Day 32 - The end has come! (sort of...mostly)

Today was a momentous day for our little surf project - 4 weeks and 4 days after we started, it signified the end of our the major work, and the end of our time in the little barn across the road. Drew and I started at 10:30am and once the room was up to temp, we put on Kat's last hot coat. I also had the little repair job on my left fin box that we put a patch of 60z cloth on and resined up which we left to dry while we did Drew's fish, and then Micah's board. By that time (many hours and a meal later) my board was ready to hot coat again, and that marked our last official hot coat for these four boards! Once that was done, we started sanding down boards to get a smooth finish, Kat added a pin line on her deck, and we finished by sanding off the resin and cloth from our fin boxes and testing all the fins. They all worked perfectly!

Even though we're more or less finished, we do have some touch up sanding to get the boards smooth, and leash cups to install, but those are all very small jobs that we'll just do over the course of the next week or so as we tidy up. But at the end of the night yesterday (after another 10hr+ day) we finished by taking down our custom glassing bay walls (bed sheets and staples) and spent some time cleaning up Milton's shop, which he has graciously let us use for longer than expected. Thanks Milton!

Also, the big question mark in our "project over" proclamation is that Drew's semi-gun is still an eyesore. Fortunately, we think we know how to fix it, and after doing all the other boards, this one will probably turn out the best of all! So we will probably have another post or two about leash cup installs and fixing Drew's gun, but for now, bask in the glory of these few pictures of our mostly finished boards (Justin's and Micah's). I'll add a few more later when I get Drew's camera as well.

Attendees: Drew, Justin, Micah, Kat

Day 31 - epic day of everything

We weren't messing around Saturday and had grand master plans to get as much done as possible this weekend to try and wrap things up. Everyone was at the shop by 9:30am and once the room was up to temp, we got right into it.

In laminating the bottoms of our boards, we used the cut lap method, which meant we ran masking tape around the deck, wrapped the bottom cloth around onto this tape, and cut the cloth at the masking tape lines to get a smooth lap line. In retrospect, we're not sure if this was necessary or not, but it did cause us some grief in cleanup. Because we painted our boards before glassing, the resin started to pull up paint when we took the tape off. Drew managed to come up with a method to minimize the damage on his Fish, but we all ended up having to do a bunch of touchup in preparation for glassing the decks.

So, while Micah did this touchup work on his board we glassed Friday, we started on Kat's. We devised a highly advanced and technical format to track and maximize our glassing and drying times - pencil and a stick of wood. Ok, well at least the chart was fancy. I think we burned it though so you'll never know. We were able to plan out all our flip times by tracking this way, and make sure that we could move boards and turn everything around to get as many top laminates and then top hot coats done as we could in one day. We were able to do all 4 top lams and all 4 top hot coats, by using a "cheater coat" and doing the hot coat (resin only) before the top cloth had dried completely. This worked perfectly, and 12+ hours later, all 4 boards have just the bottom hot coats and clean up to do Sunday.

Attendees: Drew, Justin, Micah, Kat

Day 30 - friday night lights

Last night we got the last bottom lam coat on, which was Micah's board, in preparation for our big days Saturday and Sunday. After Drew's gun mishap, these next four boards have gone without a hitch, and it seems to get a bit easier every time. We're learning lots and hopefully we retain all this for next time we came boards. Another late night, but we're up at the crack of dawn Saturday to make sure we get everything done.

Attendees: Drew, Justin, Micah

Day 29 - laminate fish with a side of dust

Wednesday we pulled off a late night in the bay to glass the bottom of Drew's fish and get it ready for the weekend. This seemed to go off without a hitch and now it's only Micah's board left to laminate in prep for our epic weekend of glassing. Micah also put in a few hours getting his board ready, which we hope to do Friday night. Pics to follow if we remembered to take any!

Attendees: Drew, Justin, Micah

Day 28 - so that's how that works!

After a late night of reading the Swaylock's website, which contains a wealth of surfboard building information, we tweaked our glassing setup, and re-attacked it with a vigor on Sunday afternoon. We started right after lunch, got the shop cooking again, and prepped all our tools. First up was Kat's board, and we were just a little nervous after the results on Drew's gun Saturday night.

But our revised process worked flawlessly, and the board came out looking like a professional. The logos worked perfect, with the rice paper disappearing and leaving the graphics behind, and the cloth soaked up the resin as it should, leaving a clear, smooth finish all over the bottom and the rails. 30 minutes later, we were finished, and the board looked great! Once we brought the room back up to temp, we tackled my board, and it turned out just as good. We were ecstatic that we got it right, as this critical step (there seems to be a lot of them) could have ruined all our hard work.

This week is a bit of a rest, as there's not quite enough time to glass a board and keep the room up to temperature long enough to let it cure on a week night, but we'll be making sure everything's ready and hopefully finish most of our glassing next weekend.

On a side note, after having his gun rail partially melt off and repair, then having the glass job on his gun go awry, we also put a big gash in Drew's fish while moving it and prepping it for glassing, which meant we couldn't glass it and spent the day bringing it back up to speed. I can't imagine how frustrating this has been for Drew, but he's handled it all with heaps of class and a winning attitude, and we're all hoping we can get his boards fixed up and into the same condition as everyone else's by the time we're done

Attendees: Drew, Justin, Micah (I think), Kat

Day 27 - It's glassing time!

This was the culmination of several weeks' worth of efforts. Almost all our prep work was done, and besides a few small touch-ups, we planned on glassing our first board today, which is the beginning of the end of this little winter project.

We made sure all our tools were ready, and we spent a bunch of time hanging some blankets and sealing off any openings to the outside and getting the fire cranking that little shed up to about 35°C. Once we double-check everything was ready, we cut the cloth for Drew's gun, and laid everything out.

One small hiccup was that our measuring cans were in 80z intervals, and with a 2-1 mix of resin to hardener, we were having to mix 24oz at once to get it accurate, but we only needed about 15-20 to do one side of the board. We decided on doing the extra, glassing a test piece on our little tester mctester, and then using the extra to go around and install the fin boxes on everyone's board first (except Micah's, who is slacking off and isn't ready yet...). The testing went perfect, and the fin box installs went super smooth, which was a nice payoff after all the time we spent to get the router cuts just right.

Then we started on Drew's board. The process for glassing involves leaving a 2-3" overhang around the board, spreading the resin over the top, and then brushing it onto the "laps", and tucking them underneath. You also paint on your rice paper decals underneath this. Everything seemed to be going smoothly, but about 20 minutes in, we realized it had taken us too long to do the testing and the boxes, and we were running out of active time with the resin. This was making it gel, and not seep into the cloth properly and also making the rails a hassle. In the end, we got the board done, but there were a number of air bubbles and excess resin on this board. We decided to leave it and see how it dries before we figured out how to fix it up.

Attendees: Drew, Justin, Micah, Kat (and guest helper Ben again)

Day 26 - Do a little jig

A lot of little things still to do before we glass these boards on the weekend, but we were up to the task last night. There was some tape to remove from painted boards, and some touching up of pin lines, etc. The big job was getting the rest of the fin boxes routered out as we had some issues with the jigs we'd been trying.

Lucky for us, Ben Stretch showed up, and we figured out a way to cut out a simple but effective jig in some masonite that we could use for both cuts, the box and the flange. We traced out our sizes, and measure the paths for the router, and then Ben cut everything out with the jigsaw, leaving us with one large oval for the flange, and a smaller oval insert to fit inside that for the inside box. We tested it, and then used it to cut the rest of our fin boxes and it worked almost flawlessly, making a nice clean, tight fitting cut.

Micah also started painting his Black Beauty and we prepped some of the stuff for glassing as Saturday & Sunday are going to be dedicated glassing days! Hopefully we'll have some great stuff to show off on Monday.

Attendees: Drew, Justin, Micah (guest helper and jigsaw/router expert Ben Stretch)

Day 25 - To router, or not to router

25 days of surf board making, and we are pumped with the results so far. As of last night, we have 2 boards completely ready for fins and glassing, and two more very close, with the last one needing a bit more TLC. I started my revised board design last night, after ditching my pinstripe idea, and went with red rails, which is turning out pretty cool so far! Hopefully we'll have some pictures of it tomorrow. Drew also salvaged his gun, and did a fantastic job on it. I'm not sure if we have pics of it yet or not, but he carefully cut out the damaged bit, cut a new piece of foam to fit, glued it in and weighted it, and then re-shaped the new rail to match. It looks fantastic, and it seemed to be a minimal amount of work for the amount of damage that was there. Good job Drew!

We also got down to the nitty gritty last night and cut our our first fin box in an actual board - Kat's board to be exact! Micah has done some great work with getting the jigs ready to make routing out the fin box holes as painless as possible, but we still have some tweaking to do before doing the rest of them. Having said that, the first one looks great, and it's awesome to see a fin box in one of the boards already!

We're really hoping to go at it all tonight with a vengeance, and have at least three, if not four of the boards ready to glass on Saturday. Pics to come!

Attendees: Drew, Justin, Micah, Kat

Day 24 - Remove the tape!

Drew and I put in a few hours last night continuing with the epic painting projects. I finished putting the white coat on my board, and Drew completely finished his Fish, so we took all the tape off and it looks awesome! The stringer looks especially good on the green bottom.

We also confirmed that it doesn't look like the pinstriping will work. The special tape we bought from the US won't stick properly either to the foam or the paint, and it also bleeds paint because the surface is not 100% flat. So, that means bad news for both Drew & I. My whole design was based on red pinstripes, and Drew planned to finish his gun with white pinstripes and add a black pin to his fish. Back the drawing board!

Attendees: Drew, Justin

Day 23 - Get 'er done...

Micah and I put in a big, long evening last night, filled with all kinds of shaping and painting goodness. I got the last coat of white on my board and it's ready for some detail, and then we spent the rest of the night getting Micah's board caught up. We did all the usual measuring and marking and then carefully cut out his rails and blended everything in. By this fifth board, the process seems so much more straight forward. Not that we know what we're doing yet, but now that we've done a few, it feels like a much more manageable process.

So Micah's almost caught up to the rest of us, and there's only good stuff to come!

Attendees: Justin, Micah