Holy Crap..It looks like a surfboard!!!

So today was a breakthrough. I took off all the clamps and began the shaping process. My goal when I finished today was just to get everything trimmed up and get a rough sand on it to remove excess glue, bumps, gaps, etc...I first trimmed the top and bottom planks using a jigsaw. This was a somewhat nerve racking experience when trimming the top plank since I was holding the saw at a weird angle and trying to keep it from eating into the rail. I erred on the side of leaving too much material. I followed this up using the hand plane to remove most of the remaining material on the top planks until they were close to the rail strips. The bottom planks I trimmed flush with the rail.

It is difficult to tell where to stop when shaping the top planks to meet the rail. There ends up being a little gap as you get closer to the rail. I was concerned because it was hard to tell if I just didn't glue well enough and this was an area that pulled away, or if I just needed to sand some more. In the end, I think I did a little of both.

I did have some areas where it was obvious I did a crappy job of clamping. This was mainly due to running out of clamps and using the PVC pipe clamps on the tail. Many of them had become stretched out and just didn't have the pressure I wanted. You can notice in the picture there are clamps holding the tail together since I decided to squeeze more glue into the gap and re-clamp it for the night.

Once every thing was smooth, I stepped back and smiled. It finally looked like a surfboard. Damn that is going to be fun to ride.

Good news, most of the split in the top planks was removed when I shaped everything down. It split where the excess hung over. There is a slight mark towards the nose where the glue is filling a tiny gap, but you can barely notice.

Next I'll dismantle the rocker table and build it into a shaping stand to shape the rails and then to glass the board. I can almost see the finish line.

Gluing the top planks on

I measured out the fin blocking and glued everything in place. I found it much easier to visualize the placement having the fins in my hand. I just measured the distance from the tail and the distance from centerline and then placed the fin in that spot. I traced around the tabs that will fit into the board and then used a compass to draw 1-inch circles where the blocks need to be. I drilled a small hole in the center of where each plug will go and used this as my reference. Then on the inside I drew a cross at each hole and centered the blocks onto the cross. It should guarantee that when I drill the plugs they hit directly in the middle of the backing blocks.

Next came gluing the the top planks. I first trimmed a little more of the top planks down to make it match the outline of the board better. I then proceeded to glue and clamp the top planks on according to directions.

On a side note, the 5200 I was using on the frame exploded during this processes. Apparently it had hardened somewhat inside the tube. I kept squeezing the caulking gun but was only getting a dribble of adhesive. So I squeezed harder, so hard that 5200 blew out the back of the caulking gun. Needless to say the rest of the process was a mess. I ended up using a kind of spackle method with a paint stick and the remnants of the 5200 that were splattered in the barrell of the caulk gun. Since it was a lost cause at the end, I'm glad I bought the $4 version. I wish I could say the same about my flip flops :(

I also ended up splitting the top planks as I began to clamp them down. I think I probably split the top planks a little using the jigsaw to trim the planks and torturing them into place just made it much worse. After several minutes of major panic, I got everything down, was able to put a bar clamp on, fill the split with glue and pull it back together.

I also had difficulty with my tie-down clamp system I devised for the bottom planks. The straps pulled down on the edges, eliminating the need to use extra clamps and shims but it also pulled the edges together making the center want to bow upwards away from the frame. This system also probably contributed to the splitting problem. If I had to go back and do it again, I think I would probably do it a little differently. I might still use the straps, but I would run strapping across the top like I did earlier gluing the frame to the bottom planks. Everything glued solid, though it feels like there is one spot towards the front that is a little soft. Since I won't really be standing there it shouldn't be a big deal, fingers crossed.

The fins have arrived!!!

The build progress has been halted because I've been waiting for the arrival of the fins. I decided to go with the FCS Fish Keel fins. I did a bunch of internet research and these seemed like what I wanted. I ordered them online while I was away in CO so that they would arrive as soon as I returned. OF course, once I returned I received an email saying the fins were out of stock and my order would be cancelled. I scoured the local surf shops but couldn't find them locally either. I finally was able to find another online shop that had them, but they would be shipped from Florida. It's taken some time, but they arrived yesterday. The build will progress today and hopefully tonight I will have some photo's of the top planks glued to the board.

Second, I've received some questions regarding the types of glue being used on this project. The glue was included with the Grain surfboard kit, but I believe the planks and bead and cove strips were all glued with Tightbond III wood glue and the frame and keel will be glued to the top and bottom planks using 3M Fast cure 5200 Marine adhesive.

I finished the bead and cove strips and prepped the board to put on the top sheet. This was a fairly easy part. Using the handplane first and finishing with a sanding block and 60 grit sand paper I was able to get a flat consistent surface throughout. I was a little unsure how far up to run the bead and cove strips, so I probably went too far. This is obvious near the tip and tail where there is a huge surface to glue to, and a lot of material that was stripped off.

Something that is probably obvious to many, but not to me, was than in planing the rail to feather onto the frame the line of the rail should be tangent where it meets the frame. I began trying to make the surface horizontal and at first had a great feathered edge until I stepped back and looked at it and realized gluing the top planks like this would leave a small valley beneath. It should basically gently roll outwards. I dry fit the top planks to see if they fit and everything looked good. I was definitely more careful with the hand plane this time, only making a pass or two before stepping back to eyeball the lines.

Lastly, I will be out of town for a week and was hoping to glue the top planks before I left. Unfortunately, I haven't chosen a fin set-up yet and thus couldn't glue the fin blocks in place. It will have to wait until I get back. I talked to a guy down at Doheny Board shop about fish shapes and fins and I may be leaning more towards making this a twinnie rather than a quad. FCS makes an awesome Fish keel wood fin that I think would look great.

Back in a week...

Welcome to my new readers...

For all the readers who have made it here from the Grain website, thanks for stopping by. Hopefully you won't feel daunted by my mistakes. I would like to point out I had very little wood working experience before this. This project was as much about the learning experience as it was about the finished product. Thanks for taking the time to read this and for all the positive comments. Thanks again to the guys at Grain for linking to my blog. It's nice to become part of the Grain community. Feel free to post any questions you might have about my experience and I'll answer them in my posts.

It's been a couple days since the last post. Not working for a few months while the wife is busting her butt everyday means that the list of Honey-Do projects on my schedule is quite hefty. I've spent the past couple days landscaping our front walkway and installing a water fountain. I'll throw some pictures up to show the finished product.

In the meantime, I've been gluing up a bead and cove strip here and there during that time. No pictures since it would just be more pictures of the board with a bunch of clamps on it. I think everyone has seen that by now. I'm close to finishing the rails to the point where I need to begin doing some research. I'm fortunate enough to live in one of the bigger surf towns in the U.S., and thus I"m going to wander around and look at other fish shapes to get a feel for rail shapes, fin placement, and overall finishing of the board. The next step in the actual process is to glue in all the backing blocks for the fins and leash plugs.

I'll get the pictures and stuff up tonight. As a side note, I was worried about the strength of the board in places, but now that I am close to finishing the side rails the board feels bomb proof. This thing should be way more durable than any foam-core board. I don't know why I was worried. Call it beginner's naivety.