Sanding Techniques

I've recently delved into Swaylocks and have been reading up on sanding techniques and OH MY GAWD there are a ton of tidbits to remember! I need to make like a diary of stuff! One of the most important ideas that struck home was NOT TO USE DULL SANDPAPER because it will burn your resin. I've been doing this as I am broke as no joke and noticed that this has been the case. So no more. I'm looking into the best ways of doing so.

If anyone has any tips on sandpaper quality and costs, please feel free to help me out here.

I've been rebuilding (when a board has two broken fins and 20 plus dings, that's what I'm calling it) two boards. I did the first one (a 7'8" "longboard" ((as my bro calls it)) ) quickly and sloppily using.....ahem...........bondo auto resin and the second one, well is pretty much the same. On the second one (7'2" thruster fun board...........7"2"x 21 1/8 x 2 7/8) I employed Q Cell for the first time to fill holes and actually took a little more time sanding. I took on these projects just to get my ears wet with the whole sanding thing again. I didn't make them pretty, or polish them up (as the rubbing compounds and paper is too expensive for me know), but I did go out of my way to strengthen the rails as these boards are from the 1980's and made extra thin to begin with but on top of that, the res has browned and turned brittle. K Man should be able to get a few more years out of them now and hopefully the tail rails (a real bitch to repair) will be a bit stronger than they were.

I've got a couple of pics from the garage for your entertainment.

The last pic is a pic of the bridge to NYC on the way up to Mystic Conn. My pop has better pics. I'll try and share them.

The first pic should be labeled "stuff"...........the second pic as well!

I'm a blog bum

I didn't realize that I had some readers.

It's like my college radio show that was run through the town's cable TV system. I used to just go in on Friday nights and lay out some mellow jams, some party toons, and some psychedelia. Some friends would join me and we'd light some incense (until the fire marshal intervened) and go in the elevator to stop in between floors and blow cigarette smoke into the elevator fan.

It was a good time. We were just there to have a party and maybe spread the word about and eco event or a cool class trip that was coming up, maybe play a "McGruff the Crime Dog" short about the dangers of narcotics (the name of the show was Peyote Radio). We had this theory that if we said the word enough, some may someday magically show up in our laps and we'd be puking happy monkeys! It never happened. We gave up on it too soon or something, because where there's a will there's a way.

What I'm getting at, is that with all of our desperate pleas to have someone call in and make a request, it never happened. I thought that I had no listeners. The other DJ's would listen out of respect for their fellow DJ I knew, but otherwise nada.

One night at the end of a 4 hour show that I'd been laying out a mood mix (bring the audience up and down and up and down gradually) I got a call at the end of the show praising the show. It seems that there was a huge houseparty where the entire crowd was trippin and I had been effing with their heads the whole time, making them laugh, then making them ponder what is soul (P-Funk Allstars will do that to you). They loved my show! Weird, I thought. I was made aware that evening that I had an audience all along. My show was one of their favorites because I didn't play any commercials (to the deep annoyance of my producer who constantly threatened me with termination) except for "taking a bite out of crime' sound bites. I landed the time slot because no one wanted to work Friday 8 to midnight, but I wound up having a pretty groovy show and even did my own weather and interview slots. The band Primus was having a tour of the east coast with their Sailing the SEas of Cheese promo that they were deluging the college campuses with and I had those lads in for a laugh or two. It was pretty dang cool! But the most rewarding thing about it all, was finding out that I had listeners. I did that for three years. It was a good run.

To all those who read this blog: I know I've strayed for woodcraft on this thread and some others, but I wanted to say "Hey". "Can I crash on your couch?"

Funny how things haven't changed much since college for me! Hee hee hee hee hee

Take it light! Enjoy your summer! Go to bonfires in Crescent City, California and to ones in Pacific City, Oregon. Those are some real people.

Some pics from travels etc

Hey all,

sorry, I havn't been on here. I'm lame.

been fishing.

Up and running again!

Hey everyone, I have finally gotten back on the net after my move across the country!

I apologize for just dropping off the face of the net.

I'm still not unpacked as my new "condo" (as I am telling all the ladies it is) is still not finished. I had a few walls to rebuild after I lifted the roof up with my truck's jack because the roof sagged as a house built in 1877 didn't have the roof joices sitting on top of the front truss, just nailed to the side. I'm just waiting on a rug now and then I can move in my leather chair and TV and I am set!

I'm still not totally finished my board. It needs to be polished and the pressure valve needs to be put in place yet. I'm gonna do that after I polish.

One note, don't use the UV varnish that I used. Go with more coats of Epoxy. It works soooo much better than the varnish as it doesn't set as fast or streak as much. Spend the extra 75 bucks, you'll be thankful.

In september I am going to the PHiladelphia Wooden Boat Factory to school. I haven't fully scouted out schools, but this one is high on the list. I'm not sure on the curriculum yet, but I'll be going for at least a year. It's an internship in Maritime construction. I have never been more stoked. I'm going to try and get a job with Whole Foods so I can get medical benefits as the school won't accept anyone without medical bennies.

Well, ya'all, there is a south swell tomorrow (Wed) possible and the wind is gonna go offshore at 15 to 20mph, I'm not set up for it totally, but my bro and I are gonna try and hit it. He's not surfed in 7 years, hes getting to use the fish and me the con. then me on the fish!

I want to take out the Rainstick, but it's not polished and ready to go here. If I took it out in this sun it would pop!

the sun here is NOT like I remembered! I'm fried from 5 fishing trips. Yesterday, I took off my shirt............MISTAKE even with 50 spf sunblock.

So far I have caught 5 catfish (blues and bullheads), 2 small mouth bass, 3 striped bass, countless perch for bait, one walleye and a little neato rock bass which I may go recatch and put in a 60 gallon fishtank because it is an incredibly beautiful little fish under 5 inches.

I hope that you all haven't given up on this blog because my next projects in woodworking are going to be up on here!

And what is even more RAD is that the boat building school that I am thinking of has a wood surfboard class that they build GRAIN SURFBOARDS at!!!! I have an erection !!!!

Fin Box

The router jig. Thanks to Cedar for lending me his router! I'm sure I could have done it (rout out my fin box) with my chisel but the router was much nicer and made really nice lines. I first made up a jig that guided the router with two pieces of strapping parrallel to the center line and fin box (at this point in the boards construction, the centerline is more like a grey area and it's like a roll of the dice, so use your eyes and have an overabundance of lighting!). Basically how I did this was to line the 1/2 inch wide bit up with the traced fin box lines and drew a point at the radius of the routers outside. Since the bit was only 1/2 inch and the cut needed to be 1 inch, I drew two points at both the front and back of the fin box so I can do a cut, then move the guides over and do the other cut. The cuts were done in five or six shallow passes. The red tape in the picture is holding two peices of cardboard in place because on either side of the fin box is a concave, so the cardboard filled in the concave so I could keep the router level. This router has a spot for a bubble level, so I put one in there (in red) to keep the walls even. It worked pretty well. It dug a bit into the hull planks nearer the tail, but only like a millimeter.

Ah, the camera sees more than the eye does. Before gluing, I eyed up the box with a fin in it several times with a level and a square. Another grey area is the level because at different poings in the board it varies slightly as nothing is perfectly flat as well as none of the concaves are perfect either. I did however have a good feeling that everything is mostly level. In the pic it looks like the fin is off a bit. But we must realize that the T-square is the only variable in that picture that is exact. The level is not exactly on and the T-Square may not be sitting totally perpendicular to the level either. It is just a general idea. But damn if it don't look off a bit. Put it to your eye though and it looks perpendicular to the gneral shape of the board. Personally, I think this was the hardest part of doing the board as it could make it or break it. I'm confident that it is on straight. If it is not, c'es la vie. Who cares really? I may never know the performance difference unless it hums like a hooker on Saturday night!
I put my Con's fin in the box, mixed up 3 toobs of epoxy bought at the hardware store with some fine sawdust and slopped it on the walls of the surfboard (which I deeply scoured with a dremel tool bit for the epoxy to fill into and add more support) and all over the fin box. I should have taped around the fin box before doing so, but I didn't. It's a little messy, but who cares.

Side view of the fin being held in place with tape. I'll let it dry two hours before even removing the fin.
There is a top edge to the finbox that will need to be sanded flush and I thought my board was finally shaped, but upon relaxing with my board and a few beers, I noticed that the rails just back from the nose were not egged enough which may not allow enough freedom of movement in the nose creating a suction sort of thing like I did with the first board I shaped when I was a lad. I also want to round the rails more just before the fin box freeing up some more of the boards movement.
I tried to egg the top of the rails towards the tail as to allow water to flow over the deck some for nose riding. This board is thin at the nose and tail and doesn't allow for much rounding of the rails.
So far the boards dimensions are 9'1" and 22 7/8" wide. I don't have calipers for thickness, but it looks around 3".
When the board is ready for glassing, I will tally up hours and money for the construction and shaping part of the board.
Later gang! Enjoy the surf if you are getting any today or tomorrow.

Bottom contours

Hello Blogworld,

After about 8 hours of sanding with my Craftsman 5" orbital sander and 4 sheets of 80 grit sandpaper I have the board ready for fine tuned sanding with a block sander to eliminate some of the humping that the orbital left behind. Although I'd have to say that the way it is now I'd be happy with as the hull turned out pretty damn flat where it was supposed to be and nicely concave in the nose and the dual concave at the tail. The rails will need the fine tuning mostly. Especially in the tail. I'm considering a slight vee and may have to take more off of the hull at the rails. It needs a little of that anyway, maybe I shouldn't go overboard.

No pics right now. It would be very difficult to show the concaves with my camera.

I'm starting to plan for the fin box and glassing now.

Anyone have tips on putting in the fin box before glassing?

Anyone have resources for more glass and epoxy?

thanks y'all!

Have a great day!

sanding start

Photo by the esteemed Wilbur Kookmeyer.

{{{Toots and the Maytals, Funky Kingston.}}} (cheers Steve Thornley!)

I'm doing much of what's in the above picture so I haven't made many posts.

After I got the nose and tail blocks good and dry I cut a rough outline of the rail with my jigsaw. My tail block extends back about 3/4" further than what I think is supposed to be the original length. With this in mind, I'm going to make it a rounded squash giving it a little more meat on the end. Why? Just for experimentings sake really. I mean, it's only a half to threequarters an inch and isn't going to drastically change the outline. I'm thinking that if I'm making a little sharper of a rail at the tail for those kind of skating maneuverings that will eliminate some longboarding style surfing, and if I give that style of tail (squash) I can add a little rounded volume to it, and I can recover a small element of the longboarding style that I have giving up with the sharper rails. I think that with this small modification and with a hatchet fin, I can recover noseridability lost with it's larger rocker, sharper rails and squash tail. Personally, I think this shape a great candidate for side bites too. It has a distinctly thruster tail. What is good about that for me is that the thruster tail is the one that I am most familiar with and is a loth easier for me to tackle than a swallow or rounded pin.

There are a few soft spots on the deck. Totally minor one on the nose seam about two inches long. And a soft spot at the tail. I am considering two layers of 6 pound glass on the deck with even maybe a deck patch at the tail and one 6 pound layer for the hull. I guess I better go shop for resin and glass!

Back to more sanding! Thanks for dropping by!