Any interest in a build thread?

[Surfdad]

The next steps are sort of shaving, measuring, sanding, planing the stringer and repeating until it's where we want. So the next installment will be to use the surfform!

[Guma]

Holy smokes you weren't kidding the shipping is expensive. Just for fun I put a blank in the cart and created an account, $185 for shipping on a $55 blank to Florida.

So I went to USBlanks website and found they have a distributor over in Melbourne FL. I have a close friend who lives in Melbourne and can pick me up a blank so I don't have to pay shipping... WooHoo! I want to give this a try sooner than later.

[Guma]

Question concerning shaping...

Is the electric planer is used for the bulk of the material in relation to the thickness of the finished board? Then we will "shape" with hand tools, i.e. the concave on the underside?

[IDBoating]

Holy smokes you weren't kidding the shipping is expensive. Just for fun I put a blank in the cart and created an account, $185 for shipping on a $55 blank to Florida.

Rats. I just had two family members in southern California. They could have picked up some blanks and carried them on the airplane for something like $20. I'll put out the word that folks coming from CA need to call me first!

[Guma]

Here is the distributor page for US Blanks... Maybe you are close, or know someone close to one of the distributors.

US Blanks Distributors

Edit: How close are you to Burlington WA? Assuming your username is Washington...LOL

[IDBoating]

Burlington is on the west side of the state, about 350 miles away. But I'll make a weekend of it to save the $130 (GASP!) they charge for shipping!

They offer surfboard kits in the ~$125 range that look interesting. And shipping one, two, up to eight of them to a single commercial address costs $130. Residential addresses are SEVENTY DOLLARS more.

C'mon, seriously, folks. I just bought two paddleboards almost 12 feet long each, almost 30 pounds each, shipped from New York, three separate boxes (one for paddles), and their combined shipping to my residential address wasn't even that much. Sounds like they pad their profits with the shipping in the surfboard blank industry. Yikes!

[Guma]

Since they are asking if the shipping address is residential or commercial I think they are using Freight shippers versus UPS or FedEx. Hopefully Surfdad can share some insight on why.

[Ewok]

That seems expensive but I bet they are boxed in plywood crates to keep them perfect for shaping.

[IDBoating]

Since they are asking if the shipping address is residential or commercial I think they are using Freight shippers versus UPS or FedEx. Hopefully Surfdad can share some insight on why.

From their website:

We ship by UPS, Parcel Post, common carrier and airfreight. We ship the vast majority of orders with UPS. UPS next day, two-day or three day select can be accommodated for most orders upon request and will be invoiced accordingly.

And, those paddleboards I mentioned came via freight (container, then local truck) to a residential address and didn't cost nearly that much to ship. Yes, perhaps they are plywood boxed... but the paddleboards were worth a LOT more and they certainly knew how to ship them safely (double boxed, bubble wrap, straps and staples).

Just doesn't seem right that shipping exceeds the cost of the blank itself!

[Guma]

I missed the explanation on their website of the carriers.

Per the checkout, the Box Fee is only $20 and holds 1-4 blanks. Order 5 blanks and they charge another box fee of $20.

Now it makes no sense at all why the shipping is so high.

[Ewok]

I just found this explanation on the website of the WA distributer for us blanks. This is their explanation, but I think it's crazy expensive too, I think there ought to be a cheaper way as well.


Surfboard Blank Shipping - More than you might want to know

Many customers wonder why it costs so much to ship surfboard blanks when they don’t weigh very much.* The cost to ship them is high because of their size and volume.* Most blanks are too large to ship on UPS Ground or Fed ex ground and must go on a truck.* The trucking companies base their billing off of how much space the blanks take up in the trailer, space that otherwise could be taken up with a heavy item and bill based on the volume and not the weight. Also the trucking companies have what they call a minimum charge.* In other words they will take a 1lb package but realize for them it is the same amount of work to ship a 1lb package as it is a 100lb package so they have a minimum amount that they charge to take freight.* Often times with surfboard blanks the minimum charge doesn’t get exceeded so for the same cost in freight we can ship 8 blanks with glass, fins, and other parts.*

[IDBoating]

In the shipping industry that's called "dimensional weight". They take into consideration both volume and weight. Either one being higher costs more.

For comparison, I'm a whitewater kayaker and I used to buy and sell kayaks quite a bit. I could ship a 40 pound, 8x2x1 foot (16 cubic foot) whitewater kayak coast to coast using truck freight for well under $100. So I still think there's something going on.

The more I think about it, the dumber I am. My wife was JUST in Riverside CA, visiting her brother who is a hardcore surfer. She even called me while visiting some of the surf shops and was talking to "the shaper in the back room". There were probably blanks sitting right there. Grrrrrr.

[Surfdad]

Most of the blanks that I have had shipped to me, are just inside a carboard box. No reinforcement. It's always been my impression that the shipping is a separate "profit center" for these folks. They don't use FedEx or UPS, it's normally a common carrier like Joes Express or whatever.

Be forewarned! The shipping is the most expensive part!

[Surfdad]

Sorry I've been MIA. We attended the NWWSA Wakesurf open over the weekend and part of last week, always takes me so long to catch up on things!

James won the men's pro surf division, so that was worth the trip!



Back to Guma's question

Is the electric planer is used for the bulk of the material in relation to the thickness of the finished board? Then we will "shape" with hand tools, i.e. the concave on the underside?

Yeah, we'll use the electric planer to "mow foam" and get the board dimensionally as close as we can. Shaping by hand is tedious and we can, for the most part, map out what we want to achieve before we start out. So for example, our bottom concave might have a maximum depth of as 1/4". We won't mow 1/4" of foam away, but we can mow 3/16" and then put the final touches in with a sanding block and surfform.

So for example, let's assume the concave has a maximum depth of 1/4" in the very middle of the board at the stringer. It then gracefully curves out towards the rails to 0" depth, or flush with the rail. We'll set our planer for a depth of 1/16" and then run one pass right down the middle for the length of the concave. we now know we need 2 more passes to get to our 3/16" depth, but we also want to create the graceful curve out so our second pass will move out from the center 1 planer width and we'll actually do 3 passes. One pass on either side of that first center cut and then down the center one more time. We'll repeat this again one more time, moving outward again, so in affect there will be 5 unique paths cut down the bottom of the board. The furthest outboard will be 1/16" deep. The next inboard will have had 2 passes and should be 1/8" deep and the final will be the center and it will now be 3/16" deep.

If you were to run your hand over it it will feel like a stair step. We will then use the hand tools to smooth that stair step into a continuous smooth arc, with the maximum depth at the centerline of the board where the stringer is.

The wooden stringer will prove to be your arch nemisis though. The wood is significantly more dense than the surrounding foam, and so as you are shaping by hand, the foam will shape way quicker than the wood, leaving the stringer "proud" of the surrounding foam. We'll use a hand block plane to take that down BEFORE our final shaping of the foam with sanding blocks.

The reason being is that as you go to take the wood down with the block plane, you'll tear the surrounding foam out, leaving an ugly scar. Going slowly with the plane and then following up with our sanding blocks will leave the surface flush (foam and stringer) and take out the tear marks.

Hopefully I'll get back to this later in the week and thanks for your patience!

[Surfdad]

Back to it! Thanks for the patience folks. I wanted to touch bases on the concept of rocker and how to measure it. In general, flatter rocker lines produce boards that are faster down-the-line, but tend to not turn as sharply as more heavily rockered boards.

Our design for this board is to be a cruiser, so we'd want a fairly flat rocker. We're somewhat limited by the blank itself, but we can shape OUT some of the rocker with our concave and by planing down some of the apex of the bottom of the blank.

There is no universal method for measuring rocker, but we'll present the most common method. BEFORE that, we'll also ask you to think about a different concept for wakesurf boards.

So the most common method, to measure the center point of the length of the blank. Then place the blank upside down on some stands or sawhorses. Next, place a level on the center point and level the blank, using a level. You can use scrapes of foam or sometimes it just requires sliding the blank back and/or forth on the stands.

Once the blank is level place a long straight piece of wood or aluminum channel. This is referred to as a "rocker stick". I use a short section of aluminum channel and it's marked in the middle to allow me to balance it easily.

Just to be sure, I like to double check that the rocker stick is level by checking it with a level also.

Make sure that the rocker stick extends beyond the length of the blank and then measure from the bottom of the stick to the surface of the bottom of the blank.

You can take that measurement at the nose and tail and when you read about a blank having nose or tail rocker numbers, THAT's how it's determined.

Many folks will place their wakesurf board on a flat surface and then measuring from the flat surface up to the bottom of the wakesurf board. The probably with that is traction and thinned out noses impact that measurement by virtue of gravity.

Now for the pictures! Things you'll need level, pencil, tape measure and a rocker stick.