BACKYARD SHAPERS

[purple pyramids]

no never heard of aku shaper. but onto it now. thanks for that.
i spent 10 minutes over at swaylocks and now have a folder full of lis fish templates. although i liked this guys advice:
"Sheesh - That's the problem with futzing around with computer designs (unless you're having a computer shape the thing).... it's easier to just plot a couple of key dimensions on a sheet of Masonite and use a flexible rod/sail batten/Hawaiian sling/bicycle safety flag whip, etc, etc. to trace the curve."

have you got aku shaper, its a free program and you can print of templates from that, Im sure someone here has more experience than me with posting that pic into it to get a template then print off, im gonna muck around with aku tonight with your pic to see how I go.

[kayu]

no never heard of aku shaper. but onto it now. thanks for that.
i spent 10 minutes over at swaylocks and now have a folder full of lis fish templates. although i liked this guys advice:
"Sheesh - That's the problem with futzing around with computer designs (unless you're having a computer shape the thing).... it's easier to just plot a couple of key dimensions on a sheet of Masonite and use a flexible rod/sail batten/Hawaiian sling/bicycle safety flag whip, etc, etc. to trace the curve."

have you got aku shaper, its a free program and you can print of templates from that, Im sure someone here has more experience than me with posting that pic into it to get a template then print off, im gonna muck around with aku tonight with your pic to see how I go.

....a handy tool for making your templates is an old tapered bream fishing rod - the narrowing tip bends nicely around a tightening curve at the nose and tail of a surfboard !......

[diggerdickson]

trouble with just blasting templates out is what to do with em when you get em if you know what I mean. Im trying to muck around with what Ive got but no real success yet. Ive still got one project on the go and Im now making a skateboard for a freind to hang in his store, will measure it up tonight, cut ti out of one of my snaped boards tommorow, its gonna be 53 cm long, will glass it, fillercoat it, then polish it, just for fun, he is gonna hang it in his shop with some rice paper decals promoting some products if we both can get it work. Should be fun. Should be finished by sunday if I get good weather.

[dUg]

hoping to scale this up to 5'8" or 5'10":
so what's the first step here - make a template, right?
do i make a template for one side and just flip it over so it's symetrical?
image too large, so just a link. it's a lis fish blueprint with detailed measurements.
http://www.hollowsurfboards.com/Surfboa ... s_Fish.jpg

Something like this PP? Might be able to get a full scale for you, worst case a trace.

[damo666]

I though I'd add a few progress shots of my first ever shaping attempt, after playing around in Aku Shaper for ages and thinking about lots of possibilities - my 8yr old son and I are taking on a father & son project and attempting to do a mini simmons.

First step down this path was when we ran across two old sailboards at the local tip ($25 each!). The one the simmons is coming out of was 8'8 "x 23" x3 1/2", so has plenty of foam for us to play with!


Stripped the foam and knocked up some stands


Roughed out the outline, my son has done 85% of the work with me just helping and trying to provide some pointers (a bit of the blind leading the blind!!). Its going to be somewhere around 5'6"x 21 1/4 x 3, with about 45 litres of volume.


One quick question - the original board had quite a deep double concave bottom (pictured below). Should I try and retain this, or go for the more traditional big single concave that you see on most simmons?? The board is going to be used as a small wave cruiser.

[diggerdickson]

Ok, let me tell you about my latest visit with the fuck up fairy... on my latest blank, I grapped her, skimmed the bottom, and really set my goal on the bottom rocker, I got it beautiful I tell ya, just beautiful. Problem was, I was concentrating so hard on the rocker, whittling away all happy like and focused, focus focus on the task, withgoing food and drink till I got it, took 2 days of mucking around, dont laugh Then I looked at the deckline and planed to tie it all in, and screw me, the deck line would just not be there.

My mistake was I did not look at the blank and read it properly before picking up the planer in excitment and just got stuck in focusing so hard I forgot about the next step.

So instead of getting a perfect deckline Im going to have to settle for something that I now is not perfect

All backyarders, sit back, look, relax, pick and read your blank better than I,, learn from others mistakes, and if you make one yourself, share it but still have fun.

HAPPY SHAPING

[pridmore]

you need a decal with the F.UCK UP fairy on it mate...
Damo, good to get the grom involved, and the shape looks good, reckon you'll enjoy it...whats the plan for fins , glassing etc ???

[diggerdickson]

you need a decal with the F.UCK UP fairy on it mate...
Damo, good to get the grom involved, and the shape looks good, reckon you'll enjoy it...whats the plan for fins , glassing etc ???

now you got me thinking mark, I reckon that could be a funny logo

[damo666]

Thanks Mark, I'm desperately trying not to c@ck up the rails at the moment.

I'm thinking semi-traditional twin keels for it, possibly the Shapers SFK ones.
The thought of trying to glass it scares me....a lot. I might see if I can find someone on the south coast to glass it for me (if there is anyone out there that has a recommendation, please let me know).

[diggerdickson]

nice first job mate, real nice. Let me just say glassing scared the crap out of me as well, it still does. Now my fear is fin boxes under the glass, and glassing on fins over channels, but thats because I aint done it yet if ya know what I mean.

I can sorta understand why you might get someone else to glass it because your boy is involved with this so you want it to come out as perfect as you can. But the one thing you will miss is that beautiful smell, getting resin dripping down your legs and pulling out leg hairs getting the stuff of you, having resin drip into your hair as your tucking under the edges, lol, good times.

One day you gotta glass a board, the first one is so scary, but with the amount of videos out there, and with uv resin you can just take your time, it will be all yours. Even if you just end up turning it into a wall hanging, it will still all be yours.

I hope you can find someone mate

[Beerfan]

Can't see the pics!.

Digger, embrace the F&^K up fairy. My best board was pretty crude to look at, had sqaure rails that were rounded off, and was thick in the nose and tail. Fuggen worked insane anyway. Still my fave all time board. Ya never know

[dUg]

Ok, let me tell you about my latest visit with the **** up fairy... on my latest blank, I grapped her, skimmed the bottom, and really set my goal on the bottom rocker, I got it beautiful I tell ya, just beautiful. Problem was, I was concentrating so hard on the rocker, whittling away all happy like and focused, focus focus on the task, withgoing food and drink till I got it, took 2 days of mucking around, dont laugh Then I looked at the deckline and planed to tie it all in, and screw me, the deck line would just not be there.

My mistake was I did not look at the blank and read it properly before picking up the planer in excitment and just got stuck in focusing so hard I forgot about the next step.

So instead of getting a perfect deckline Im going to have to settle for something that I now is not perfect

All backyarders, sit back, look, relax, pick and read your blank better than I,, learn from others mistakes, and if you make one yourself, share it but still have fun.

HAPPY SHAPING

[diggerdickson]

Ive been so wrong in my headspace to do any shaping for the last 3 weeks that ive not touched my blank, wondered down to the shaping area last night and had another look at it and noticed things on the blank that ive never noticed before. Im so lucky I havent got a time frame to complete this board and im attacking it this weekend with a clear piture in my mind of what I now have to do. I feel so much better about it, its just taken time to get my headspace right agian.

Happy days again, its only taken 3 weeks to feel this way. Go those magic pills, they really do work

Now, wheres the beach agian, its time to get wet, I think I can face the ocean agian with a smile and enjoy myself

[damo666]

So I totally wussed out and have shipped my mini simmons off to professionally to be glassed, it was looking too good for me to c#ck it up!! (Yes, I am very scared of the fairy...)

Should have it back this week for some xmas waves and I will post some piccies, cant wait.

Next on the list is a grommie shortboard for my boy, and I'll give the glassing a shot on this one.
As a bit of practice before then, I shaped a rough little handplane out of the leftover nose from my blank & will give this glassing thing a go next week.

[diggerdickson]

HEY DUG, I cant wait to see that fairy on a board mate, will give us a better look at it then mate.

[diggerdickson]

ive spent many a night just staring at the blank im sorta working on and ive decided to narrow the board from 20 to 19, it just sorta seems right to do this, this weekend I hope to bring the outline to this and then cut in the first rail band, maybe even both rail bands, but i doubt I will get that far, my goodness Im slow at doing a board, spend more time staring at the blank than doing anything else

[kayu]

....do both railbands digger...not just one ! ( its like shavin off half a beard)

[Trev]

Here's a start.
Digger's board. he says, "all the photo shows is the first rail band completed and ive only just started a little bit on the other side".