Outside stringers and pattern making.

The outside stringers firm up the frame.  I run mine the whole length of the board and trim them back as needed.

Once those are installed the next step is make the patterns for the nose and tail.  To do that I trace nose and tail from the copy board.

Making the nose and tail sections is a lot easier when you have the copy board.  I trim down the outside stringers length and height.  I also added some transition pieces.

My next step is level all the upper stringers to make a smooth transitions from tail to nose.

Frame lofted and married to bottom panel.

My little garage building operation has just enough room for my table.  I start the next phase by building the board's cradle.  This method works well for me. I match the spar to the cradle.

My next step is glue the ribs to the spar.  I use bricks to keep the spar and ribs in place overnight while the glue dries.

The next day I add the 1/4" x 1/4" cedar stringers to the frame.  Those get glued in also.

The stringers add a lot of strength and weigh less than a 1/3 of a lb.  Those get glued and dried overnight.  Now I can trace the frame on the bottom panel and glue those together.

I like doing it this way because it's simple.  I've never had a bad result.  There is a fair bit of set-up work.

Thanks for your support.

Half Way There.

It's possible to make a bottom panel without using clamps.  I like to use gravity, scrap wood and bricks.  The reason it works for me is milled balsa sheets and paulownia strips of matching thickness.

The only drawback is you can only lay up a strip one at a time.  It's not a problem for me since I'm not trying to build a bunch of surfboards.  I want to give a shout out to my balsa supplier.  They have given me good service for the past 2 years.  Reasonable prices also.

http://www.balsawoodinc.com

Yesterday, we had fun waves.  The conditions were butter.  The water is warming up nicely.

Frame is light and done.

It's important for me to build a strong frame that's light.  The final outcome was about what I expected.  The spar and ribs came in at a little under a pound.  The first and last ribs were made from paulownia instead of the luan to keep them lighter and stronger.  That saved 10 grams.

I did a dry fit and everything looks good so far.

My next step is to make the bottom panel.  It will be mostly balsa with some paulownia added for strength.