the time … gotta learn to take my time!
The patch job to fix the sand thru and bubbles holes around the other boxes came up OK.
All in all … stoked … time to go surfing and try this one …
So, I fixed up my san
d thru ‘issue’. While I was going I put some resin into the air bubble holes around the other boxes.
In the end it’s come up OK, although the sand thru spot just looks ugly.
Might fix that with some colour, or even white, down the track.
OK, so, I’ve done it … sanded thru the front of the glass, into the foam, in front of the rear fin box.
Bugger.
Due to the double concave, it was difficult to get the box sanded down, and I ended up taking too much …
Looks like a patch job is needed!
Totally stocked … picked up the ‘forty one’ machine cut blank today!
Looks very much like the AKU shaper file, but, it will need some refinement to get a good “base” design from which I can create various boards.
Things that need a tweak are:
I’ve had this one cut with no bottom contours so I can shape them in myself. I was not sure how mucb to put into the ‘design’ on the computer or how it would then translate to the machine cut.
So, after the hassles with the install of the fin plugs on the ‘jazz’ I did some research for an ‘easier’ fin system to install. I came across two “systems” that look OK … the 4 way fin system and the probox fin system … both having the after glassing install, but due to the ‘cant’ inserts, meaning the plugs / boxes were installed “flat’ meaning less hassle with the install for a newbie like me … the 4 ways system offers more “adjustments” but means using their fins, while the probox can handle both FCS and Futures type fins … so, I decided to go with the probox system.
So, I contact the Australian Distributor, and spoke with lance at Hanalei Fin Systems … I was a bit anxious being a newbie, but Lance was great, really helpful and happy to deal with my newbie questions. I e-mailed him and order and dropped the $ into their account that night, he confirmed the order the next morning and posted it to me so I had it two days later. Stoked. Great service.
So, looking forward to installing these in the ‘forty one’ … stay tuned.
I decided to try the Shapers S-plugs … I like the idea of not having to link the fin box to the deck, and I’ve been an FCS user for years so I have a collection of fins … with a larger ‘footprint’ and the ‘scallopped’ edges the S-pug looked the goods … however, I was quite prepared enough when I did the install. I thought I could put some resin in the hole and then set the fin cant … bad, bad idea … very hard to get masking tape off the roll and onto the board and fins once your fingers are sticky from the resin … and then the time wasted stuffing around meant the resin gelled since I was using mekp (i.e. due to the ‘depth’ of the resin uv will not set) … meaning a messy install.
I also ran out of q-cell so the next batch was straight resin, and so the install looks a bit odd … ah the joys of the first project!
Being my first attempt at glassing, I knew there would be issues. Using UV cure was the best choice because I had more time … but, that did not stop the stuff up … when I was laminating the bottom, it felt like the resin started to get sticky, like the fist hint it’s about to ‘kick’ when using mekp … so I started to rush … bad move … using my hands to wet the laps in a hurry then meant pulls, and some area’s ended up not wet enough … the end result a really bad lap job and a lot of sanding ensured to get it smooth …
This also lead to sand thru’s after the hotcoat as I tried to get a “smooth” finish, and many, many patches to fix soft spots …
You can see the end result in this pic … a very ugly lap line!