Thoughts of a new board....anyone have a bandsaw mill?

[stoneaxe]

I love surfing, and I enjoy both woodworking and landscaping. Combining the three into one project should be fun. Our new house has some very old arborvitae in the back that makes deeply shaded spot where I'd like to create a hidden garden with my granddaughter. I've decided I'm going to take down these three, turn the stumps into a table and take the wood to a sawmill. Arborvitae is very light, it's listed as 22 lbs/cu ft, which makes it slightly heavier than Paulownia but there is wide variation in arborvitaes. These seem very , very light. I cut a large log out of one already...14' long, 12" to 16"in dia and I can pick it up and carry it on my shoulder easily. I cut that one up already for some wood for a few projects....I just finished carving a whale weathervane and I'm starting a tiki. The ease of working the wood and it's weight is was started the idea.

I'm going to have these cut into 2" wide planks. The big one in the rear is 20" in dia, It will take about a 4 months in a solar kiln to dry them. I'm going to take the design I have in Shape3D and export the profiles somehow. It will be chambered of course. I have a nice set of forstner bits, start out with the biggest 3" and make my way down to 1/4"...kind of a honeycomb. Leave a 1/4" between holes and a 1/2" at the surface.....or something like that....I need to do a little research.

So here's a picture of my new board...... .....and I threw my weathervane in for the hell of it....arborvitae is really easy to shape.

[surfcowboy]

This sounds fun man. I've got my eye on some agave here that'll take a few years to mature, so that should give me some time to work up my nerve.

Check some of the guys on sways who have routed chambers as well, or drilling them to start and then jigsaw between the holes is also a good one and quick to get volume out.

[bbqSUPer]

My first sup was a hollow wood board.  You make an internal frame and cut thin strips to lay over the frame.  I used cedar.  If I had to do over again I would go the route you are taking.  Will be much faster and easier.  I would take the advise above and drill your corners for each box you are going to cut out and this use a jig saw.  Think it would be quicker.

Please post a thread when you do.  Sup and woodworking are two of my favorite things.

[SlatchJim]

So here's a picture of my new board......

I like riding a log too 

This could make for quite a retirement fund splash...

http://www.theinertia.com/surf/check-out-these-incredible-3000-year-old-surfboards-that-are-going-for-100k/

[SlatchJim]

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Arborvitae_Lumber.html

I was a bit confused because the arborvitae I know about here in CA is a small juniper.  I had to do some additional research to find that some varieties of Cedar in New England are referred to as Arborvitae.  At best this is just my regional confusion. 

I'm excited to see you make this board Bob.  I'll be following the thread closely.

[stoneaxe]

It is a bit confusing when it comes to arborvitae....I used to have a tree farm and have grown the damn things from seed...when it comes to lumber there seems to be confusion as to source. What is typically sold as "arborvitae" in nurseries here in the northeast is Thuja occidentalis also called eastern white cedar.....not to be confused with the eastern red cedar....

Coincidentally.... the whale I just made has a body of eastern red and flukes and tail of eastern white. Red is far heavier.....has me wishing I had used all white.

I've been talking about building a strip built one for years. Andy Gere has a thread on here from about 8 years ago about his, beautiful board. I was building paddles at the time and had lots of cedar around.
I've seen the chambered boards done like you describe, quicker for sure and removes more wood.

I'm going to need to see the weight savings of various methods. I also want to assure strength. It will probably be a combination, remove more material in the nose with bigger chambers (this board is not intended as a noserider), less in the middle where my bulk will be testing the structure, and the tail will be mostly solid with all the fin boxes. It will all be designed in 3D so i can easily try different combinations 1st.