Speaking of little boards...
This one is a 5'10", like 21.5 wide, but very thick, I think close to 3". The rails are just barely on, need to be shaped out still.
The build schedule on this one was:
cut final outline from blank
shape bottom contours
inlay finbox reinforcements
attach bottom skin (1/40" birch veneer)
shape foil/rails to almost finished
route 1/8" deep inlay cavity for teardrop-shaped balsa deckpatch
vac on deck skin (birch veneer) with balsa deckpatch underneath
measure and cut away 1" of rail all the way around perimeter, keeping edge 90 degrees to bottom
vacuum on two layers of 1/2" blue dow foam for rails
That last step was kind of a bitch. On the tail I had to use a bunch of little pieces to get it right, due to poor planning. At the nose, the strips pushed away where they met at the tip, must have been just a little too long, so I'll have to fix that up too.
The final step before glassing will be to cover the blue foam with carbon fiber tape and cutlap. I'd been planning on doing that all along, but now especially after seeing how ugly all my joins turned out, I definitely want to cover that mess up.
The next one I'm doing is a 6'5" quad, with a nice dark grey veneer. No idea what kind of wood, might even be dyed, but it has a super clean and straight grain, and a sweet dark color. On that one I'm definitely going to leave the blue rails as is, should make a killer contrast.
By the way, using big sheets of veneer is a bitch. Compound curves (like where it curves up the nose rocker AND over the rails at the same time), forget about it. VERY careful planning is required to get decent results. There's a reason most everyone chooses to do something "else" with the rails when using veneer. Only surftech has the power to wrap the rails completely.
Here's one other thing I've done recently, in conjunction with my buddy jeff at spindriftsurfboards. Bamboo veneer over stringerless eps, carbon fiber wrapped rails.
December 02, 2008, 09:09:16 PM
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