Foiling in the nose

[tomway]

Have any of the shapers on this site used a sander/grinder for foiling a blank up in the nose area? My little bosch planer won't get in there (at any angle) for scooping and I'm not overly fond of the surform. Following the ambrose surfboards link on another post, I noticed a pic of him with the sander and a big pad looking like he's about to attack the nose.

I'm wondering if this might be an alternative - seems like there's a lot of room for 'blankicide' tho

Tom

[Jon Manss]

Hi Tom Why doesn't the planer work? Are you creating a spoon type nose? If so the grinder works, but be careful it can take a bite our of your blank real fast and watch out for the rotation pull.

[surfhorn]

Yep, listen to Jon. Nothing more surreal than when your grinder grabs your rail and spins your nicely shaped blank off of the rack and into your flourescent lights.

[Scott]

LOL, surfhorn!

[tomway]

Hi Jon

Not a spoon nose, but the only planer I've got while I'm at my parent place in England is a cheap bosch, single, narrow blade, 1/8" cut max depth on the shoe, and the knives are thin little strips on a keyway, so no room for adjustment. The blank I've got at the moment has got loads of rocker in the nose and no matter how I position the planer it won't touch the foam.

A very kind onlooker pm'd me yesterday, and gave me some advice about using the grinder for this job. If anyone else ever thinks of attempting this, the basic tenets were: soft pad; fine hi-grit paper (P160-200) lowest rpm you can get away with without causing the sander to stall; keeping the pad on the stringer helps by reducing the effects of chatter if the sander does start to stall; be very careful! Based on surfhorn's description , I'll add: have a mate hold the blank while you do it.

Fingers crossed!
Tom

[surfhorn]

Most of us who have worked on boardsover the years have all the planers, grinders, pads and various tools already. But we all started somewhere.

The very first KB that I shaped (in 1969) was done with only a regular hand saw to cut out the template, a small 6 inch surform and sand paper: no planer-no grinder-no screen.

As far as holding the blank down while you're working on it, I used a couple old, flat, lead diving weights covered in carpeting so as not to ding the blank.

[stevea]

hi tom looks like youve been given some good advise one or two things 1 have you tried planining accross the blank you only need to remove the crust 2make up a shaping block with the heaviest grit 40 make it big and heavy and rub in long even stokes and keep looking at whats been taken from where good luck ps ive used a grinder and sander be very very careful or that blank could double in price before your eyes

[Doc Turbo]

Hey Tom, hope things are good for you and your family in the UK. How's the weather there now? We just had about 5 surfers from UK in town It was only 2 ft over the weekend, but the swell is coming up now, so hope to hit it a couple times this week. Got me a GoPro tiny little digital snap shot camera hope to get some photos.

Off to Sumbawa, Maluk on Monday for week, hope to Surf in Morning, and work in afternoon.

Keep in touch. By the way, I did not know you were a shaper ... I have tried my hand some over the years, and I think I will live it the the experts ... Let me know how it goes

[tomway]

Hi steve and stephen (hmmm... do you think there's and indon gene in the 'steve' naming somewhere?!) good to hear from you.

Funnily enough, if I'd waited a week I would've had all this answered first hand. Just got back from a fish-fry in Devon attended by loads of shapers including Pavel, Manuel Caro and Christenson. Got to see the later shape a board - extremely impressive for a 20/30 board back yarder like me. He had the grinder out within ten minutes, doing exactly what I was asking. Scooped the nose out with the Skil, a bit more with the long surform held sideways, and then finished with the little (high speed) grinder with what looked like a softish pad.

What was a real eye opener (I'm sure familiar to steve and the other noted shapers here) was the efficency with which he shaped. He only flipped the blank twice during the whole process. Once after skinning - then he shaped the entire bottom including the rail and all the bottom contours - then flipped again and did the entire deck. Grinder came out again to do the chamfer on the fish tail and blend it.

Loads of food for thought!

Stephen, are you working in Maluk? Lucky, lucky! Supersuck right on your doorstep!! You might want to bring your one palm wetsuit protection for that

All the best,
Tom

[Jon Manss]

Very cool Tom I have been away and have just seen this thread again. It is always fun to see what comes down the info hiway. I got a lesson here as well. My old skil planer works a good 1/8 inch carve. Most of the new planers don't even touch that. But you got good advice as usual from the clan.

[Doc Turbo]

Hi Tom, yeah got Supersucks on .... this about my 6th trip there, and the best waves ever, and surprisingly 4 kneeboarders in the water. One body boarder told me he had been staying in Maluk Bay for 6 weeks, and the day I paddled out was the best ever. I plan a trip usually the mine site every 2 to 3 months, so not only is it a sweet location, but the tab is on the company

I will try to get you a photo sometime, barrels were very very good.

I plan on hitting Genteng this weekend.

[tomway]

Stephen: stoked you scored! I watched that swell come in on the spectral. Must've been heavy out there... Please post a pic if you can! Where did all the kneelos come from? Miners or a charter?

Meanwhile I had a week of onshore waist high windswell in the English channel (and that's a treat for July!) Can't wait to get home. 'ku sangat rindu nasi-padang - have a rendang for me will you...and one of those curried eggs...and some of those spicy soft shelled crab. I'm so hungry, all anyone eats here is bread and the food doesn't taste of anything

Anyone else here surfed that part of Sumbawa before?

[ross]

Tom, i can vouch for two of the kneelos.Both are from the central coast of NSW Australia.i was also in the area, but our boat opted to stay at Scars after watching the rest of the boats head to supersuck.Masakan Padung! dont forget the little potato things.

Scars was very solid with the odd ten footer sweeping the line up.i got locked into one and can clearly remember how square the thing was getting before i saw the coral head starting to pop up in the flats in front of me.I thought i was a gonner, but all i did was scollop a good size piece out of my heel.

Steven, heard there were a couple of other kneelos around at Supersuck.How did you go with the boat full of Kiwi pros(and i use that term lightly.Maz was the only one who could hold his head up at ten foot Scars.). I also just got back from 8 days at Genteng, the only other surfers i saw rocked up on day 8!

[Doc Turbo]

Hey Ross, never quite found the time or the friends to head down to Genteng, so ended up surfing Cimaja, and Lodji like a do most weekends. Yes there was 4 other kneeboarders out in Supersucks at the time, and they were having a blast. It was so good in my opinion and theirs too, that we could hardly believe it.

If you are still around West Java, give me a call +62811968435 maybe we can hook up for the weekend.

[tomway]

... yeah Ross! the potato things, 'perkedels'. Best ever.
Scars really is class isn't it? Rediculous how you can get locked in there though. And on a moon low tide the whole reef sticks right out of the water a couple of feet. Like a wall. Lurvly