My first: woody skim

[Karst71]

Hi All I just finished my first build: A woody skimboard based om the Nobile Skimboard 2009 outline(130 x 50.5 cm). I used 3 4mm sheets of marine grade plywood (Okoumé, 140x60 cm).

Materials:

Plywood 4 mm, marine grade Okoumé 140 x 60 cm, 3 sheets
PU water resistant wood glue (the foaming kind, Gorilla glue)
Standard epoxy resin
2 component polyurethane varnish

Tools:

Rocker table (see below)
Clamps
Rocks for weighing down
sandpaper 60-80-120-180-240 grit
surform
beltsander
jigsaw
drill
brushes, rollers and sqeegy

First I build the rockertable by screwing a sheet of MDF (ca 140 x 70 cm) onto a wooden frame. For the nose rocker I attached a 12 mm wooden strip and a 6 mm strip. For the tailrocker I used a 6 mm thick strip. I want a small rocker to prevent slowing down the board. It is intended for low wind days and flat water.

Rocker table

skim karst rocker table.jpg (79.04 KiB) Viewed 46116 times

I had the ouline printed on paper on 100% scale and copied it to the top sheet of plywood and the centre one. From the centre sheet I removed wood to reduce weight. I got a little creative, but just drilling holes should be fine.

middle sheet of plywood. Removed wood to save weight

skim karst middle sheet.jpg (76.09 KiB) Viewed 46116 times

Now I was ready to glue the sheets together. The bottom sheet was coated with a thin layer of PU-glue (like gorillaglue), the middle sheet was placed on top of it, followed by the top sheet of plywood, which was also coated with the glue. After aligning the centrelines of the 3 sheets, the whole lot was clamped and weighed down on the rockertable.

Sheets of plywood glued, clamped and weihted down

skim_karst_in rockertafel.jpg (78.49 KiB) Viewed 46116 times

The blue pan is filled with rocks for weiging down, as well as the grey container.

Future nose rocker

skim karst rocker nose.jpg (69.31 KiB) Viewed 46116 times

Future tail rocker

skim karst rocker tail.jpg (68.03 KiB) Viewed 46116 times

[Karst71]

After drying for 24 h, I removed the wood from the table and cut out the shape ca 1 mm wide. I lost about 1 mm of rocker on both ends due to the small spring-back.

rough shape

outline ongeschuurd.JPG (62.89 KiB) Viewed 46115 times

I cut about 1-2 mm wide

ruim uitgezaagde outline.JPG (66.14 KiB) Viewed 46115 times

springback is ca 1 mm: 11 mm nose rocker left

rocker voor.JPG (78.97 KiB) Viewed 46115 times

[Karst71]

After cutting the rough shape, I used a surform and rough sandpaper (60 and 80 grit) to shape the outline nice and symmetrical (I hope ).

Sanding down to the outline, using sandpaper and a surform

karst skim - outline schuren.JPG (132.23 KiB) Viewed 46114 times

I wanted a nice rounded rail on the top-side, but sharp on the bottom. I decided to use a router to do the initial rounding of the topside of the board. Unfortunately I had a small accident: I already thinned out the tail, so my router guide slipped underneath the board and the router took a bite out of my outline . Luckily, this was easily fixed by removing 1.5 cm or so from the tail of the board.

Woooops! Routeraccident

karst skim Ooooops Freesongeval.JPG (139 KiB) Viewed 46114 times

Using a beltsander, I thinned out the board towards the tail and nose of the board on the bottom side. Because of the plywood, you can eaily see that you are working symmetrically. Also, I sanded down the rounded rail on the top.

Nose, top side sanded

karst skim punt boven.JPG (118.57 KiB) Viewed 46114 times

Nose, bottom side sanded

kasrt skim punt onder.JPG (122.55 KiB) Viewed 46114 times

Nose, both sides sanded

kasrt skim rocker voor.JPG (120.8 KiB) Viewed 46114 times

Tail, bottom side sanded

kasrt skim tail onder.JPG (112.28 KiB) Viewed 46114 times

[Karst71]

After reaching this stage, I sanded the entire board with sandpaper grid 120, making sure to keep a sharp bottom edge. Then I applied some simple graphics with acryllic paint. The logo on the top of the board is taken from a screenshot of SKIMSTOKE II at 2:41 min (see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ArnAJAynceE.)

BTW is that you Lonny? If so, you're on my board forever

I mixed some standard epoxy resin and thinly coated the top. After curing, the bottom was coated thinly as well. Then, the top and bottom were coated with a thicker layer of epoxy.

Because my epoxy has no UV filter, I sanded away all bumbs and dents, and coated with a transparent 2 component polyurethane varnish (this is nasty stuff, wear suitable protection with carbon filters, next time I will just use epoxy with UV filter).

Finally, I mixed up some varnish with a rough no-slip powder and applied it to the desired parts at the top of my board.

Here the final result:

weight: 3.1 kg (I'll use lighter plywood next time

Topside

Karst skim bovenzijde.JPG (150.06 KiB) Viewed 46110 times

Bottom side - lighthouse near the best kitespot of the Netherlands

Karst skim onderzijde.JPG (127.61 KiB) Viewed 46110 times

Grip coating transparent

Karst skim antislip.JPG (203.63 KiB) Viewed 46110 times

[tungsten]

Hi Karst71, brilliant write up, thanks for taking the time! The board looks really good, shape and rocker seem just perfect, let us know how it rides. Very good idea the grip you put on, I will have to try this on my next board.

keep 'em coming,

cheers tungsten

[Lonny]

Hi Karst71, brilliant write up, thanks for taking the time! The board looks really good, shape and rocker seem just perfect, let us know how it rides. Very good idea the grip you put on, I will have to try this on my next board.

keep 'em coming,

cheers tungsten

First Karst71, let me also welcome you to LTS! Thank for joining us here. I will also echo Tungsten's comment, and great post! Thank you for taking the time to share it with everyone else here. You know you have a solid build going when you get praise from Master Tungsten! Nice work!

[Karst71]

Hi Lonny and Tun gsten,

Thanks for the kind words .

I'm still wondering if its you, Lonny, as the logo on my skim............(taken from SKIMSTOKE II)