Shaping your own dream board...on a smaller scale

I need more practice before I take up board shaping, but that doesn't stop me from imagining about making a board. With a scroll saw, craft wood, and some acrylic paint, I can have a bit of fun and make an inspiration, whether I'm near the ocean or far inland.
Before Starting: Like my hero Norm Abrams says: please read all safety precautions on your equipment prior to use, exercise care, and wear safety goggles!
For this project, I used 1/4" craft basswood that I picked up at my local hardware store. If you really want to go crazy real, get some thicker wood, steam it over some large diameter PVC tubing to set a rocker, and get ready to sand like mad. For this, I had an old school plank in mind. I don't recommend craft Balsa, since is doesn't take full on painting very well without warping, but plywood would work OK.
First, I made a template by taking a piece of paper and folding it in half. I drew out a simple shape for half a longboard, envisioning the fold as the stringer line. This is where you can have fun with whatever shape you'd like to try. Cut out the shape while the paper's still folded, open the shape up, and see what you think. If you need to make tweaks, refold the paper and trim so the shape keeps symmetrical. Once you are happy with the shape, use the paper shape to trace onto the basswood. This one's around 10 inches in length:

Tracing the shape onto the basswood

Next, I cut out the shape on the scroll saw using a fine toothed blade and went slow to minimize rough cuts since the shape's so small. I also tried to keep a bit outside the marked trace line so if I wobbled while cutting, I could redeem myself with the side sander without losing too much size.
I cut out a couple of pieces on the scroll saw, a fish shape in 1/8" plywood (meant to be displayed flat) and the plank in basswood:

After rough sanding on the side wheel sander, I hand sanded the basswood with a medium grit sanding block like you'd find in the painting section of a hardware store. I sanded the edges to get rid of the harsh angle and give the rails a nice soft edge. I even sanded under the nose and tail a bit to thin out those areas just slightly since the basswood had some thickness to work with. I used finer grit- you can use 250 to 300- to make the final finish. Don't go nuts, it's going to be painted anyway.
I painted the entire plank with a basic artist's acrylic in a reddish brown to simulate redwood. I used a dry brush since it gave it a pseudo-grain effect. I didn't put a stringer in since it's a plank board.

I had to add a little flair the the deck, so I painted a design on the deck with acrylic paints. I was thinking plumerias would be quite Hawaiian.

Painting in progress using paint pens, acrylic paints, sharpies, etc.

Finished painting

After completing the painting, I put a coat of clear satin varnish on it to seal the paint on and keep it from getting scratched up too much. I like to use those cheap sponge craft brushes to put the varnish on. If you put more than one coat on, let the coats dry 15 minutes between.
Since I wasn't going to hang the board directly on the wall, I wanted to have fun and add a little skeg, so I went back to the scroll saw and cut a piece freehand from the 1/8" plywood.

Little skeg unpainted and unmounted

I gave the skeg a base coat of color before attaching it to the board. I used my favorite glue- E6000 industrial glue- to glue the skeg onto the board. After letting the glue dry, I gave the skeg another paint coat, then I painted a small coat of satin varnish on the skeg and base with a small paintbrush to seal it.

And now, here's Wilbur to model the finished board.....

Deck side

Bottom side

Don't even think about it man!!

Stay tuned....if I can get the board back from Wilbur, I've got a neat way to display your board art coming up!
In the meantime, go hug and thank your local shaper and glasser- they work hard!

Fin Covers Part II- Mini Fin Covers

If you are looking for how to make full size fin covers click here!

So my last project for fin covers left me with a lot of little foam scraps that I needed to use up somehow. I thought, mini fin covers would be a great idea, and could be used for a lot of things!
I did the same procedure as before tracing out a shape, only this time, I could go with any fin shape I wanted since I was making a much smaller scale cover. As inspiration, I used this Al Merrick cover that already came with one of my fins:

Blank scrap foam pieces stapled together and full size fin cover

I did my usual stitiching, but I followed my trace line when stitching since I didn't need to worry about fitting a fin, and I didn't want to try to erase any pencil marks after I was finished.
Afterwards, I used a small grommet setting tool (shown in the pic below) and set a 1/16" grommet into the front bottom corner, and even decorated it with a silver Sharpie to look like the full grown version.

Completed mini fin cover decorated and grommeted with ball chain for hanging, keys, etc.

This way, I could use it as a key chain- your keys would never get lost on this- or a rear window ornament, a Christmas ornament, or a Christmas tag on that case of Natty Ice that you are giving to your favorite surf buddy. Hey, at least you will have put a little thought into the tag, if not the gift.

Fin Covers

I have a bad habit of bumping my delicate, expensive, fiberglass or carbon fins into the wall, car, or some other standing or moving objects (sorry about the cat....) when putting my boards away, resulting in some repair work down the road. Some of my fins came with fin covers, some didn't. Even the ones that came with the fin are ill-fitting and not really my style. To motivate me to use fin covers more, I decided to make some fun, bright, well fitting covers that will stay on the fin while driving, and will tell me which fin is which easily. This project takes less than 10 minutes on a machine- easy!!
Like the last craft, I used foam sheets again, like they sell in the craft stores, usually in the kid's crafts section. This project requires sewing, but you can sew them by hand if you don't have a machine.
Basically, I found it was easiest to trace the outline of your fin directly onto a piece of foam with a pencil. Sorry about the quality of the pictures- the light wasn't working with me today. Trace a line across the base of the fin, but don't draw it longer than the fin that sticks above your board. That way, you can have the fin cover on while the fin's in the board. This bottom straight line WILL NOT BE SEWN!!

Tracing the fin outline onto foam

I put another piece of foam underneath, and instead of using pins, I stapled the pieces together a good distance from the edge of the trace line. I stapled upside down so I wouldn't scratch the heck out of my sewing machine plate as I sewed.

Stapling the two pieces of foam together

To sew this on a machine, I used regular polyester thread and a stitch length of 4.5. If you make the stitch length too small, the stitching line will create a perforation tear in the foam and you'll have to start over. I also used a 70/0 universal needle. If you are hand sewing, use a standard embroidery needle with polyester thread and do backstitching (you can find a tutorial here), but have a light hand and space your stitches to avoid foam tearing.
For the machine, you'll see I used a roller foot, which is a specialty foot, but a teflon foot works just as well on this foam.
I placed my trace line on the left inner edge of the foot and used this as a guide. This ensured that my stitch line was 1/4" OUTSIDE the trace line- this ensures that the fin cover will come on and off easily. If your fin is supa-thick, use a wider margin.

Sewing around the curved edge

Finished sewing!

After stitching the curved part of the fin cover together, I'm ready to start cutting out my cover.  Foam doesn't ravel, so I don't need to overlock the edge, but you can if want, just know that the less perforation in the foam, the better.
Start cutting the shape out about 1/4" outside the stitching line. Cut slowly, and try to keep a continuous cut going (don't stop and start cutting) to make the edge smooth.

Cutting out the fin cover

Once the curved edge is cut, I cut the bottom RIGHT ALONG the trace line I originally made. You should now have an opening for your fin!

Cutting the bottom of the fin cover

Erase your trace lines, and that's it! Put the cover on the fin to ensure a good fit, and that the bottom is not too long. This one came out great.

The fun thing is you can decorate the cover with Sharpies (SUPER art project for kids!), use contrasting colors for each side, paste foam shapes to the covers, label what boards they go with, or label the type and size. I labeled mine at the top for easy organization and color coded them:

The anal retentive surfer...... :)

Enjoy!!!

DIY Surf Wax Beach Kit

So I used up the last of my face cleansing wipes, and I was left with this plastic jar that I could:
A) Chuck into the trash (BAD!)
B) Put into the recycling bin (Better)
C) Make a really neat craft out of it!
Of course, I had to choose C!
So this jar is plastic, has a screw on lid, and is large, but not too big to stuff in a large bag. That got me thinking....
Currently, I'll put my surf wax in a plastic zip bag to keep the sand off, but, well, that's just ghetto. I've seen nifty wax holders with a holder for a comb at the surf shop, but they're $8-9 bucks! So, I got some wax, and found out I could fit up to three round bars into this jar, plus a stash of emergency cash, keys, and even a stick of face sunscreen! The picture shows two bars of wax stacked behind the jar for reference:

But, I would like to carry a wax comb with me like the ones I've seen at the shops, so I got out some foam sheets (like they have in the kid's crafts section). These sheets are usually only about a millimeter thick, and cut with regular scissors very easily. I measured out a circle of this foam using the jar lid as a guide.

From there, I cut the sides off the circle so I can easily pull the comb out and put it back into the holder. I used E-6000 glue (it's waterproof!) to glue just a line on the rounded parts of the top a bottom of the circle, being careful not to glue too far in, since I needed room for the comb to be inserted.

I let the foam dry-without the comb in it- for a good 12 hours. After that, it was ready for painting the outside in some cute way!

I used paint pens on the outside, but Sharpies would probably work too. For good measure, I put a piece of clear packing tape over my artwork once it was dry to prevent my sandy fingers from scratching off the paint. I painted "WAX" on mine, since I have a horrible memory..... :)

It's ready to go to the beach crammed full of surfing junk! This won't get your wax icky, won't get lost in the surf bag, is a great way to recycle, and most of all, FUN!