#4 - Done

The first two shots were taken just after the final sanding. We used a 400 grit wet/dry sandpaper and a spray bottle filled with water. We turned the polisher down to about 1000 rpm and went over the entire board twice to rub out all the sanding marks.


































There's a swallow tail down in the grass..

..


Now we just need some surf...........

Swell on the way.....

The reports are calling for a little surf later this week. I think I will stay up late and sand.......

MEANWHILE, BACK IN THE SHED

I began the final sanding of my board last night. All the imperfections in the hot coat have to be removed here to prevent any sort of turbulence (and cavitation) as water passes over the board. Cavitation will not only slow the board down but make it harder to control. All those little bubbles coming off the rough or improperly foiled edges are imploding and creating suction behind the board. For all you tube riders out there, its like riding on the foam ball.........all the time. On a side note, several years ago I was down in a dry dock below an aircraft carrier here at the Shipyard. I took a look at the propeller and was blown away. It was 2 stories tall and had grinder marks from a small hand grinder all around the blade edges. (These edges were sharp enough to cut you.) When I asked why they went through all this trouble an engineer told me that submarine sonar can pick up the sound of cavitation bubbles imploding behind a propeller.
I had better not screw this up...........



I guess I shouldn't have closed the window while I sanded the board.....We use a polishing grinder to do the final sanding. We start off with 60 or 80 grit at 1400 rpms and decrease the grit and speed from there. This board will have a sanded finish so I will end with a 440 wet paper at about 1000 rpm's. The wet sanding is nice....not so much dust.

FINS

After laminating both boards Skip puts the finishing touches on the fins. The boards will have a pair of these mahogany fins as a twin fin set up. The picture below shows him laminating the fins with a layer of fiberglass.The resin brings out the wood grain patterns in the fins. These are going to look great on those surfboards! Stay tuned.....

Glassing the fishes

With the laminating coat on and sanded, Skip started preparing for the hot coat. He will use fin rope to create the leash attachment point and locate it in the crotch of the swallow tail. These boards are taking shape and should be ready for fins in the next day or so. Stay tuned!

HOT COAT

I had a problem with the hot coat on my last surfboard. For some reason the resin pitted while it was setting up. The result was a deck that resembled the surface of the moon. For a while I thought it was because of the ambient heat but I now think it had something to do with dust on the board. On this board I made sure the deck was clean by wiping it down with a rag and blowing any remaining dust off with a compressor. I ended up with a smooth hot coat that needed very little sanding.



The inspection crew stopped in before school to see Dad's handy work. Never satisfied they pointed out 2 bubbles and 1 brush hair that was in the hot coat. (You can see this in the first picture - next to the stringer.)

Ready for the leash plug....

Glassing

Everyone had a laminate on their board with the Shapefest 09 logo. The kids made their own laminates and had them glassed into their boards. It will be interesting to see how these graphics evolve over time.

Greg sets up to glass the bottom of his board. This year we are going to route out the Futures fin boxes after we glass the bottom. ( Last year we placed the fin boxes prior to glassing the bottom.) We will see how this works out.


Laps are better wetter......

The better I get at soaking the laps, the better the boards seem to turn out. These laps were long but they were clean and easy to lay up on the deck.

GREG'S BOARD IS TAKING SHAPE

Greg has started to work on his board. Here are a few shots of the finished Biofoam blank with a little yum yum yellow (typically striped) paint job. Glassing should take place later this week.

JASON'S FIRST BOARD

Jason finished his board this evening. This was his first shape and I must say it was an all around success. Technically and artistically he did a fantastic job. This board is intended to introduce a shortboard feel to a longboard surfer. Good luck Jason!



Stay tuned for more......

BIOFOAM

BREAK TIME FUN

Time for a little skate break for Mike!Will decided to sharpen his longboarding skills with some bricks and lumber we had laying around.

When bricks aren't enough, sawhorses will do.

It wasn't long before the kids caught on and we ended up with Will's School of Longboarding

SHAPING CONTINUES

After watching Mark and Jason, the little guys start to lay out their own rails.

Meanwhile, Mark is helping the girls with their smaller alaias.

JASON'S FIRST BOARD

This is Jason's first surfboard. After cutting out the blank he begins squaring off the rails.Mark helps with the first rail using the planer and some reference lines

Jason begins cutting in the other rail with the surform planer.

By mid day the rough shaped blank emerges!

After some fine tuning with a sanding block and some sanding screen it starts to look like a surfboard!