A buddy and I recently made him a set of shaping stands out of leftover wood I had laying around. The only thing we bought were buckets and cement. A 80 lbs bag of quikcrete, the bigger bag, split between both buckets was more than enough cement to keep everything stable. For $10 a bag its not too bad. If I were making another set I would use less concrete because they weigh over 40 lbs each.
As for a new tool, I'm probably the only one that will say a new sander over planer. Overall I think a good sander is a much more versatile tool than planer. You can also use a sander for a ton of non surfboard building things. I also do a lot more wood working than foam surfboard building. My sanders get far more use than my planer. Check out Wen tools though, on a sale you can get a decent planer and a variable speed sander/polisher both for less than $80. I've had both of them for years now and have no complaints. The sander gets way more use than the planer though.
yeah that sounds like the approach I'll take for the stand.
the polisher/sander is an idea, maybe later but I don't really know what to take... my research shows that rotative are the jack of all trades but require a bit more skills than dual actions or radom orbital...
for the futures fins boxe, possible without a router ?
Futures finboxes are possible without a router. The first board I never finished I installed futures finboxes with a dremel. The dremel depthguide is very useful for this.
i however don't have a dremel.. it doesn't look impossible without power tools but maybe I'll look at something here. Don't want to mess up the fin installation just because I went in without the proper tool! Especially for the stringer.
I think if you are considering to attempt it without power tools, you would just as well glass your fins on. I'm sure there is a way that it could be done, but without a router or a dremel, or some spinny-cutty apparatus, I'm sure it would be challenging. More important than the difficulty (to me anyway) would be the fact that I wouldn't really be learning or teaching myself a very applicable process. In fact, it might fairly sour you on something that you are trying out for size. That is to say, doing it with zero power tools is not likely to end up being something that you would like to repeat.
Of course, this is coming from a fellow beginner (also a guy whose son has the Futures one-pass set-up to borrow!), but I think a "compromise" could be achieved by purchasing an inexpensive router and improvising a jig, possibly purchasing JUST the one-pass bit from Futures (?). I DO know that the actual Futures installation kit is expensive, but works perfectly. If you follow the instructions, you get spot-on, clean, and perfectly fitting results.
Then there's glass-ons. Some people love them, some don't, but they have been working OK for folks for a minute (decades) now. They are challenging (in fact I know I have posted my glass-on frustrations here on Swaylocks at some point), but it is cool to know how to do them, and they sure look sick.
Please don't think that I somehow consider myself an authority on surfboard building. I have only dabbled, just barely scraped the surface of that universe. I am kind of an expert at doing things on the cheap, however, and have learned that time and frustration are imortant costs also...
Just as an afterthought, I know the old style FCS plugs would be far, far, far easier to fit without investing in jigs and bits and blades and blood. I prefer the Futures, and frankly don't really know if people are still using the old style anymore or if they are available, but they require less gear to get them into the board. It will be interesting to see what you arrive at. The whole process is fun, so you're already winning when you start.
First thank you for your input, I appreciate every input as fellow begginers have a different perspective than pro and both are very valuable. I also know very well that "beginner" is a very relative term and that depending on whom you ask... 10-20 board experience can make somebody consoider himself as a" beginner" or as an "advanced" altogether depending on the person! Bottom line, while I appreciate the disclaimer I very much appreciate the time you take to answer!
I think I am going to move that board a lot and I would like to be able to remove the fins.. I also spent a lot of time studying the installation of the Futures.. I like the way they are, so I'd rather invest A BIT in some tools than go glass on (even though I think that glass on looks very cool).
So I think that I will follow your advice and find a second hand router or some kind of "spinny cutty appartus" and make some kind of jig out of plywood!
The blank has been ordered and the build will start with 2021! I am over-excited as i've been thinking about shapping for more than a decade!
I haven't abandonned my project however the cellar I was supposed to work in was flooded (water leak from the apartment above) so I wasn't able to do so... I hope that it will be resolved soon,
meanwhile I built a basic stand. the foam is much softer than it looks... I plan on putting them in concrete in a "low profile" squarish receptacle
I'll keep you all up to date, but so far nothing too exciting.
slowly but surely... the cellar option fell apart (I hope I can get it back for the glassing). I did the shaping on the rooftop.. not ideal for the lighting but at some point it needs to progress! also after the help I've gotten from this forum I wanted to show that it is actually going somewhere!
I went for the "stussy rails" because it wasn't too hard. the idea behind it is to get a maximum of volume (for beginner) with rails that stay reasonnably "thin".. It's a first so I had low expectations but I'm happy to get feedback on stuff I should correct or should have done differently.
What you have will work, but there's still some room for refinement, starting with getting both sides more similar to each other in terms of the shape of the rail and its taper. You can also soften that line between the deck and rail without losing any float. In that pic of the nose you want both sides to have the same shape and taper coming into the nose.
Thank you for the feedback, I will definitely rework the nose area to make it more symmetrical (I also want to thin out the stringer there). I will also taper the deck/rail transition. Regarding the rails they seem fairly symmetrical when I look on the board.. is it the third picture that make you say that they are not?
i will check again but is it possible that the sunlight is making it look worse than it is? I can't really do the "simultaneous rail grab trick" as I have only one hand so it's possible that I'm missing something here..
yeah that sounds like the approach I'll take for the stand.
the polisher/sander is an idea, maybe later but I don't really know what to take... my research shows that rotative are the jack of all trades but require a bit more skills than dual actions or radom orbital...
for the futures fins boxe, possible without a router ?
Futures finboxes are possible without a router. The first board I never finished I installed futures finboxes with a dremel. The dremel depthguide is very useful for this.
Thanks for the info,
i however don't have a dremel.. it doesn't look impossible without power tools but maybe I'll look at something here. Don't want to mess up the fin installation just because I went in without the proper tool! Especially for the stringer.
I think if you are considering to attempt it without power tools, you would just as well glass your fins on. I'm sure there is a way that it could be done, but without a router or a dremel, or some spinny-cutty apparatus, I'm sure it would be challenging. More important than the difficulty (to me anyway) would be the fact that I wouldn't really be learning or teaching myself a very applicable process. In fact, it might fairly sour you on something that you are trying out for size. That is to say, doing it with zero power tools is not likely to end up being something that you would like to repeat.
Of course, this is coming from a fellow beginner (also a guy whose son has the Futures one-pass set-up to borrow!), but I think a "compromise" could be achieved by purchasing an inexpensive router and improvising a jig, possibly purchasing JUST the one-pass bit from Futures (?). I DO know that the actual Futures installation kit is expensive, but works perfectly. If you follow the instructions, you get spot-on, clean, and perfectly fitting results.
Then there's glass-ons. Some people love them, some don't, but they have been working OK for folks for a minute (decades) now. They are challenging (in fact I know I have posted my glass-on frustrations here on Swaylocks at some point), but it is cool to know how to do them, and they sure look sick.
Please don't think that I somehow consider myself an authority on surfboard building. I have only dabbled, just barely scraped the surface of that universe. I am kind of an expert at doing things on the cheap, however, and have learned that time and frustration are imortant costs also...
Just as an afterthought, I know the old style FCS plugs would be far, far, far easier to fit without investing in jigs and bits and blades and blood. I prefer the Futures, and frankly don't really know if people are still using the old style anymore or if they are available, but they require less gear to get them into the board. It will be interesting to see what you arrive at. The whole process is fun, so you're already winning when you start.
First thank you for your input, I appreciate every input as fellow begginers have a different perspective than pro and both are very valuable. I also know very well that "beginner" is a very relative term and that depending on whom you ask... 10-20 board experience can make somebody consoider himself as a" beginner" or as an "advanced" altogether depending on the person! Bottom line, while I appreciate the disclaimer I very much appreciate the time you take to answer!
I think I am going to move that board a lot and I would like to be able to remove the fins.. I also spent a lot of time studying the installation of the Futures.. I like the way they are, so I'd rather invest A BIT in some tools than go glass on (even though I think that glass on looks very cool).
So I think that I will follow your advice and find a second hand router or some kind of "spinny cutty appartus" and make some kind of jig out of plywood!
The blank has been ordered and the build will start with 2021! I am over-excited as i've been thinking about shapping for more than a decade!
RIGHT ON. Fully stoked for you! Looking forward to the updates!
ok so,
I haven't abandonned my project however the cellar I was supposed to work in was flooded (water leak from the apartment above) so I wasn't able to do so... I hope that it will be resolved soon,
meanwhile I built a basic stand. the foam is much softer than it looks... I plan on putting them in concrete in a "low profile" squarish receptacle
I'll keep you all up to date, but so far nothing too exciting.
image0.png
slowly but surely... the cellar option fell apart (I hope I can get it back for the glassing). I did the shaping on the rooftop.. not ideal for the lighting but at some point it needs to progress! also after the help I've gotten from this forum I wanted to show that it is actually going somewhere!
I went for the "stussy rails" because it wasn't too hard. the idea behind it is to get a maximum of volume (for beginner) with rails that stay reasonnably "thin".. It's a first so I had low expectations but I'm happy to get feedback on stuff I should correct or should have done differently.
hope it'll "surf"
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What you have will work, but there's still some room for refinement, starting with getting both sides more similar to each other in terms of the shape of the rail and its taper. You can also soften that line between the deck and rail without losing any float. In that pic of the nose you want both sides to have the same shape and taper coming into the nose.
Thank you for the feedback, I will definitely rework the nose area to make it more symmetrical (I also want to thin out the stringer there). I will also taper the deck/rail transition. Regarding the rails they seem fairly symmetrical when I look on the board.. is it the third picture that make you say that they are not?
i will check again but is it possible that the sunlight is making it look worse than it is? I can't really do the "simultaneous rail grab trick" as I have only one hand so it's possible that I'm missing something here..
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