| While you are grappling with the tools and the actual nuts-and-bolts of shaping a surfboard, it is a good idea to save some spare mental energy to consider what you are doing, philosophically. Some shapers learn by rote. They'll doggedly stick to a rigid procedure for their entire career. It's good to deviate once in awhile, though. By trying new approaches, condensing or eliminating steps or using a new tool, you will often stumble onto a better routine or improvement in technique. |
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The ultimate goal is to produce the best surfboard possible, as close to your mind's eye plan, with the minimum amount of tooling and labor. It sounds contradictory, but the fewer tools you apply to the blank, the better. Why? Every time you touch the blank with a sanding block or planer it removes foam. The more often you sand, plane or shave the foam, you lessen the chances of being accurate and efficient. There are many types of shapers: whittlers, scrubbers, butchers and surgeons abound. You'll find those with little accuracy, who sort of even the table legs until the blank best resembles a surfboard. But it's a compromise. Then there are those craftsmen who could shape a good, glassable board with just a planer. I bring this up now -- even though you are just learning the ropes -- so you can be mindful of an approach that you must inevitably evolve toward as you gain skill and experience. When I was learning the trade, I was scared to death of the planer. The Surform was my preferred crutch; I was handy with it from years of ding repair and wood shop. As an apprentice of Rusty Preisendorfer, my fledgling technique often came under his scrutiny. Once, Rusty popped in to my shaping bay as I was busily scrubbing the tail of a freshly mown blank with a Surform. He watched for a minute, then pulled down his mask. "Hmm..." he wondered aloud. "Why use a tool to do in five minutes what you could do with the planer in 15 seconds?" Rusty is a surgeon and a minimalist. I was lucky to learn under him. But much more than just getting mere instruction on how to use the tools step-by-step, I was taught an over-arching philosophy of the whole craft. His philosophy was that of a surgeon. Precision was the goal. It is all so very romantic and craftsy to shape a surfboard painstakingly -- as much by hand as possible -- with a flurry of blocks, pads and rasps. But I was taught that you actually shape a board with the power planer. The rest of the steps -- and tools -- are basically aimed at cosmetics; they merely clean it up and prepare it for glassing. Due to the nature of the foam, the power planer is the most accurate and efficient tool you will use in shaping. Many other tools, though you feel that you can control them, will ride over the high spots, clog with dust or just plain trick you into thinking you are doing something. If you are serious about shaping, then you will have to befriend your power planer. You might goof up more at first, but try and resist the urge to fall back on more primitive implements. If you have to buy a few "reject" blanks to attack, using them to do nothing but practice your milling and banding technique, then it's all for the better. |
1. [See Video, Step 2A] Make sure you've put on all your safety gear: respirator, goggles and ear protection. After measuring the thickness of the blank with the calipers, deduce how much foam you need to remove to get near the desired finished thickness. Most planers take off about 1/8 of an inch per pass when the front shoe is adjusted to the deepest cut. (While you are learning, it's best to leave at least an 1/8 inch extra thickness to have as a cushion against error or the tendency to over-shape.)
2. Now it's time to mow foam. Set the soft weight on the blank to hold it steady -- on the opposite side of where you'll be planing. Starting on the bottom (nose or tail), turn on the power planer and push it along the outside edge until it comes evenly off the end of the blank. The planer will cut best and be easier to control if you hold it -- the bed -- absolutely flat, of course, at a 45-degree angle to the stringer as you push it ahead. It will be frustrating at first, but a bit of practice will see you removing long, even bands of foam that should blend together with a minimum of dips or ridges.
3. When you near the stringer, slowly feather the running planer into the wood at the center of the board and carefully plane it all the way down to, and off, the tail. Then, return the planer to the remaining strip of stringer and do the same thing, only this time up to, and off, the nose. Take care to have the planer exit very gently off the nose tip so it doesn't chip off a piece of the stringer.
4. Mill down the other side of the board and go easy when removing the last narrow strip of foam. Without the ridge of un-planed foam to rest the front of the planer on, there will be a tendency to dig a rut into the blank if you don't keep the planer oriented correctly. Counter this by using a lighter touch and by trimming the weight of the planer onto its rear bed as you push it forward. You have now taken one pass off of the bottom. Repeat this step until you near the desired thickness. Save the deck for last. If you figure that you need to take three passes off of the blank, then take two off of the bottom and just one off of the deck. As the stronger, denser foam is always just under the crust of the deck, the less you take from there, the more compression strength the finished glassed board will have. Don't worry if the surface of the blank looks as though you've plowed over it with a combine. Most of the gouges are worse than they look, due to the side lighting. Press on.
5. [See Video, Step 2B] Adjust nose and tail rocker (if necessary) with the planer. You can use an aluminum beam to measure rocker by putting a pencil dot on the stringer at the center point of the board. Place the beam lengthwise down the stringer and measure the nose and tail rockers with a T-square. Make sure you hold the beam down at the center mark with light (don't blend the blank) finger pressure. You can now mark how much more rocker you'll need to cut in.
Use the planer to add desired nose and tail rocker. You'll find this to be easier to control if you adjust the planer cut to a shallow setting and feather in the cuts. Take care in the nose not to blow off a chunk of foam or wood -- you might want to fine-tune the last bit of flip with a sanding block or Surform.
When cutting in tail rocker, you need to think about your vee panels simultaneously. Don't overdo it: most modern surfboards have a slight amount of vee. There are many different techniques used with the planer to do this, but the safest at first is to use a low-cut setting and shave it in. Also, it's best to have your favorite board at hand to use as a study aid. Check out the bottom contours and how they meld together; sometimes it's easier to learn if you can reason it out by looking at a finished board.
To create vee, you usually have to lower the bottom rail area near the tail. The rail line from nose to tail ends up having its own rocker and should follow and compliment the centerline rocker down the stringer. Rail rocker just drops a bit more as it nears the tail. Tail rocker, too, should follow the natural arc of the overall bottom rocker. The ideal is to have all the bottom curves flare into what looks like natural bends or tapers. They shouldn't look stagy, straight or abrupt. This takes dozens of boards to get a grip on and thousands of boards to learn how to do this seamlessly. So don't get discouraged if it doesn't come easily.
It's just like shaving: take long, even passes to ensure a smooth surface.
Video: Larry Haynes
Windows Media: 1.63M
In order to avoid being off your rocker, use your favorite board for reference.
Video: Larry Haynes/fluidcombustion.com
Windows Media: 887K
