Hey Kitey - Making boards, some questions...

[drowningbitbybit]

Hey Chris,

Ive spent the afternoon in my garage re-building a wrecked board, and its the next best thing to actually getting in the water

And to help me, Ive been re-reading the Wishkid's New Toy thread

So Im feeling a bit inspired to (first of all) repair some trashed boards, then shape one from scratch.

So a couple (for now) quick questions -

Where do you get your raw materials? Blanks, glass, resin, hotcoat etc?

How do you shape the holes for the fins/boxes? The board Im playing with at the moment has got glassed on fins, but I'd like to put some fin boxes in there.



I'd go and look at swaylocks but Im scared....

Cheers!

[bluesnowcone]

where and how did u learn to shpae boards aswell

[Phil]

hes gonna be shaping his first longboard soon as well

[bluesnowcone]

sweet, soon as i get alot of cash might get him to shape me a longboard if hes up for it.

[surferdude_scarborough]

i think were definately gonna need an ask ks forum soon!

[drowningbitbybit]

i think were definately gonna need an ask ks forum soon!

...Except its quite breezey - we know where he is and what he's doing

[kitesurfer]

Sorry guys i'm too hungover to think at the mo, even a kitesurf sess didn't shift it!!!!
Will get back to ya laters on the above.
Bleugh!

[kitesurfer]

Yep sways can be a bit scary at times. Bit on the serious side too, full of handy tips though.
I get my supplies from a number of suppliers but the cheapest are seabase in newqauy but there blank range is somewhat smaller than it used to be so i use another company called homeblown and there based in st agnes. Other bits and pieces come from elsewhere but you'll get everything you need from those two. Also if you're gonna give shaping a go you'll need shaping 101 and glassing 101 dvd's. There really good and tell you everything you need to know. That's pretty much where i learnt to shape, watching those dvd's bought the stuff and just got on with it. It isn't that hard just initially alot of unknowns. But if you're gonna do alot of glassing then GET A PROPER MASK with fume filters it's very important as these rsins are nasty!!!
Hotcoat is just surfboard resin with wax in styrene in it, an agent that rises to the surface of the resin that allows the resin to cure properly and thus makes it easy to sand.
Fin boxes are made using a plunge router. Fit you fins into your boxes, work out where to put the boxes, mark out home much needs to be routed out, give yourself say 2mm more than the size of the box all round. Double and triple check your marks, you don't want the fin in the wrong place and trust me it's very easy to get your marks wrong.
Work out the depth needed for your box, you may need to deo several pass's especially if fitting boxes on the stringer. Then start routing away. You can also use hole cutting blades in a drill for fitting fcs but i don't as i fit all kinds of different boxes and a router is more versatile.

KS

[xswind]

Really he learned from watching me make my first and second surfboard style kiteboard, then went from there.

KS's suggestion of the 101 DVD series is a good one and is what gave me the inspiration to give it a go.
The only problem is that they makes it look like a 30 min job to shape and glass a board but all the info is there and is also interlinked with some good surfing footage.

Also there is some really good stuff at the following link.

http://www.viser.net/~anthwind/

I hope this helps

Regards
XS

[bluesnowcone]

is shaping your own board cheaper than buying from custom shapers?

[kitesurfer]

Course it is! If you go ask a pro shaper to make you a custom board the minimum you'll pay will be £400 and it'll just go up from there.

[kitesurfer]

Really he learned from watching me make my first and second surfboard style kiteboard, then went from there.

XS

You'll be amazed what you can learn from a bit of bodging!!!
But no xs kiteboards are top quality.

KS

[bluesnowcone]

you should get a xs kiteboard surf team

[drowningbitbybit]

Cheers Chris

I'll start planning cunning plans and clever tricks.

Fixed up one board over the weekend - it had an utterly destroyed and delaminated tail which I re-built. Its not bad for a first effort (and not really using the right stuff ie bodged) and I'll give it a surf in the next few days and see if it all stays together in the water

[kitesurfer]

I'll be heading down the west country as well matt sometime later this week so if we hook up we can talk boards then. I've still got your number somewhere.

KS