Hollow wooden surfboard

Check out Grain surfboards, they will help you out. Also, if you don't want to build your own stringer and ribs you can order them from Grain or Grizzly. Both are cut out on a CNC. Otherwise I would just use holly or poplar for the stringer and ribs.

BTW, why use Gorilla Poo? Titebond 3 is the best unless you want to mix your own two-part epoxy adhesive.

(disclaimer: I am a woodworker, not a shaper. However, I have been looking into doing a hollow surfboard for a while--please post what you are doing when you start the project)

 

This may not be much help, but there is a guy in Cape May NJ that runs a B&B and has made some hollow wooden boards. We stayed at his place a few years ago and when he saw my boards on the car he pulled them out. Pretty impressive. He actually wrote a book on surfboard design, but not sure it was ever circulated much. problem is I don't recall the name or address........

 

CBLACK, who posts here, has done the Grain deal... did a CI Biscuit, I think. PM him. I rode that board and although it was too small for me, it felt really good... and looked beautiful.

 

Marine ply for ribs and stringer, unless you want to use paulownia. I would skip the walnut on the deck/bottom, will add some weight, unless just doing pinlines with it. Personally I would use paulownia on the whole thing if you have enough. And use the redwood as accents.

Use Gorrilla glue for buidling the deck skins and the rails, it will make you life much easier when sanding the rails, and is plenty strong. But when you bond the skins to the ribs, use 5200 fast cure, can get it at any boating store.

Go for some concave, it won't change the build process at all, you'll just need a few extra shims when gluing the bottom to the ribs.

Take your time, it is all in the prep work.

 

I built a grain board from one of the kits a few years back. The kit provides you with Cedar. I second the 5200 / titebond 3 combo.

http://store.grainsurfboards.com/products/keel-and-frame-sets : there are the frames somebody mentioned. Could be a good starting point for under $200


Also: swaylocks used to have a sick build tutorial/walk-through but i can't find it anywhere online.

 

Titebond consistently out-performs g-poo (sorry, been calling it that for years lol) in tests. The main reason I don't like the poly-based g-poo is the expansion you mentioned and the amount of clamping force needed to get that bond. Expansion + too much clamping force = wood movement. The Titebond 3 ultimate is recommended for submersion applications ie boat hulls and surfboards but is actually a little weaker than TB2. However, you will have wood grain failure with either TB2 or 3 before you have a glue failure. Cleanup is also much, much easier although tb3 will stain your fingers for a day or so. Easier cleanup = less sanding. Less sanding ALWAYS = better (woodworking is 60% sanding).

As far as your father-in-law.... I know exactly what you're talking about.

For the skeleton, I believe Grain will work with you on a custom design to your specs so you don't necessarily have to go with one of their shapes.

Can't wait to see the direction you go

 

Check out swaylocks.com, they have a ton of information on general surfboard stuff as well as wooden boards. Also sheldrake.net, These are cardboard core boards, could give some ideas on how to put it all together has some great time lapse vids. Also as far as templates go there is a spot in the site under that you can run your cursor over and get the full dimensions from tail to nose of width, thickness and rocker, that can help you shape your templates correctly. I have made a wooden board before from scratch.. I used a few techniques.. Mainly I shaped my stringer then made ribs to fit. Between the ribs i glued up rails and then laid plywood on top and feathered it to match the rails. If you do hollow you have to remember a vent plug. I used a brass coupling and a brass screw to match. You can also get a leash plug with a gortex vent, I believe Greenlight surf supplies sells that. When I ordered palownia wood, I got it from this guy named
Dan Blickenstaff (palownia@erols.com) he has a farm in I think SC or GA where he grows the stuff and he will mill it to your exact dimensions.. Actually a 2 by 4 unlike nominal dimensions from Home Depot (1 3/4" X3 3/4"). I have pictures of the whole process on my facebook but I'm not really sure how to upload the whole album.

 

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.434657165650.372502.781745650&type=3

 

http://www.grainsurf.com/forum/

This site is not associated with "Grain" surfboards but it is a forum where you will be able to learn everything baout building hollow wooden boards. I am currently on my 5th build. I use cedar since paulownia is extremely hard to get where i live. I say forget buying any type of kit. If you have a table saw just buy raw lumber and mill your own strips. You will alsp need a jig saw to cut out your spine and rib templates. There are also other ways to uild these which you will find on the site. Tat website is a must read for anyone looking to get into building wooden boards. A board typically costs me about $150 to make but i do everything from scratch. If you want to buy prefab pieces you will pay a premium. I find half the fun is creating the board 99% yourself so you are truly riding a one of a kind board. You can download AKU shaper and use Jadali's hollow board template maker to create your own board template and design. This way you control everything.

 

That's cool rid. Although to match the CNC precision and optimal weight-strength ratio you would probably need a band saw, thickness planer, couple routers, spindle sander and a drill press with forstner bits, otherwise I think it would take forever and come out somewhat sloppy. How precise are you getting yours with just a table saw and jig saw?

 

Let's be honest. How precise do you really need to be? If the board looks allright and floats, it will surf and still perform. As you begin to shape more and more you begin to acquire more skills and tools. Some essential tools you will need are, hand planer, lots of sand paper, glue, some clamps, a hand saw, a trisquare, chisel, and spoke plane (for rails depending on which method you use). Research as much as you can. Watch youtube videos and think it out. Exactness and precision are not necessities when creating a board that will work and look good. Think about it this way, the person who made the first surfboard shredded and had a whole lot less knowledge and fewer tools.

 

I come out dead on. You will not use the CNC dims to create a board you will design a board with AKU shaper and then import the .brd file into a separate plug in that produces a spine and rib template.

I resaw cedar stock to 1/4 inch and rip it to width. I then glue up my deck and plane it down to 1/8" (I forgot to mention I use a planer) you do not need this though. A jigsaw will cut out your spine and rib template dead on if you take your time. You will have to read up on the method to create rails and shape your board but its not very hard. Below is a photo of the last board I made. all I used on this board was a table saw planer, jigsaw and hand sander

 

Lastly, I plan on making a larger mini simmons but since this is my first one, I'm going to skip the concave throughout and go with a flat bottom.



Hey Clemsonsurf,

I think you should totally give it a go because it's an amazing process. My advice goes along with most others that have replied that you can build a board with your own materials...but why?
Companies like Grain Surfboards are experts at the process. That's all they do, build wood boards. If you are going to put many many hours into building a completely flat bottom board how happy are you really going to be with it? A flat bottom board will only ride well in certain conditions. There is a ton of pride in building a board so that will be a given but you don't want to put in 50+ hrs and then say, I wish it had this and that. I spent a week up in Maine building one of their boards(actually the CI Biscuit) and it was awesome. While I was there I said a few times, "I can't imagine doing this at home." The instruction and advice was stellar. The board turned out great and it's fully functioning and beautiful.
If you look at today's modern boards they are all(most) shaped off of close tollerance blanks with built in rocker and foil. Not a single shaper out there would call that cheating. We just realize that someone who has many more resources than us has developed a blank with thought and science that makes it much more likely to perform the way we want.
Don't consider it cheating if you go with a premade Grain blank kit because they are just there to help you. All of us who shape have something in common and that is that we want to be connected to our passion deeper than buying a board off the rack. No one will fault you for going to home depot and buying your own stuff. It's totally commendable for trying and that may be all you need to feel good about the final product you make yourself.

 

You can certianly pay a hefty sum to get a grian kit or you can do the research yourself and create something just as good. http://www.grainsurf.com/forum/ this site has a ton of experienced builder willing to help it also has step by step instruction.

You can build contours into the bottom of your board very easily. Create your design and template using AKU shaper and Hollow Wooden Template maker together. You will have a file that you can print at staples and cut out your template so you can transfer it to wood. There is plenty of info on that website about how to use these programs.

I would also not suggest using poplar for your spine and ribs. Marine ply is fine. I use 1/4 ply and its plenty strong.