Cutting the Finboxes - 4/5/2020

Since I was in the garage, I went ahead and did the final measuring for the asymmetric fish fin boxes and called it good (I could easily get wrapped up into an OCD fueled continuous "do-loop")

I cut my boxes out and used the run as an example for Marlon to follow.

I think this came out spot on - looks like speed and torque had a love child!

Marlon cut his out - with the only issue being the center box falling on a stringer (so I helped out a little here).

Next step is preparing the fabrics and laminating.

Foilboard Getting Closer

Got of lot of things done this weekend.  Helped out some plant people, got the yard work done, rearranged the garage to make better use of the space, and got some work done on the foil board conversion and foil.

The donor board is a light wind kiteboard I made a while back.  I've used it a few times over the years, but as I have been getting the hydrofoil built, I figured doing the conversion would be the quickest way to getting everything wet.  I still have to do a light sand to knock down any high points, tape up all three boxes (middle one is for a tall fin in kiting mode - but it'll need to be taped up again), apply a cap sheet of carbon and fiberglass, and then clean up around the box slots.  All said and done - I should be able to get the foil and the board in the water this coming weekend.  I still think I am too heavy for this foil - I'll start work on another with larger wings soon after this one is done.  not to mention I have two blanks waiting to be carved and a bunch of foam billets also waiting to be transformed into science experiments (literally - upcoming Lacy Veach Day of Discovery).

I opted to not use divynicell blocks in this board as the flanges are pretty wide and should be able to distribute the forces better than a straight chinook box would.  But just to be sure, I did put a slice of carbon fiber beneath the box.  For future reference, I used 1.75 ounces of epoxy for each of these longboard boxes.

Also - you can see the stack of reinforcement blocks I trimmed up.  I've got enough reinforcement blocks to make a total of five boards capable of supporting a foil or some mix with mast tracks and foils (I am starting to think about shaping a windsurf foil board that would double as a SUP foil board).

Lastly - since I didn't take any pictures this weekend of the surf, I'll just mention the sessions here.  Dawn Patrol on Saturday morning.  Fun waves but for some reason they were hard to catch.  Got some decent rides regardless.  Sunday evening glass off session.  I changed out the Greenough 4C 9.5" fin for a 9" Josh Faberow Flex - I love the new combo!  I can feel the fin flex when I turn and it has the right amount of hold.  The GL Flex 8.5" had the flex I wanted, but the size was a hair on the small side, especially when I needed to do a hard bottom turn - this Josh Faberow is perfect for my weight and surfing.

Bench Sander and Scroll Saw Day

Yesterday afternoon I put in more time to getting pieces and parts lined up.  I used the bench sander to get the kitefoil front wing and two fuselages roughed in.

I tried sanding down the reinforcement blocks (for the mast tracks) with the bench sander, but it was taking longer than I wanted.  I cleared the scrolled saw (serves as a garage shelf when not in immediate use) and set it up to trim the blocks.  It worked perfectly!

Next steps here (as this now makes 5 concurrent projects) are using the random orbital sander to fair in the foil parts, and using the plunge router to clear a void for the mast track boxes to fit in.

Monday's Progress on the Foil

I was able to sand down the base plate and the mast.  I did it around 5:30 in the afternoon... should have waited as it was freak'n HOT.

Afterwards I took a close look at the d-cell glue-ups.  Everything looked good.  Eat dinner, clean up and then around 9 pm I had the urge to epoxy the two planks together so I could get to cutting and sanding these blocks down.  Marlon helped and we did the calculations to determine how much epoxy to mix (6.7 mixed, with 18 spoons of milled fibers).

I'll break out the sliding chop saw and the bench sander this afternoon to get these boxes all faired in and ready for inserting the mast track boxes.  This project is turning into a lot of work... I just realized I'm going to have to make a couple of shaping racks - yeah, a LOT more work (but Marlon is learning so technically this is a course, and it is fun work - it's all good!)

New Router

Makita 18V - I'm looking forward to cutting with this!!!  Gonna coming in handy making a new magnetic knife rack for the kitchen and making mounts for the hydrofoil.  Stayed tuned!

The Start of Something New

Or perhaps a better way to classify this is "A new way of doing an old thing"

 I'm getting ready to take a new look at surfing and SUP. I'll keep this mysterious for now...