Learning to Shape - Start Small - Hand Plane Build

[surfcowboy]

So, after years of reading, some reluctant ding repair and much encouragement from the folks on this board I decided to see what it was like to make a... SUP...lane. Ok, so I didn't want to waste a ton of materials on what would be my first (and probably very goofy) build, so I chose a handplane. It's basically a miniature surfboard and it would take me through each part of building a board.

I learned the answers to the following:

What happens if you keep sanding off of each side of a blank to "even it up?"

Why do people seal and or paint blanks?

How do you keep from getting epoxy everywhere?

How long can one man sand something?

How long do I have til the epoxy kicks?

How thick is 2 layers of 6 oz glass?

What are pinholes? (Also, what are the following: fisheyes, zits, sand thru's?)

Why are boards so expensive? (See Sanding)

How many times can you hot coat something before it weighs the same as your car?

Why do shapers try so hard to get things smooth before they glass? (See Sanding)

Why the big deal about "smooth laps"? (See Sanding)

All of the shapers and builders here will laugh at those. I had a ball and made a passable, if slightly wonky-shaped, bodysurfing machine. I'm ready for a mini simmons and a shaping lesson and then... maybe a standup board.

Here goes.

I chose the highest quality 1" US-Home-Artic-Clark-Depot foam blank.



Printed a template and glued it to the foam and cut it out. (Hey, why do they worry about getting the sides flat? What could go wrong?)





Measured things out for some reference. (Winging it!)



And sanded til it was good enough and I was confused about how to make it "better". This is where I will be taking a shaping lesson to learn how to leave it alone when it's close. Note for handplane builders, it's harder because they are smaller. It's just so unforgiving a tiny bit makes a huge difference. In the end, declare it good enough for the first one and move on. ( I shaped 2 in 45 min each and just glassed the cleanest one.)



The nose rocker is pretty sweet. Should be great for late takeoffs. 



Ready for some glass and epoxy. Double 6oz so I could see how thick that is for future reference. (This was basically my learning about glass and epoxy.)



Oh, so that's why people paint the blank. Colored resin can get weird fast.



Skipping ahead through 2 or 3 filler and hot coats. (I had to learn those lessons about why you need things smooth and what flattening laps and all that was about.) Cutting out holes and installing leash plugs for the hand strap mounts.



Q-Cell and resin poured in to install the plugs.



Final sanding only went up to 400. I took my longboard repair up to 1500 grit and saw how to do it right but I didn't want to waste the time/effort on this one.



Finished! Can't wait to get it wet and this will be in my bag for all Hawaii trips from now on.



What all did I learn and can I pass on?

It's cheap to do this little project. Maybe $40 in materials, but I had a lot of the tools already. The biggest investment was a Harbor Freight sander and my foam sanding pads but now I'm mostly ready for ding repair and backyard glassing.

It's harder in some ways to make a handplane due to the size. In addition to the issues with shaping at close tolerances, I couldn't use my sander and I had to tape it down for a lot of operations so that was extra effort.

Will I buy my next SUP? Of course. But I am going to forge on with a prone surf board (maybe a 6'6 Mini-Simmons?) and then I'll likely tackle some crazy shape and size SUP that I can't easily source for my size. (75 liter tomo sup anyone?) With my limited weekends and nights that should cover 2015.

Thanks to all the shapers and builders who post here. Thanks to Swaylocks, especially the folks who were there years ago and set the tone and thanks to the Zone for sharing info on the sport so freely and keeping me stoked when I'm surfing my desk.

[supuk]

Good job sounds like you have learned a few valuable lessons in doing the project and the main one being how long it takes!

I had a chap ask me if I could show him how to build a board and how many hours he needed to put aside. He genuanly thought he could build a sup in a day so when I said about 4 full days he was a little shocked!

You soon realise when building something even small like a hand plane how much time and effort goes and in fact these expensive custom boards that people see them as are actually very well priced.

The key is to get each stage as good as posable before moving on.

Good luck on the next board I would love to say it will be easier but in reality it won't and you will probably get the same problems again plus a few more but it's always worth it in the end when you get it in the water .

[surfcowboy]

Ugh, I'll fix my images in a few.

Thanks UK, it was a really fun experience.

[surfcowboy]

Ugh, I'll fix my images in a few.

Thanks UK, it was a really fun experience.

Pics all fixed. Thanks Admin!

[PonoBill]

Couple of things that you might try next time.

Most people like to add leash plugs after glassing but before the hot coat. I like to tape over the opening, then run my sander over the top to clean off the tape everywhere but in the hole. Then glue the plugs in before glassing with the top of the plug just slightly proud of the surface. Let the epoxy set up and sand the plug perfectly flat to the foam. Don't oversand or you will dish it. Don't leave it proud or it will lift the glass. Don't ask why I know this.  Glass as usual and after everything else is done use a un-piloted holesaw or a plunge router the size of the inside diameter of the leash plug to trim away the glass. A little sanding to round the edges and you have a super-neat looking leash plug. Too fussy for the pros, and no good reason for doing it that way other than having no plastic ring showing. I doubt it's really stronger, but it looks great.

When you have a sharp nose like your hand plane it's tough to get the glass to cover it smoothly. Instead of trimming the glass to lie flat with a butt joint a lot of people try to lap it a little to seal and reinforce the nose. This gives a little fold in the nose that looks kind of crappy and everyone winds up sanding that away, which probably makes the nose weak. I cover the nose first, with a narrow strip of very floppy 4oz or even veil. Wrap it around the nose like you would tape around a paddle edge. push it down with a throwaway brush and it will conform to even the sharpest nose. I do two layers, about an inch wide anywhere I have a hard break, for about two inches each side of the nose. No reason to make it even that wide but the nose gets a lot of beating, so I do. Let it set up and when you do the main glass you can cut it to butt without compromising the nose.

Don't put the glass on dry, pre-wet it on a piece of cardboard or window glass and squeegee out the excess. If you do that it gets the weight down to prepreg levels and avoids thin/thick spots.

I haven't done a lot of boards, but I've done a ton of race car parts. Most of my ideas come from that. Screw inserts and fittings are almost always glassed over instead of being glues in after. Common use is to seal fittings with RTV or thick silicon grease instead of masking them. Then you countersink into the fitting and pick out the RTV.

Incidentally, I'd think screw fittings might be better for your strap than leash plugs.

I've seen colored glass work, but the folks that do it well are absolute artists. The one time I've tried glass tints it was a total disaster.

[surfcowboy]

Thanks Pono,

The nose thing is excellent. You are right about sanding away the glass there. I have to do that and also would be good for the tail. I'm about to start another set to just take it a little further. ( I want to try a cut lap on a small scale. )

The plug thing is a cool idea. The FCS ones looks like they are made for that exact setup. The screw mount would also be a good thing to learn.

The tiny was easier than I thought and I might try another pass. The main issue was that I didn't really understand how important having a perfectly white blank is.

I'm doing the next one out of EPS and will spackle and paint it to see  how that goes, then maybe a full board. I have to say, building these smaller pieces is a great way to learn without wearing myself out. I recommend it to anyone who's squeamish about diving into building. It's easier and harder than you think.

[surfcowboy]

Oh and I forgot to say, I did the wet out table method on the longboard repairs, it's great.

I wanted to do this one the old way to see how dry I could get it. I see why you and DW like the table.

A question, if I did a whole board, should I lam with slower resin so that I have time to mess with it? I used kwik kick (~15 min) and it was fine but I wonder if it's better or worse to have the working time.

[PonoBill]

If you use the table method to prewet the kick time doesn't matter too much since the epoxy is all out of the pot pretty quickly. I use medium and I'm usually doing all the added fussing of vacuum bagging with peel ply and breather and I have plenty of time. Once it's spread out the epoxy goes off a lot slower.  If you want to use faster kick because that's what you have, just pour it into a roller pan to get the layer thin. It's the heat collected in a cup that makes epoxy kick too quickly.

I like glassing over plugs for just the reason that's obvious in your picture--I don't like the big white circles.

[surfcowboy]

What's that thing they say about practice? I always forget. Here's number 2, spackled, painted and ready for glass.

Pono I think I'm going to try to put the plugs in after the lam but pre hot coat. I'm not sure I'm clear on how to glass over them and get them dug out cleanly. Off to YouTube again I guess.

[SlatchJim]

I love this thread.  It's like cupcakes for the cakeboss.  I get to learn so much and see it in all it's truth and wrinkles. 

I was talking the other day with a coworker about building a board.  I KNOW beyond a doubt it won't be easy...but how much fun would it be...

[surfcowboy]

Thanks man, I'm halfway through that second one and it's much cleaner. The board build, if/when it starts should be hilarious.

[stoneaxe]

Cool....I'm going to do the same. I just ordered myself a vac bagging setup so I'll get a chance to practice with that too. I also have a chunk of foam 4' x 2' x 4" thick, after a handplane or two I'm going to build a boogie board. I also bought some veneer, I may try a walnut burl on one of the handplanes.

[surfcowboy]

Update, second one is in hot coat stage, taking my time. I've drawn 2 boards  a 6'6" prone simmons and a 7'6" SUP. Still on the fence but in the meantime I'm working on paint schemes and got my vinyl cutter going to cut some template guides. I should be releasing some files soon for anyone who wants to shape one of these little guys and also maybe some DIY calipers that I drew up, if, they work.

I want to see the vac bagging thing, I'm super curious about how it all works and I've read everything on the internet and watched vids but I'm still a little wary of it.

[Biggreen]

Post em' up. Love to see both designs.

And the vac bagging changed everything for me. Love it.  And it's really pretty easy. Along with using the wet out table, the combined methods make things go pretty swimmingly.

[blackeye]

I want to see the vac bagging thing, I'm super curious about how it all works and I've read everything on the internet and watched vids but I'm still a little wary of it.

Vac bagging is somewhere between super easy and not, between super successful and not. I have found the biggest obstacle is the research and the planning. Just do it on some test pieces to start. Make some plate or some bars or some other stock shape you can use for something else later if it works out.

Its pretty amazing the variation of techniques used. I have found that there is no substitute for the peel ply if you want to eliminate bubbles. My other rule is: Just make sure the resin doesn't go up your hose and into your pump. That is a drag.