| Shaping the rails -- and blending them neatly into the deck -- will cost you the most time and patience of any stage in making your board. |
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You are trying to tie together all the complex curves so they look natural or organic, as if they'd grown that way, but you have to use flat, straight and often clumsy tools to do it. Before you take the planer to the rails, it's important to visualize what you want the rails to look like. It's a good idea to map out your rail bands on paper (see below) to get an idea of where to place and how deep to cut your bands. In fact, in your spare time, it is worth practicing your rail bands by doodling how you would arrange different sets of bands for different types of rails. |
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A few points to keep in mind: first, you may notice -- after careful study of the above diagrams -- that most of the rail volume is adjusted farther up onto the deck than you would think. Beginners frequently will take too much foam off of the rail extremities rather than taper the bulk into the deck 4 to 6 inches inboard. Then there is the concept of symmetry. Don't be compelled to have both rails perfectly identical if it means going back and forth to even them to the point where they depart from the rail you had wanted. Tom Morey once wrote that when it came to surfboard design, "Symmetry is the biggest waste of time." He's probably right, but it's still the stamp of a master shaper to produce a passably symmetrical surfboard. But don't worry too much about it. Water flow won't stop you and ask if your papers are in order. Water will bend and wrap and pour across even the funkiest board. Anything you shape will work well enough as long as you have a wave slope and gravity. And if it makes you feel any better, close scrutiny would reveal that many of the name- brand, pro-endorsed boards on the market aren't any more symmetrical than our imperfect human bodies are. |
1. [See Video, Step Four] With the board deck up on the racks, prep it for rail-banding (turning the rails) by evening out or cleaning up the nose and tail extremities with a Surform or sanding block.
2. Use the planer to turn the rails by cutting intersecting bands from nose to tail. You can do this with the board flat on the racks, using the soft weight bag to hold it steady, or you can place the board into the crooks of your racks so the rail edge points up at you from a 45-degree angle. Sometimes it is best to cut the first band with the blank tilted like this, and then lay it flat to do the remaining bands. Also, it will help if you visualize and plan how much of the middle part of the rail you will leave untouched. This strip of rail line will eventually form the blunt apex of your rail radius and is best left alone until the next step, where you'll blend everything together with more sensitive tools than the planer. You can mark this off-limits strip with a pencil line if it will help you see it more clearly.
3. Cut in your rail bands, starting with the lower bands and working up onto the deck. Try to make long, even bands -- don't short stroke yourself into making dips or gouges.
The trick to using the planer in this step is knowing exactly where your blade is cutting (not always easy at first) and learning how to zero out or feather your depth of cut as you near the thinner nose and tail areas. You'll have to get the hang of turning the planer more perpendicular to the stringer as you near the upward curve of the nose rocker. It may help if you start by using a shallower cut until you get your mojo going.
Don't worry too much about bringing your bands all the way to the very tip of the nose and tail. It will be too easy to get in trouble at these sensitive, thinner areas until you have more fluency and control with the planer.
4. After you have cut in your three or four intersecting rail bands, you can blend them or extend them into the nose and tail using a Surform blade or light sanding block.
You can use a Surform -- or just the blade -- to shape down the tailblock to the desired taper. You can whittle the bands you have cut into a rounder shape with the planer if you are comfortable with it. If not, you'll blend them all together by hand in the next step.
Use a hand block plane to clean up and even out the stringer on the deck. Start from the nose and work toward the tail, unless the wood grain fights you and you have to work the opposite way (but never push the block plane off of the tip of the nose tip, or you risk breaking off a tip of foam and wood).
This is the halfway point in this particular shaping routine. The board is now rough shaped, and if you feel like giving it a rest until later, this is the logical time to do so.
Making the bands.
Video: Larry Haynes
Windows Media: 1.50M
