Wednesday 30 October 2013

Building a Hollow Wooden Surfboard - 6'2" Fish School Project Part 1


Namaste Wiley Wood Workers and welcome to this installment of building a 6'2" Fish hollow wooden surfboard. I was recently contacted by Wally, a manual arts teacher at a High School in Sydney. Wally was interested in introducing a wooden surfboard building module for students in his year 12 Industrial Technology course which would contribute towards their HSC (Higher School Certificate). Being new to wooden surfboard construction but an old hand at woodworking, Wally was looking at doing a couple of wood surfboard builds for his two sons first and then using this experience to refine the process for his students in the school workshop. Lucky Lads. He has access to a state of the art workshop with all the tools including a CNC machine and a laser cutter. The school kids were totally stoked about building wood surfboards for themselves in school time, I was totally stoked to be involved and Wally was just generally stoked that it was all starting to come together.

Multicam M1 CNC router with 950 mm x 1150 mm bed. A nice addition to any workshop and a  permanent fixture in Wally's.


Epilog Laser 45W with 610 mm x 457 mm bed. This is an awesome machine also in Wally's workshop. It not only cuts but it can also burn artwork into your wood surfboard.

DESIGN

The first step was to gather some design requirements. They were as follows: a Fish style board, and 6'2" in length. A little light on but a good start. So we did a little research and put together a summary of Fish design attributes. This is by no means definitive but helpful in putting together a Fish design.

A wide nose with a slight point which is stable and maneuverable.

A wide thick board for buoyancy and stability making the board easy to paddle and stable to ride. A little like me.

A flatter rocker for speed and ease of catching waves.

A wide tail (with swallow tail) – a couple of reasons for this. Easy to turn but also a higher aspect ratio (tail width to board length) to assist the board in getting up on the plane.

Thick rails through the middle, sharp at the tail.

Fin setups – twin, quad and thruster. Why not go for all three and install 5 sets of fin plugs and interchange the fin setups as required.

Fish plan shapes can vary from classic shapes to modern hybrids.

Volume. Now this is a personal preference and dependent on how much buoyancy is preferred and how much paddle power is on tap. Some guys like less, some more. I approach this from a couple of angles.

1. If someone has a favourite surfboard that they enjoy surfing, I assume the volume of that particular board is okay and I measure it using AKU Shaper. I photograph the outline and side profile and use the images to do a rough design of the board in software. Once the design is complete, AKU calculates the board volume (in beers or litres). I've never really understood the metric system so I work in beers.

2. I use a rough formula of 0.6 x body weight of the surfer (The Cater Formula). This seems to work well for the average surfer. My coefficient is a bit higher (about 0.7) because I am a fat, lazy, paddle-phobic chimp.

In this case we used the formula and settled on a volume of 45 litres.

So after a few iterations in AKU we went with a 6'2" x 22 ¾” x 2 ¾” and 45 litres in volume with a flat bottom contour and slightly sharp rails towards the back. The rails up the side are quite full (60/40). 45 litres is probably a good volume for a 70+ kg person. The ribs have been spaced at 150 mm with the deck and hull fibre glassed internally to give the board added strength and longevity.

Here's a screen shot of the wooden surfboard outline in AKU Shaper. AKU Shaper doesn't seem to like designing swallow tails so I've had to go with a square tail in the design. The swallow tail can be drawn manually on templates in the work shop or added in CAD software. The outside centre point for the swallow tail is 110 mm from the tail end.

The view of the rocker/profile.

The first slice near the nose. Slices spaced at 150 mm.

The centre slice.

The tail slice at 170 mm from the board rear.

The final set of templates produced by Hollow Board Template Maker. This PDF file was converted to a DXF file, cleaned up and imported into the CNC software as machine code. 

The next section will be of interest to those of you wanting to use a CNC machine to cut out your wooden board templates.

Converting PDF File to DXF Files.

Wally's first challenge was to convert the PDF file produced by the Hollow Board Template Maker software into a form that he could use on his CNC Router and Laser Technologies. After a number of phone calls and trials of PDF to DXF converters online he succeeded with Aide DXF PDF Converter. This software was easy to use and produced DXF files with curves which were polylines and relatively simple to edit.

The DXF file opened in Autocad 2013.

 Many hours late at night were spent working out how to best edit the DXF drawing in Auto CAD. The DXF file was 19,529KB (almost 20 Meg) and when saved as a DWG file it was much smaller at 1,616KB. It was much quicker to edit as a DWG file.

EDITING
One of the first issues Wally had to deal with was mulitple lines under lines which is a problem with CNC machines. The skin lines on the rails needed to be deleted. The best way to overcome this was to select each entity by clicking each polyline and not clicking and dragging the mouse. This ensures that only the top layer of entities are selected. Select the smaller lines first, as they are much easier to see. 

Use the zoom function to to make sure all entities are selected. Don’t select the shaded areas of the spline. Once selected use the "Move" command to move entities to the right of the existing lines. Duplicate lines will be left and can be deleted.


Use the Trim Command to select lines 1-5 shown above then right click and select the parts of line to Trim. Remove the lines near the center spline first to avoid problems with the others.


A continuous loop is more difficult to Trim. Zoom in and draw a line close to the intersection and then use the Trim command. Then use the Chamfer command to clean up any corners. If at any stage the entities don’t Trim properly use the Extend Command to ensure the entities are in contact to enable Trimming.


PEDIT COMMAND

PEDIT is used to combine entities into a continuous loop needed for the CNC machine. To join lines to form polylines in a continuous loop, type PEDIT, Enter,  Press down arrow, then click Multiple, select all the entities, Enter, Join, fuzz Distance 2.



Move the mouse cursor over the joined entities and ensure that they have joined correctly. If the line doesn't form a complete loop, zoom in and search for the reason why.
 
The drawing needs to be scaled to size. Measure a known entity and scale to correct size.
When all entities have been cleaned up and the PEDIT Command used to close polylines Save file as a R12 DXF. Import file into the CNC software in Wally's case Multicam Toolpath and look for open shapes.


The green shapes are open shapes and need to be checked to determine why they haven’t joined properly. Wally found that main problem was that the corners were not trimmed. Also some curved shapes had a small gap near the spline. He used the Trim, Extend and Chamfer commands as a means of editing the entities.

At this stage he found it helpful to check for duplicated entities. He clicked on each entity and moved it aside to determine if multiple entities existed. He found a few which were deleted. The PEDIT and JOIN Commands were used extensively to join entities.

There is a problem in the Multicam Toolpath software. Wally could not reverse (for the mortice) the machining parameters from outside (blue) to inside (red). This stumped him for a few days until he Exploded one of the rectangles and found a duplicate shape underneath.


The next step was to do a trial run on the CNC machine using MDF board.


The detail of the dovetail joint for the spine and rails. The spine and rails have been cut in two sections so that they fit within the bed dimensions of the CNC machine.


 Heavy duty rocker table also designed by Wally.

The rocker table fresh from the CNC machine. Still warm!

The rocker tables getting glued up. One for the Fish and another for a 9'1" longboard.


The Fish frame cut in MDF to make sure it all fits together. The production frame will be cut out of 6 mm paulownia.

 Another photo of the MDF frame.

And from above.

More to come in Part 2 (Due sometime in 2017/2018)

Here's a link to the template file for this board if you are interested in building it.
https://drive.google.com/open?id=0Bz-5_Htew1q5N2l2WGt3NEVWSTA


85 comments:

  1. This is truly amazing. Thanks for sharing, bud.

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  2. can u send me the templates file? thats an amazing job.
    lkcappelletti@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Me envia ele meu Gmail . Joaovijoaovictorp2002@gma

      Delete
  3. is there still a part 2 to come?
    really interested in the template files
    could you perhaps send them to me?
    hanswurstnumberone@gmx.de

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I've been meaning to finish this post. I'll see if I can chase up Wally for some photos.

      Delete
  4. Amazing blog thanks for all the details !
    I am based in Sydney and I am in the process of shaping my own board. Everything is ready except one thing, I can't find a Paulownia supplier in Sydney. Do you guys have any idea ?
    Otherwise I thought of Balsa but I am a bit worried for the deck, it looks very soft.
    Thanks heaps

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    Replies
    1. Contact Stuart Bywater for paulownia. He can ship to Sydney. http://bywaterdesign.com.au/paulownia-timber-sales/

      Delete
  5. hey bud, nice work! could you share the template? this project looks amazing, it would be nice to try this beauty on water
    arnon.lintz@globo.com

    thanks mate!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sure. I'll send to your email address.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I would like to try too,
      ikson7770@hotmail.com

      Delete
    2. Hey man, great work!

      I was thinking about a 6.2 Fish for my first own surfboard!
      Is it possible to get the templates?
      (schepersbrent@gmail.com)

      Delete
    3. Great work!
      I would like to try too,
      Is it possible to get the templates?
      puley7@gmail.com

      Delete
  7. Could you send the file to be used with a CNC machine to my email byoung15@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi,

    This is awesome. Can you send the file to be used with a CNC to my email: byoung15@gmail.com.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Beautiful job!
    Can you send me the file to my email?
    donwud@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hia ! This is bleddy great !! Me and my two boys have been talking about this for a while now , could you please send me the files ? Emails laconnings@gmail.com

      Delete
  10. Love this! could you please send me the template.
    goodvibebracelets@gmail.com

    Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hey I love this! Could you please send me the template.
    goodvibebracelets@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi! Beautiful template! Would there be any possibility for you to share it? Nice work!!
    jammattsson@mac.com

    /Jakob

    ReplyDelete
  13. Hi! Beautiful template! Would there be any possibility for you to share it? Nice work!!
    jammattsson@mac.com

    /Jakob

    ReplyDelete
  14. Great job!
    Could you please send me the template.
    Lesnikov77@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  15. Great job!
    Could you please send me the template.
    Lesnikov77@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  16. Thanks for this great resource. I've been interested in shaping a wood board for a while now. Any chance I can get the templates as PDFs and DXFs? May be interested in CNCing them.

    Thank you.
    jscombee@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll send you the templates to your email address.

      Delete
  17. Would it be possible to get the template? This is a beautiful board and I'd be interested in sporting one. Thank you!
    jscombee@gmail.com

    Jacob

    ReplyDelete
  18. olá muito legal eu também gostaria de ter um pode me mandar o arquivo amigo

    ReplyDelete
  19. pode me mandar o arquivo zicocastro@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  20. namaste,
    awesome job wood budda !!!
    im trying to make a mini mal, but having dramas with akushaper.
    could i also get a file next time your on here. swano007@hotmail.com
    thought id have a shot now im the cnc operator at work ;)
    thanks for your time in doing this page.
    greeting from oz

    ReplyDelete
  21. namaste wood budda,
    awesome post. thanks for the time you have put into sharing it.
    im in aku shaper now trying to build a mini mal, but dramas getting the output. Any chance i alo could get a copy of your cnc file next time your on here please swano007@hotmail.com . figured id have a shot as im now the cnc operator at work :)
    thanks if you can help.
    greeting from oz

    ReplyDelete
  22. Como faço pra receber este arquivo, desde já agradecido. jocely1964@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  23. Great Work. Love the shape! Would it be posible for you to send the files, both pdf and dxf? Thanks
    skriversmail@gmail.com
    Greetings from the cold waters of Denmark

    ReplyDelete
  24. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
  25. Awesome job, could you send file to mattbjoiner@gmail.com real keen to build a board like this one, Cheers, Matt.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Wow it looks truly amazing! Could you please send me the file also? My email adress is amundkly@gmail.com
    - Amund

    ReplyDelete
  27. This looks truly amazing! Could you please send me the file?
    -Amund

    ReplyDelete
  28. Could you send the file to be used with a CNC machine to my email onoff1118@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  29. Great build! I would love to try it! Could you send me the laser files on email: ellert94@gmail.com

    Thanks alot!

    ReplyDelete
  30. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  31. The build looks great! Hope to see it finished.
    Would you be able to share the DXF file with me? Cheers, Simon
    simongray18@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  32. Fantastic Job!
    I am dreaming with a wood board.
    Can you send me the files for my email?
    Thank you Very Much!
    Congratulations Again!
    feelfine2005@yahoo.com.br

    ReplyDelete
  33. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  34. Hey amigo,

    Awesome job, amazing stuff. Could you send me the DXF files to my email. I want to get closer to my dad, maybe a project like this will bond us.
    email: genethelazydrafter@gmail.com
    Thanks a lot dude

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  35. Incredible! Looking for something like this for ages! Any chance you could send me the file as well so I can give this design a whirl on my buddies CNC machine? duncan.walters@hotmail.com

    THANK YOU!

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  36. I would love the files as well! Been looking for something like this for ages. duncan.walters@hotmail.com

    BIG thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  37. Awesome !!
    I'm from Brazil
    really interested in the template files
    could you perhaps send them to me?
    tks a lot Buddha ! aloha
    marcelfrohlich@icloud.com

    ReplyDelete
  38. hey dude,
    very impressed by ya work. thank you very much for sharing, so everybody can get away from foam!!! would you mind sending me the plans like in real size to my email account ? would be very happy man : connor.rhode@web.de

    ReplyDelete
  39. hey man! love ya blog, any chance of getting the dxf emailed to me? pretty please. caldesigned2650@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  40. hey man! love ya blog, any chance of getting the dxf emailed to me? pretty pleassseee caldesigned2650@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  41. hey dude,
    Would you mind sending the plans to me ?
    connor.rhode@web.de
    cheers man !!!

    ReplyDelete
  42. Dope! Is just the type and size of board that I was looking for!!
    Can you send me the template files? xaviii.23@hotmail.com
    It would be amazing!

    Thank you for your time

    ReplyDelete
  43. Dope!
    It's just the type and size of board I was looking for!
    Can you send me the template files? xaviii.23@hotmail.com
    It would be amazing!

    Thank you for your time

    ReplyDelete
  44. Hi there,
    Awesome project! We are purchasing a Laser cutter at work and I would love to use your board files to test the cutter out... and make myself a board in the process!!
    Please send your cutter files if you could.
    Cheers
    Derek
    derek_quinlan@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  45. Wood Buddha, very impressed. I would like to do this with my senior students as well. Any chance i can have a copy of the DXF files please to get me and them started. Thanks again

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  46. hey buddha i cant seem to get this to work. i do exactly as you say in the instructions but when i open it in auto cad 2018, i get a bunch of dotted lines and some dont appear until i hover my mouse over them. plz help.

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  47. I need your help Buddha. I followed your directions step by step from making to converting the files to dwg but when i open the files up in auto cad 2018, i just see a bunch of green dashes as the outlines. but for the ribs i have to hover over them to see something. i dont know what to do and my deadline is coming up fast. plz help

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  48. I need your help Buddha. I followed your directions step by step from making to converting the files to dwg but when i open the files up in auto cad 2018, i just see a bunch of green dashes as the outlines. but for the ribs i have to hover over them to see something. i dont know what to do and my deadline is coming up fast. plz help

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  49. Is it possible you send me the DXF or DWG files for CNC milling ?
    Would love to make my own hollow wooden surboard, but didn't find any dxf or dwg files online for a boardshape i like.
    hapekite@gmail.com

    Aloha

    ReplyDelete
  50. Great looking board.
    Would love to make my own.
    Could you send me the dwg or dxf files for cnc milling ?
    Aloha

    ReplyDelete
  51. Awesome job..
    Im dreaming yo shape a wooden boards
    Would you share the files
    Congrats for the nice job
    Thanks
    juliusdlcf@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  52. Hello :)

    How is the project going?
    Would love to see the end result!!

    Cheers
    Nico

    ReplyDelete
  53. Hi, i'm from Germany and love this Board. Perhaps can send me the file and the Heavy duty rocker table by Wally CAD file? Thanks
    macsurf@gmx.de

    ReplyDelete
  54. hi! amazing job! me and my three boys are keen to start this project, could you please send the filesplus cnc drawings to me?
    my emails laconnings@gmail.com
    cheers!
    laconnings@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  55. I am glad to know people like you are still existing. Great job. Could you please share the template to CNC with me?
    VybihalMichal@gmail.com
    Many thanks
    Greetings from Czech Republic

    ReplyDelete
  56. hey man, love your work, is there a part 2? and could you send me the cnc files if possible?

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  57. love it so cool can you please send me the template files for the both please well done fro

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  58. Hola soy de Ecuador, hermoso trabajo. Se lo podria aplicar para fabricar un longboard. Que te parece. Saludos

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  59. would i be able to have the files you used for the lazer cutter so that i can just put it strait into mine?

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  60. would i be able to have the files that you put into your lazer cutter so that i could just put it strait into mine? cheers
    fbradys.fs@gmail.com

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  61. Hi, could i have your rocker table and board cnc files on my email?
    h.reissaar@gmail.com

    Many thanks and awesome project!

    ReplyDelete
  62. Awesome!
    I would like to build this board. Could you send me the templates to the CNC router. I have a company that can help me with the routing but I need the templates. Could you please send it to
    magnus.selander@me.com
    Great work!

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  63. Great!
    I would like to build this board. Can you please send me the templates for the CNC router.
    magnus.selander@me.com

    ReplyDelete
  64. Would you be able to send the auto cad files to my email? Hammerheaddesignco@gmail.com

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  65. Ciao Wood Buddha, I'm following your work you really great, pls, could you share the 9.1 template (same file like that https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bz-5_Htew1q5N2l2WGt3NEVWSTA/edit but for the 9.1 size) I'll be greatfully for that. You can send me an email at davide.ponzetti@gmail.com Warm regards, ciao, Davide

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  66. Hi, Just wondering if you could email me the template that is ready to use on the cnc router please. It would be greatly appreciated my email is hugo.alam@hotmail.com or hugoalam14@gmail.com

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  67. hola, excelente blog me podrias mandar las plantillas , estoy aprendiendo a hacer tablas de madera y la vdd es se me hace dificil no saber hacer estas plantillas , mi correo es diegoamayafernandez@gmail.com si me puedes compartir estas plantillas seria de gran ayuda , gracias .

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  68. hola , estoy aprendiendo a hacer tablas de madera y si hay la posibilidad de compartir las plantillas seria de gran ayuda , mi correo es diegoamayafernandez@gmail.com seria de gran ayuda si me las compartes via email , gracias.

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  69. Could you send the template or plans file to my email please
    josecardozo@grupodavid.com

    thank you

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  70. Hi could you email me the dxf files please. I am looking for existing plans that I can cut out on a 600x300mm laser cutter as a first board. I'm an old skool woodworker/luthier and don't take well to computer design, I much prefer planes and chisel. If you can, please send to oneofmanystuartcampbells@yahoo.com

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  71. hi there can you send me the DXF file for th project please brent.warner1@dt.nsw.edu.au

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  72. One more if you're still up for it! Awesome.

    tmcdon890@gmail.com

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  73. This is so cool. Any updates? I want to make a wood board with my buddy's CNC Machine. Nothing cooler than an wooden fish in my opinion. Do you mind sending me a copy of whatever file is needed for the CNC machine? Thanks so much!
    jeffdasper@gmail.com

    ReplyDelete