Surfboard build WIP

[Bm101]

On ma holibobs Chris but this is starting to look the bizz. Novocaine has your back (great forum eh) but it strikes me how similar to what i was (only) reading about in that boat book. Might be worth looking at if you have a fiver or so spare. Depends on how you think. Bit late on parade for this excellent thread but I see you have a stanley 80! Id still buy a handheld bahco one. For a fiver its a no brainer for dealing with small patches of tearout in the future and is a go to bit of kit for more than that with a pre finished edge. Very simple finishing tool. You know my skill level. Not trying to sound like a pro.
Anyway. I have rum to drink and need to prepare for putting ma sandals back on in prder to stumble down to the beach for dinner. Hard times. :roll:

 

[Chris152]

Tn - you're right, put like that £25 per board's not so bad. Can you get different woods that are suitable there or are you planning to work mainly with the olive you mentioned? Sounds wonderful.

Bm - Sounds like you're having a hell of a time of it there. Perfect for sitting back and dreaming of future projects. I think my wish to build a strip conoe goes back at least 15 years, each time summer would come around I'd head to the library and get one or two books on the subject, then inertia would set in and I wouldn't get started. The thing is to get started - then it's hard to go back. And I reckon one day, when the hurly burly's done, I'll retire to somewhere with quiet sea inlets and little surf and build my own boat for pottering in. Definitely going to check out that book.
As for the scraper plane, that's an Axi version, pretty cheap but does a great job as far as I can tell.
Hope dinner was good!

 

[Chris152]

Back into the house for final checks on symmetry and how true everything feels. I've marked up a few points where there's still some to remove but seems ok, not perfect (we can only keep removing so much). The profile gauge was really helpful, tho most of the rails seems to have been pretty balanced on account of the necessity to follow the profile of the inner ribs with the bead and cove strips.
Then final sanding and we're ready to glass.

Before final sanding, we need to put some filler in those gaps. Would any flexible wood filler suitable for outdoors be ok? I was thinking of this one:
https://www.screwfix.com/p/ronseal-mult ... &gclsrc=ds
Thanks.

 

[Inspector]

Nice job. What does it weigh at this point? I would fill with the epoxy and microballoons or fine sawdust. No compatibility issues and it adds strength unlike a flexible filler.

Pete

 

[Chris152]

It's heavier than other PU boards of similar size, and the resin's yet to go on. I checked online and it seems professionally made wooden boards are heavier, too, so I guess it's just something to put up with. Not sure how much of a difference other woods would make, some of course - I need to think about it before starting the next one. I'm confident this one will work fine in the sea, tho - assuming we don't make a compete hash of the glassing, that is.
Could I use Araldite Crystal Clear epoxy as you suggest (mixed with sawdust). It's sold as glue but is it the same stuff?

 

[Inspector]

Use the same resin you will be glassing it with.

A bathroom scale would do for the weight. I was only curious.

Pete

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Use the same resin you will be glassing it with.

A bathroom scale would do for the weight. I was only curious.

Pete

As I understand it, a wooden board will be a smidgen heavier than a "traditional" foam board, but apparently your first one is always heavier - they get lighter as you get the hang of it.

When I was 7, my first woodworking project was a small (foot long) model boat. We had a U-shaped profile board that was the required cross-section outline/profile shape of the hull, which crayon was rubbed on, and then this was rubbed along the block of wood - where the blue crayon rubbed off and marked the wood was removed with a spokeshave. When everything went blue, you were done. Would this work for the rails to get a consistent shape? I have never seen it done since, but my woodwork teacher was pre-war, very old school. Chalk may make less mess perhaps? Bear in mind I was 7, and this was a very, very long time ago.

 

[Chris152]

The problem with that method is that the profile of the rails constantly changes shape along the length - using the gauge novocaine recommended means you can compare the left and right profile at various points along the length.
As for weight, really not sure about how to keep it down. Lighter wood, obviously will help - lighter glue? The top must be down to 5mm across most of the width so no room there for less. Is plywood heavier then WR cedar, for example (the whole underside of this one is ply).
Maybe cardboard's the answer for the next one?! https://sheldrake.net/surfboards/index.html

 

[Trainee neophyte]

Because it is full of air, it is more boyant than a standard board so once it's in the water, you'll never know the difference.

So I'm told, anyway.

Weight is always the bugbear, which is why I may use a couple of little bits of olive wood for detail (perhaps the nose block?) but there is no way I would be able to use it extensively, because olive wood has the density of plutonium. I am thinking about a veneer detail, some kind of cool image, but no idea how to achieve it.

Anyway, this is your (very cool) WIP, and I keep muscling in on it, which is a worry because, unlike Novacaine, I have no idea what I'm doing. Still, you should be in the water soon - just the last little bit to go, the easy-peasy glassing. (Have just learned about off-gassing from wood if the temperature rises as you put the glass on - needs static or cooling temperature. That is going to be a huge problem for me, unless i wait a couple of months. Enough about me!)

 

[Inspector]

My question about the weight is not to judge but to roughly compare it to other small watercraft like a stitch and glue kayak or cedar strip canoe. I have never touched much less stood on a paddle board so wouldn't know a lightweight one from an anchor. :wink: If you don't want to say or can't get it into the bathroom to weigh it that's okay.

Pete

 

[Trainee neophyte]

My knowledge of paddleboard (14' - on a par with canoes) is that they are roughly the same weight as the foam & fibreglass equivalent. Apparent!y most people are a few kilos overweight on their first, but work out how to get things more lightweight once they get a bit of practice under their belts. You can actually make them even lighter than commercial boards, if you are very careful and are prepared to compromise on strength.

https://sliverpaddleboards.com/faq

How much heavier is a wood board than a comparable foam board?
The weight of a Sliver Paddleboard is usually within 10% of the weight of a quality foam board. Our main goal has never been to build the lightest board possible since the weight is very hard to feel in the water. Even though weight isn’t the first priority all the excess material is machined from our fishbone kits because nobody wants to have to carry a heavy board.

 

[novocaine]

Unless its a balsa board it will be heavier. Don't fret it. Combined denisty of wood and air vs density of expanded pu. You'll be reet.
It wont kick and flick but it isnt the right design of board for that anyway, its a cruiser where bit more weight is going to help (think mini maui).

Weight issue will be carrying it to the blue stuff. You can drop weight by thining the nose and tail, keep the thickness on the rails and mid section. You'll also be able to remove more from the ribs.

Compared to a kayak or the like,it will be lighter.

 

[Chris152]

The boy's wearing me thin - got back from last night's surf after dark and we were up at 5 this morning for another. The air's starting to get cold, so I think a camper conversion might be my next WIP (driving winds and icy rain while changing in car parks doesn't work so well with my old bones any more).

On weight, this is from the Otter surfboards website:
'As a result of how we make them, they tend to finish about 30% heavier than a traditionally made polyurethane board. At first this seemed like it was undesirable, but we then developed shapes with this in mind, leaning towards the outlines of the single fins and twin fins that are all about glide and momentum, which is allowing us to see the real potential of making boards the way we do.'
As I think novocaine's suggesting, wood's possibly not the way to go for a short, thin thruster but for old school (which is most certainly more my style) wood sounds fine. I might try to borrow some bathroom scales so I can check, Inspector - it'd be good to know and to think about.

 

[Chris152]

Got me wondering so I went next door. Our wooden board weighs 7.5 kg at the moment - that'll be about 1.5kg more once it's glassed if I've read the right things and understood. I checked a similar size PU board that we have and that weighs in at 5.5 kg. My 9'4" longboard weighs 8.2 kg and is considered a heavy board. The wooden board will certainly have some momentum!
We could change the rails/ deck transition to be more conventionally rounded (rather than having the abrupt change I mentioned before) and lose a bit of weight that way, and the tail and nose could be thinner, which would lose a little more.

(remember, the deck thickness is now about 5mm - looks much bigger in the pic!) but I don't think it's going to make a hell of a lot of difference. Loads of momentum...

 

[Chris152]

To add to the weight equation, I remembered that this board's thicker than the similar length PU board I weighed - so the PU board would need more foam, glass and resin to be comparable.

Anyway, on with the filling and final sanding!

 

[Chris152]

Top glass coat on

It went on ok, currently hardening. I put a band of blue masking tape on the apex of the rails to make a line to glass the bottom to, followed by regular masking tape attached only at the top edge to stop the resin running down the rails and underneath. I'll cut the excess off with a scalpel in a couple of hours before it gets too hard, leave overnight and then do the base glass coat tomorrow.
Tape/ excess off:

 

[novocaine]

Thanks looking superb Chris. the resin has made that cheap timber you were worried about really pop, it looks fantastic now.

I'd be tempted to leave the top with the woven rather than gel it.
underside will need to be gelled though, so it can be sanded smooth without cutting the fibres.

key the join on the rail with a scuff of sand paper if you can.

 

[Chris152]

I wondered about keeping the texture, novocaine, but surfing in South Wales the water has a lot of silt in it and we (relatively) often have to clean the wax off to keep it fresh as it gets heavily impregnated - and I think the dirty wax would be really tricky to get out of the texture.
Have to say, I was very pleased with the result - when I was getting ready I was nervous, so much to get right and so little time (I thought), and easy to ruin all our hard work. In practice, temp was quite low and it didn't really start to harden for about an hour.

In the vids I'd been watching they just used a squeegee to spread the resin, but after your advice I bought brushes too - which was just as well, as I found applying resin to the rails hard with a squeegee (kept pulling the glass out of alignment) but easy with the brush. Thank you for that (as well as all your other advice), definitely saved the day.

 

[novocaine]

heres your next fibre glass challenge.

hover dad by David Rees, on Flickr

I can see why you'd want a smooth top, hadn't considered pulling wax off (it's been a long time since I had that problem). If I didn't live in the middle of the country I think I'd be following your lead and building myself a long board, not worth it for the 2 days a year I'd get chance to use it though, might as well higher a foamy for the day., or stay on the beach with the kite and board.

 

[Chris152]

I had one of these in mind for the next project, can't be that tricky.

Definitely a good idea to rent something for few days per year, and foamies seem to have improved a lot recently - all kinds of shapes and sizes, some becoming popular with regular surfers.
Finish coat today and tomorrow, then I'll be back asking for advice on routing out for the fin box. That said, I'm tempted to make our own fin and set it straight into the board - if it did ever snap, we could re-route it and replace or route larger and set the fin box in its place. One step at a time, tho...