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Post by jensen1031 on Sept 8, 2014 9:48:54 GMT -5
Good morning everyone. Just picked up most of the materials yesterday for my FIRST 11'SUP. Before I even get started I just wanted to thank this site, its administrators, and the participants of the forums for some amazing work and insight. I have been lurking around for about a month before I finally took the plunge and bought plans. I will be shamelessly taking bits and pieces from each of your builds.
Im looking forward to getting started and plan on posting pictures along the way. Im sure that I will be looking for advice, so if you see something, please please please say something.
My first question relates to the soon-to-be dropping temps in NJ. I have a detached, unheated garage for a workspace. Some postings have talked about wood splitting/expanding/contracting with the changing temps. Is ther anything that I need to consider in this regard? Are there certain parts that i need to do now while its warmer....or certain things that I would need to wait till spring on?
For what its worth, I will be using 19/32 plywood for spine, 50MM luan for ribs (a little thicker--for a thicker guy). Skin unfortunately will be pine but I will be staining it a nice cherry color (alcohol based, i know) to get some contrast.
Thanks again in advance.......and away we go!
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Post by juliangibraltar on Sept 8, 2014 13:15:50 GMT -5
Hi Jensen, welcome to the forum!!! Cant really help on the heat aspect but the one thing that caught my eye on your comment was "the thicker guy".....I'm pretty sure the design is excellent for us big guys so dont over compensate for this and add more weight to the board...I did and mine is 70lbs! FLoats and paddles like a dream but a pain getting it to the water. The construction is pretty solid (as is the fibrelgass and resin) so try and keep it as light as possible with all the smaller bits like the fin blocks or handle etc see if you can find some balsa or something.
Looking forward to the photos!!
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Post by jensen1031 on Sept 8, 2014 14:27:57 GMT -5
Thanks Julian, I agree as I read your whole experience and I would like to trim the weight. Unfortunately this was the closest plywood and luan in the area without getting special cuts. Im going to try and slim it as much as possible with the skin, knowing that the glass will support structure.
Has anyone shrunk the dimentions to a 10'6" and if so, could I accomplish this by reducing the spece between each rib to get an overall 6" reduction?
Since this is my first and ideally I will be building one for my wife as well, i could experiment on the next one.
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Post by jensen1031 on Sept 8, 2014 22:52:19 GMT -5
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Post by jensen1031 on Sept 8, 2014 22:52:56 GMT -5
Last pic for the night......ribs cut and rough sanding
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1974
Full Member
Posts: 131
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Post by 1974 on Sept 9, 2014 21:51:31 GMT -5
Looking good! Can't wait to see the stained skin. Good luck with the build!
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Post by jensen1031 on Sept 14, 2014 7:08:10 GMT -5
Making some great progress through the weekend. All ribs are cut and sanded. Yesterday was "Hol-ey Saturday". Finishing joining the spar and picked up the lumber for the rocker jig that I am going to work on today. Big news was that I got the wood for the skin yesterday. Had to drive over an hour, but well worth it. Found nice cedar and had them mill it for only $20! Saved me a week of work splitting, ripping, and planing. Let alone the mistakes I would have made along the way. Pics below.
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Post by jensen1031 on Sept 14, 2014 7:09:43 GMT -5
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timbo
Junior Member
Posts: 74
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Post by timbo on Sept 14, 2014 18:22:58 GMT -5
Looking good so far Jensen. Re the temperature, most glues are OK above 5 degrees but suggest you check out the data sheets from the manufacturer. I would most certainly not attempt the fibre glassing until you have a shop temp of at least 70F or 21C. Check this out from Rob Macks site, it's certainly served me good - www.laughingloon.com/epoxy.html. There is also some other good info under 'shop tips'.
I have literally just finished glassing and adding the 3 coats of resin to fill the weave after getting the temp up to 23C. I just have to wait a few days for it to fully cure before I sand it and then maybe another coat of resin and sand again if necessary, it just depends how it goes. In the meantime the resin is hard enough for me to fit the fin box, vent plug and leash attachment. Then there is the paddle of course. Ah well keeps me out of mischief!
Incidentally at 220lbs I had the plans copied at 105% to get some extra volume, the board ended up at 11' 6" long and 33" wide. I shall have to make some form of calliper to measure the thickness. You might consider shrinking to say 75% if you want a smaller board for your wife.
Good luck with your build and hope you find this helpful.
Oh, I noticed that some of your wood had knots. If you are using the triangular rail method then make sure you either have knot free wood or, at the very least, align the knots with the straight bits of the sides and nowhere near the curvy bits.
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Post by jensen1031 on Sept 16, 2014 22:37:53 GMT -5
Timbo thanks for the advice and getting deeper into this I'm thinking that I will get everything all complete heading into the winter and keep the board on the rocker jig till spring when I can glass everything.
I agree on the knots but it was the best that they had, and minus driving 3 hours they were the only ones around. I'm going to buy a nice piece of pine for the rails. That will also give me some wiggle room on $$ if I break a lot of these things.
I have the rocker jig built and FINALLY level. Spar and ribs all glued and I lined up the boards to be glued together this weekend. Good progress so far. Will send pics out later
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Post by jensen1031 on Sept 17, 2014 9:21:38 GMT -5
Some progressive pics of the rocker jig being built and lastly the spar and ribs glued up. Starting to look like a real board at this point. For anyone that is looking to make a jig like this, here are a couple of learnings plus the materials list: -Giving credit where credit is due - I took a lot of inspiration from the KANSAS build posts. -The dimensions are 12'X4'. I wouldn’t change the 12' portion, but 4’ is a little too wide. Not a big deal now, but I may need to use a step when it comes to planing and standing. Im 5’11’’ and I can barely reach across the whole jig. Perhaps 3’-3.5’ would have been better. -I used 2x4 for the main beams, 2x3 for the cross pieces…..just to save $$. -3/8 all thread for each post that you see (16 per side). They were cut to 12” each. Should be fine for a majority of the pieces, but I should have cut 18”-24” for the nose and tail pieces. When I clamp the top piece down there isn’t a lot of thread left to catch. We’ll see how that goes. -Each post has a nut on the top and bottom of the 2x4, and then 1 nut on the bottom of the 2x3 with a wing nut on top – total 4 nuts per post. If you want to get fancy, you should use washers along the way, but I don’t think that’s necessary. -I drilled each 2x3 with a 3/8 drill bit, but in hindsight I should have gone one size bigger. The fit was perfect, however when it came to leveling I needed to use a mallet to move the pieces which was a real pain in the arse. I think the nuts will make up for the wiggle of a bigger drill hole -I used a drill press to drill the 2x4 since a straight hole was completely necessary. I would highly recommend this. There was one hole I did with a hand drill……and it was the one that gave me the most trouble. -With leveling – I would recommend getting everything roughly in place by sight, then start on your center rib (position 8-9) and work your way out nose to tail. And most important – make sure that your sawhorses are level first. Took me 3-4 ribs to realize what was wrong. -Once everything was complete, I marked the center line down the entire length of the jig and I also marked the center line down the width of each post. This was really useful when I got everything lined up for gluing the spar and ribs.
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1974
Full Member
Posts: 131
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Post by 1974 on Sept 17, 2014 21:42:53 GMT -5
Kansas build that's me!!!! You're making excellent progress I really enjoy watching all the builds on here! Keep posting pictures!!
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1974
Full Member
Posts: 131
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Post by 1974 on Sept 17, 2014 21:49:34 GMT -5
I'm happy to hear my build was inspiring! It took a lot of time and patience, as you already know.
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Post by jensen1031 on Sept 18, 2014 9:34:05 GMT -5
Thanks '74. Hoping to glue the hull boards this weekend. Working on the top clamps for the jig tonight. I have 1/2 a sheet of the .5in. plywood. You think that would be able to supply the needed clamping from the top?
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Post by jensen1031 on Sept 22, 2014 8:47:52 GMT -5
Hey everyone. Another productive weekend. I needed to buy one more board to ensure that I had 36” inches across so I picked up a nice piece of Sapele from the lumber yard. It adds a beautiful stripe that will fit nice on the hull and the deck. Unfortunately, this lumber yard wouldn’t rip and plane the board, so I had to make the jig per Chad’s instructions. I included pictures of the setup. Overall I think it went very well. Its not 100% even, but I don’t think I could have measure this any better and should be able to correct this via planing and sanding. Next was to finally glue the boards together. I ripped plywood pieces that I will re-use on the rocker jig to provide the downward pressure to keep this flat. From there, I just clamped the hell out of the rest. At first I tried to do the whole thing together but realize 1) that it was way out of my league and 2) I didn’t have enough clamps to go 36” wide. Since I have 9 total planks per side I did it in 2 sets – 4 and 5 planks each. I then combined them in the center. Took a lot longer than I wanted (4-5 hours to cure) on each side…….but I think it got the job done. Everything is on the rack now and Im going to plane off all of the excess glue on top and bottom before I glue the skeleton to the hull. That’s it for now.
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