Surferguy80
12-08-2007, 07:11 PM
So i guess this would be a good place to get a little prelim. feedback on a recent idea/project...
Latley ive been inspired greatly by my kneeboard and progressive flex patterns. I like the ideas behind perimiter stringers and love flextail boards of almost any shape...but Not many people are building boards with the two concepts working together...eliminate wasted energy (twist), and use the energy stored in your board's back end w/a resposive flex.
what i came up with is a paulownia/cork laminated perimiter rail. The idea was originally intended for displacement hulls, with the wood tapering from the center to the nose and tail, the whole board loading up lengthwise. I got a hold of enough material to build a hull as well as a small quad fish, so i went ahead and built the fish first, without tapering the stringers to the nose...figured it would be a good place to start.
back up for a minute...what is paulownia? its a wood with weight similar to balsa, but a more even and predicatble density. Density is the next thing...you can sink your fingernail into a piece of balsa, paulownia is nothing like that; its a very hard wood, compared mostly to cedar.
anyways, this wood is not very available in the states, but is very renewable (grows about 30ft every two years).
So ANYWAYS. I used a stringerless blank, shaped it out, then cut the rails off tapering out from near the middle to the first wing, leaving the last 12" completley stringerless. The wood was cut out from stock, and laminated to each rail over a period of a little more than a week, with 1/8" cork between the layers.
So...the idea may be good, the execution was not too easy, and this is DEFINITLY not a production oriented build (nor are ANY of my other boards)...so that leaves me with an interesting board, ready for anyone who wants to give it a shot!
(its a 5'10")
pics:
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7041/dsc06201rg2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1554/dsc06208gv1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8772/dsc06206na3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
finished board:
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/6804/dsc06241yl7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
Latley ive been inspired greatly by my kneeboard and progressive flex patterns. I like the ideas behind perimiter stringers and love flextail boards of almost any shape...but Not many people are building boards with the two concepts working together...eliminate wasted energy (twist), and use the energy stored in your board's back end w/a resposive flex.
what i came up with is a paulownia/cork laminated perimiter rail. The idea was originally intended for displacement hulls, with the wood tapering from the center to the nose and tail, the whole board loading up lengthwise. I got a hold of enough material to build a hull as well as a small quad fish, so i went ahead and built the fish first, without tapering the stringers to the nose...figured it would be a good place to start.
back up for a minute...what is paulownia? its a wood with weight similar to balsa, but a more even and predicatble density. Density is the next thing...you can sink your fingernail into a piece of balsa, paulownia is nothing like that; its a very hard wood, compared mostly to cedar.
anyways, this wood is not very available in the states, but is very renewable (grows about 30ft every two years).
So ANYWAYS. I used a stringerless blank, shaped it out, then cut the rails off tapering out from near the middle to the first wing, leaving the last 12" completley stringerless. The wood was cut out from stock, and laminated to each rail over a period of a little more than a week, with 1/8" cork between the layers.
So...the idea may be good, the execution was not too easy, and this is DEFINITLY not a production oriented build (nor are ANY of my other boards)...so that leaves me with an interesting board, ready for anyone who wants to give it a shot!
(its a 5'10")
pics:
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/7041/dsc06201rg2.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/1554/dsc06208gv1.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
http://img227.imageshack.us/img227/8772/dsc06206na3.jpg (http://imageshack.us)
finished board:
http://img91.imageshack.us/img91/6804/dsc06241yl7.jpg (http://imageshack.us)