I have run onto this mistake more than once. Primarily because beginners just don’t ask. Recently someone who lives within walking distance from my shop decided they’d buy all the materials to glass a 7’ blank from a supply house up here in the Northwest. They bought the blank from me awhile back. There are only two supply shops up here in the NW besides myself. They needed a few things that didn’t come in their mail order kit. Leash plugs, squeege and a set of fins. The fins are where our discussion got interesting. He informed me he had shaped a “Thruster” and had bought Futures boxes all of the same depth. He had already installed the boxes in the shaped blank. So my question to Sways is What’s wrong with this picture? If all the boxes are 1/2" then all the fins used will be double foiled. If all the boxes are 3/4" then all fins will be single foil and flat on one side. Including the single foiled center fin. I think he decided that he had installed 1/2". So I wound up selling him three center fins. Just one of many examples of people who don’t ask and think there is nothing to it.
Ahh that stinks, he’ll have no cant on those fronts unless he can find some big quad rears with a flat foil, I guess a little cant is better than none. I’d rather be stuck with all 3/4’s, at least you can use one of those shims and use the your normal thruster set with the 1/2" tang center fin.
Yeah that’s true. And at first that is what I thought he did. That’s why you have to be careful if you take a Quad to a glass shop. You have to be specific about placement and boxes. They will sometimes second guess you. I marked fins on a blank once and put all four pretty far out on the rail. I should have specified the box. The convential thinking on a quad unless specified otherwise has been; 3/4" on the rail and 1/2" on the inside. In other words Cant and no Cant. It was my bad because I wasn’t specific enough. I wanted Cant on all four which meant a 3/4" for all. So this guy will have a double foiled and no Cant Thruster. He admitted to me that he Cant (play on words) surf well enough to know the difference.
Haha at least he was honest. I made a board (mind length thruster) for a freind who’s been surfing longboards and mid lengths single fins for years. One day I saw him on the beach as we were about to paddle out and asked him how he liked the board. He said it’s working pretty good for him, I said it’ll work a lot better if you swap the fins into the proper boxes lol, he had the fronts with the foil facing towards the stringer.
Last custom board I got I screwed up ordering, I like to have 3/4" rear boxes in my quads and like them on the rail too and use smaller thruster fronts back there, plus I have a good amout of those fins on hand to mess with. The board came with 1/2" rears which is standard, I totally blanked on that one. It’s easy to over look I guess but I can’t think of a worse combo than all 1/2" boxes.
Hey Lowel,
You can carfully chop saw the deep box futures fins off by 1/4" and they will fit the 1/2" box. If I have enough foam in the tail of a board that will be a quad I like to run all deep boxes for actual or imagined durability. Unfortunately when you buy quad sets, the back fins are 1/2", Rainbow fins will make the proper box depth on fins or you can mix and match with futures to make it work. They also make a 1/4" insert that allows for use of 1/2 base fins in 3/4" boxes.
Yeah hadn’t thought about using a chop saw on them. I’m pretty good with one. On that one board a couple of years back; I just did the mix and match. Not really the fins I wanted to use with the board, but it worked out. Yes Rainbow or Bahne are always a good fall back. Hey do you still see Island Fins over there?
so the guy set the boxes without using dummys or any fins at all? trust your bottom contours i guess haha
yes Lowel, and I think he is in the same building as greg griffin. The man is a master craftsman making fins. I met him once when I was lost in his shop looking for Greg.
Yup. And I’m sure the contours were just perfect.