SCOTCH BRIGHT BOARD ART - Creative Buck

Here is a link to a sweet how to video by the guys at Korduroy.tv and William Sagar showing you how to make patterns in the gloss coat of your boards. This would be an interesting thing to try on a wooden board.
have a look... and check out William Sagars blog at creativebuck.com

SCOTCH BRIGHT BOARD ART by Creative Buck

Have you tried anything like this? Send through picture of the results.

Fold your own board bag

Manual Caro of Mandala Custom Shapes is constantly making beautiful surf boards and while I was browsing through some of my favourite sites the other day I came across the following post on his blog and just had to share it:

"I’ve been making my own board bags for years and during the last few I’ve skipped the sewing part altogether and started wrapping the boards in old sheets and cool sections of fabric that I find at thrift stores.  The Japanese call the art of wrapping gifts in cloth and paper “TSUTSUMI.”  Here’s a step by step on how to make a simple board bag without having to do anything but a square knot :)

I for one will be giving this a go with some future boards and a whole lot of interesting fabric. Thank you for sharing this Manuel.

You can find his work at mandalacustomshapes.com and theswallowtailsociety.tumblr.com   

Stretch your clamps further

Everyone has a limited amount of dollars to spend on gear so sometimes we need to get a little smarter to make what we have stretch further.

Here is a little trick I use when clamping the top and bottom decks on my plywood boards. This came in really handy while I was in the process of building up my clamp supply. It really helps with the way I build boards and is particularly helpful if your top or bottom decks are thick and need the wood to bend a little further right at the edge.

The idea behind this is that the spacer you are applying pressure to will spread the pressure from the clamp along the length of the joint. The spacer evens out the pressure between the clamps and this creates a longer point of contact rather than just two very small points at the clamp location.

-Get a length of timber say a minimum of twice as deep as it is wide that will run the length of your board while bent around the rail edge.


-Tack clamp the piece you will bend around your rail at half way making sure there is enough length at each end. 

-Clamp at even intervals working from the middle out to either end at the same time.

This piece acts like a beam, the deeper the spacer is the more resistance it has to bending and the smoother your joints will be. You will need less clamping pressure as well. 

Now you must figure out how far you can push the timber you are using as the spacer to get the best pressure.

By using this technique you can push the spacings between your clamps out a little further.

I hope this helps.

A toddlers wobble board

This is a little project I trialled for my eldest son when he was just over a year old. It's a toddlers wobble board, a board he can pretend to surf on that has both rocker and belly.  By playing on this board the kids get to learn how to balance on a board that wants to move in every direction just like a surfboard without too much extreme. Both my boy's love it and the eldest will hang ten while leaning back into a soul arch! 

To make this I used some 4mm pine ply that I had lying around the workshop. The construction is a centre stringer with one thickness of 12mm packing ply rails sandwiched between the top and bottom. The way to get the belly in the bottom is to have the bottom of the rocker well below the rail line. The board is finished with a couple of coats of linseed oil.

If you try this one watch how deep you try to push the belly. If you push the belly too deep the ply will end up pulling from the other direction and you will end up with reduced belly.... and a nicely domed top.  

I will add a quick sketch later to show the internal construction.

Have any of you made something like this? 

Picnic blanket turned Surfboard bag