Squalyboards

Back in the shop at long last!

Matthew — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 19:37:04 +0000

Well it’s been a while but I’m back at it and glad to be!
I’ve had a batch of wood piled in my shop for ages now.
Some tongue and grove cedar that I pulled out of a neighbors trash and a few door skins that I pulled out of a different neighbors trash.

The cedar was painted grey on one side so I assume it was some sort of out door application.

The door skins were interior closet doors that I took the hardware off of and literally peeled the skin off of.

I will use the skins to cut the internal frames and I will mill down the cedar to use as deck strips.

I got a bit into it before I thought to stop for photos so I failed to capture the whole process.

First I cut off the tongue and grove edges:

Then I ripped each board in half length wise and then re-sawed each in half again for thickness:

That left me with a nice pile of strips about two inches wide, a quarter inch thick and four and a half feet long.

Since we’re recycling here I try to keep waste to a minimum.

Saw dust is re-claimed and will be used for thickening epoxy later on in the build process. Dust from one board goes into the next so there’s a little bit of the Squalyboard family tree in every build!

And I wont run out of stirring sticks anytime soon either:

So stay tuned as I attempt to transform one mans trash into another mans treasure.

Mini gun

Matthew — Tue, 16 Aug 2011 18:51:09 +0000

This is a polyurethane core mini gun just under 6’8″. It is the first board that we made from a comercial polyurethane blank. What a pleasure that was to work with. We have it set up with five fin boxes so we can surf it in a wide variety of fin configurations.

Introducing the all new Squalyboards.com!!

Matthew — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 21:43:20 +0000

As promised our site has been completely re-vamped!
Actually all I did was choose a new WordPress theme and reorganize a few category headers but TA DA!

The new layout makes it a bit easier to showcase our finished boards and keep the boards under construction further down on the page.

It also makes room for our foam boards which have been gaining in popularity.

Yeah I know, foam is evil and wood is good but lets face it, foam is here to stay so we might as well play nice.

I’ve been working on ways to recycle foam and I think I’m close to perfecting a process to make a board almost entirely from reclaimed foam so keep an eye out for that! Believe it or not one of the problems is getting enough foam to work with. Imagine that? Imagine if the biggest problem we had was not ENOUGH foam? It’ll never happen but a guy can dream right?

So anyway, here’s the new site warts and all. Hope you enjoy it and I hope you can be patient with us as we go through some growing pains.

PEACE!!!

XPS Fun Board

Matthew — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:16:41 +0000

This board is a fun shape made from XPS foam. It is a home made blank made from pink insulation foam. I painted it white with epoxy appliance paint to tone done the shocking pink color. Some people have said I should have left it pink. Maybe next time.

EPS Foam Thruster

Matthew — Wed, 10 Aug 2011 17:04:13 +0000

This was the first foam board that we completed. Its core is EPS foam and it is glassed with three layers of 4oz on top and two on bottom. Epoxy resin of course since it is EPS. Fins and stringer are pine. Nose and tail blocks are pine and cedar.

Short board PP

Matthew — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 22:07:55 +0000

This was an experimental build to test out a variation of the parallel profile method using a type of wood that is cheap and plentiful. The experiment was a success in the sense that I learned from it but the method itself is not one that I will repeat. At least not in the exact way that I did this board. I love the way the board looks and feels but it is a bit heavy and low volume for its size which yields a bit less buoyancy than a guy of my weight and skill requires. Perhaps if I were a better surfer I could manage to catch a ride on it but for now I’m keeping it because its just too damn pretty to let go of.

Coming soon…..!

Matthew — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 22:17:30 +0000

I’m looking for a way to update this site.
To be honest I’ve been neglecting it sorely.
The original concept was to chronicle the build process of a few boards.

My obsessive nature got the best of me and I wound up building more boards than I ever imagined. On top of that we’ve also forayed further into the land of foam boards than I ever imagined that we would.

So now I’m looking for more of a way to showcase the boards we’ve built, including the foamies.

People have also been showing some interest in purchasing our boards and to be honest if we don’t start selling a few we’re going to have to stop building them. We just don’t have the room to store them all and we can’t possibly surf this many boards. Plus, you know, it does cost money to build these things so it would be nice to recoup some of that cost to fund future builds.

So, all that said, stay tuned for a revamped site coming soon….(hopefully )

Mini Pintail – Re-shaping Rails

Matthew — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 13:35:49 +0000

Summer’s finally here and I’m desperate to get this bad boy in the water!
I didn’t stop long enough to get any new pics up but the repair is going very well. Decks are back on and I’ve re-cut the rail facets. all that’s left is to finish re-shaping the rails, attach the tunnel fin and then one more pass around the board to make sure it’s water proof. Soooo close but sooo hard to find shop time!!! Stay tuned, pics to follow soon….

Happy Easter from Squalyboards!

Matthew — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:06:22 +0000

From me and my family to you and yours, wishing you peace and happiness for the holiday and ever after.

Mini Pintail – Damage Control!!

Matthew — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 00:23:59 +0000

Well it’s been a long winter and now its time to start wrapping up all of those projects I’ve been neglecting.
So back to work on this one and DISASTER!!!
I pulled the board out of storage thinking that I just had a few hours work to finish it up and I noticed every wooden board builder’s worst nightmare.
The board has twisted badly!

I was too heartbroken to stop for a photo shoot so I got right to work on a repair.
I’m pretty sure that the reason for the twist was that I had spaced the cross pieces of my internal layers too far apart. I’ve done three boards so far with this variation of the parallel profile method. One of them is straight as an arrow and the other two have twisted. The first, my thruster, came out just fine but it was a bit heavier than I wanted it to be so I tried to save weight on the next two by reducing the number of internal cross pieces. I guess I over did it.

So on to the repair!

First thing I did was to get out my skill saw and slice the rails right down the middle, lengthwise to the board. Then I got in there with a crowbar and popped the two halves apart.

Once I had the top and bottom half separated I removed all of the cross pieces. This took a bit of prying and banging but the top and bottom panels held together well.

Next I went about the process of replacing the old cross pieces with more traditional strips rather than lath. As I said the thruster that this board is modeled after is a bit heavy and also a bit low on volume for my weight. My quest, while I’m at the repair, is to add some volume and reduce some weight. The board will be a good half inch thicker than it was before I began the repair and weighs in about four pounds lighter than the thruster if memory serves.

Finally the deck is back on and the board is whole again.

Now to begin the task of re-cutting the rail facets and re-shaping the rails.

So far she’s looking good and no sign of that nasty twist.
Whew!