What are your winter projects?

[JohnnieMo]

Wow, that sounded horrible! I meant to say nice woody! Hahaha
I want to build a board but have no clue where to start shaping wise. I’d just be taking shoots in the dark.

I'm sure Johnnie will post links, but he posted build videos of that beauty on YouTube. Super informative and a good watch for DIY types. I think possibly his channel is the same name as his forum name if you peeped YT, but I'm sure he will post the link.

Sounds like I'm getting a fan club! Yes it is www.johnniemo.com I found that thing sitting for cheap on GoDaddy so I bought it. Not for any particular reason than it was there. It links to my Youtube page.

For those not wanting to hunt, here is the abbreviated video of Woody:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=85IvnXgI7-c&t=85s

I learned a lot in the process. It was a fun winter time project (that much like this year, I finished in July).

From a shaping perspective I learned these things:
- build a sharp rail if you want speed. Otherwise that coanda effect kills you.
- You don't need a lot of front rocker if you make it skinny in the back. Sinking the rear of the board will pop up the front nicely.
- Affix your fins with quality epoxy. Mix it well and let it dry.
- Buy all your traction pads and fins from Nick @ Chaos

It's fun to ride, but it tended to be too big for anyone under 200lbs.

[JohnnieMo]

Okay I'm an idiot. This is 3/16" steel, not 5/16". I knew something was screwy there.

[freeheel4life]

Not sure if I'm part of the fan club, but I had to watch the board build after the garage video. Once I saw the ingenuity behind lifting the garage with bottle jacks and a little bit of bracing I knew I had to watch the board build

[JohnnieMo]

Not sure if I'm part of the fan club, but I had to watch the board build after the garage video. Once I saw the ingenuity behind lifting the garage with bottle jacks and a little bit of bracing I knew I had to watch the board build

Yup, that makes you part of the fan club!

Seriously though, thanks for following. I get these crazy ideas and I pretty much have to do them. As UNSTUCK said, you don't always have to pay a pile of money. I built the shop so I could build these crazy things.

Speaking of crazy things, here is what I finished tonight.

Here is the bracket cleaned up and then welded for strength with some supports. This is what I call "good one side" welding.

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And the back.

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And here is another example of my G1S welding. Sadly the good side is inside.

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Nothing a little grinding and some flat black paint won't fix. (this is only my third time welding, so be easy on me). And here is the final implementation. As you can see the 'sleeve' which holds the boom is mounted through a single pivot which can be swung in/out and also will 'break' if I drive in to something.

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It's definitely firmer than it was yesterday, however the mount on the tower still has some give to it. The boom bounces a bit, but I can cut it shorter if it's too extreme. This won't work on a choppy day, but I wouldn't record those days anyways. But I do need it to survive big rollers. I plan to put a poly bump stop on the back to give it some strength. We shall see.....

Tomorrow I need to weld some nuts to the sleeve to mount in the bolts to hold the boom in place. Then I think it's time for paint!

[bsreid]

Just a thought but I would spin the fork around so the smaller wakeboard slot is on the outside. Not sure how easy it will be to fit a board with bindings.

[JohnnieMo]

Just a thought but I would spin the fork around so the smaller wakeboard slot is on the outside. Not sure how easy it will be to fit a board with bindings.

You are sharp! I had that exact plan and for that exact reason. Then I started thinking about it. I haven't had a wakeboard on my boat for over a year. If that does come to pass it will have to go in the rack alone. I think it might still work with the boots facing inwards, but that could be unlikely.

The advantage to this orientation was that the straps would come to the inside, and that would be a better situation on a daily basis. Side note, I have a couple boards (including Woody) that fit in the wakeboard slots, so they do get used on a daily basis. With this setup I can carry six board (2 on each side, plus 2 up top).

So full marks for paying attention.

One other thought too... You may be asking why I'm using aluminum for the boom. There are other options, but I wanted to be able to run the power and video cable inside the boom. This meant it needed to be hollow. Any sort of extendable boom would not work. I looked at many. The harder part is going to be where I fit an 8 foot boom in the boat when it's not in use.

[UNSTUCK]

Well you certainly haven't shopped at metal supermarkets then!

That's true. I'm at Metal Supermarkets probably once a week getting material. Their remnants sections is pretty good. They are expensive, but if you only need a small piece you really don't have a choice when everyone else wants to sell you a full sheet or full length, they end up being cheaper.

[JohnnieMo]

Just a thought but I would spin the fork around so the smaller wakeboard slot is on the outside. Not sure how easy it will be to fit a board with bindings.

Thinking some more on this, I could re-locate the straps to the other side. But then I would still have the issue of the mount being off-center. The pivot would no longer work. However I could swap the port rack for the starboard rack and it would work. This would also make them look less "backwards". I'll ponder it.

That's true. I'm at Metal Supermarkets probably once a week getting material. Their remnants sections is pretty good. They are expensive, but if you only need a small piece you really don't have a choice when everyone else wants to sell you a full sheet or full length, they end up being cheaper.

This is true. For the little amount of metal I use, they are still the best. But I never seem to leave there spending less than $100. The remnants section is charged by weight and that helps a lot.

As a related question, what kind of saw do you use to cut steel? I put a metal cutting blade in my 10" chop saw, and it works pretty good so long as I am mindful of the orientation of each cut. I've heard good things about the Rage cut-off saws as well.

[UNSTUCK]

This is true. For the little amount of metal I use, they are still the best. But I never seem to leave there spending less than $100. The remnants section is charged by weight and that helps a lot.

As a related question, what kind of saw do you use to cut steel? I put a metal cutting blade in my 10" chop saw, and it works pretty good so long as I am mindful of the orientation of each cut. I've heard good things about the Rage cut-off saws as well.

Depends what I'm doing. I'm a metal fabricator, so I have (need) lots of options. 4 1/2" cut off wheels on an angle grinder, 14" abrasives on a chop saw, 7 1/4" metal cutting blade on a skill saw, metal cutting blades on a sawzall and jigsaw, hand held and CNC plasma cutting, and every once in a while I still pull out the oxy/acetylene torch.

Busting Out Another Thundred will always be better than Busting Out Another Thousand.

[JohnnieMo]

Okay, so I got everything finalized for the goofy side of my board racks. (not entirely sure why I started with goofy.... that was a bit goofy).

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It's amazing what a little black paint can do! I'll get this installed tonight and tested at the Tige Owners reunion this weekend. Jetter, since you are the only goofy person I know, I think you might be in a lot of video

[JohnnieMo]

And the starboard side is done and ready to test with goofy riders! I also wired it in to permanent power and video on Tige Touch. I have a secondary 7" screen, but for now I'll just use the TT.

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This will be good enough to test and see if it is stable. Despite the small size of the GoPro, it still adds up at that length. The boom itself is around 7'. That length can also be stored in the locker with relative ease. All the steel is now painted, and all the hardware is stainless or aluminium. The vision is complete

I'll post results next week from the TO reunion!

[JohnnieMo]

What are your winter projects?

For those still keeping track of my winter project in June here is a test video.

https://youtu.be/BXDLX9tMkEc

For the record the wave is from a 2013 Tigé Z1 Vx with 400x2 up front and about 800x2 in back with a slight list towards the camera. Suck gate on far side. 3 people in boat.

GoPro is set to 1080p x 30fps medium FOV. The boom is actually quite slanted down as you can tell from the horizon however it’s really not that bad to the viewer. I might add a pivot to the mount to correct for that. The slant comes from the boat list combined wth a bit of bend in the boom.

Through the video I pivot it out and in a bit. I think I could go down to narrow FOV if I get it aimed right.

Due to an assortment of calamities I wasn’t able to get video of anyone surfing. Most of the issues were with cables and the GoPro itself. I had some minor issues with the boom but nothing major.

In the end the boom was quite stable even with two boards installed. I had the boom out a lot even without the GP running just to monitor. I’d say the design will be excellent.

The downside was having an 8 foot pole to deal with. It often became “in the way” even though I could place it in the middle with 4 feet sticking out either side.

The pivot worked amazingly well. I used a lock nut and it stayed fairly right. After a couple dozen swings it needed to be tightened. I have some ideas to work it in better.

As for the vertical racks they are a god send. We literally used the boards on the starboard side more often just so we didn’t have to deal with the crappy horizontal rack. I am thrilled with the decision to do this. As a side benefit the racks don’t stick out as far anymore so I found I didn’t need to swing them in for trailering. They sit about where the guide poles sit. You also don’t have to be afraid of taking out for eye on the docks. Of course the 8 foot boom does that instead.

[UNSTUCK]

Why not use a two piece boom so that they collapse and take up a little more than half the room?

[JohnnieMo]

Why not use a two piece boom so that they collapse and take up a little more than half the room?

If I could find another aluminum tube that would fit inside the one I have, I would consider it. I did cut about 10" off it and it fits in the lockers alright. However once if is mounted it really gets in the way. I'll try it like this for a season and then re-evaluate.

[JohnnieMo]

Finally got around to making a "nice" suck gate. You'd think HDPE would be easy to find in Canada (as we have 3500 hockey rinks full of the stuff) but it was actually quite difficult. I decided to cut the handle so I could orient both levers the same direction. I also made it a bit smaller and at a less aggressive angle than the old cutting board classic.

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I used this rust cure stuff on the old one and all the steel hardware stayed completely rust free. So I used it again. Any of the new bolts and nuts are stainless.

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