Hollow Wooden Surfboard Pattern

[dandjwoodenboards]

I have been making hollow wooden surfboards for several years now. I purchased a CW so that I could cut my pieces for these boards. There's a good deal of guys making these boards. I've not seen anyone cutting them out with CW's yet. Over the last several months I have been perfecting a good beginner's board. I will wait to upload it until one of our moderators can advise me how to take payments and set up my store(so as not to give the milk away for free).

I will conclude by uploading a few photos of a similar board I finished recently and wait for some further advice. Anyone interested in starting their first HWS are more than welcome to ask me any questions. Most of us wooden surfboard guys are just as interested in fostering interest/discussion as we are seeing some monetary return for all the hours we put into this.

http://www.dandjwoodenboards.com

529475294852949529505295152952

[lawrence]

very interesting post-- and welcome to the forum! I'm assuming the CW cuts out the ribs right? That is an excellent use for a CNC and I look forward to more of your posts.

Lawrence

[dandjwoodenboards]

Lawrence, I created that post while sitting next to the CW super excited and feeling like I'd arrived to my destination, but then an hour later noticed I'd broken my 1/16 cutting bit. I was cutting 1/4 inch material with a minimum pass of 1/8 inch. I'm thinking that I should've had 1/16 passes. I think my answer is to change to the 1/8 cutting bit, and I'll to make that change in CW design software. My question to you is this....I need my ribs to mate properly with my spline (the stringer that run up the board and connects to all the ribs). If I tell the software that the place where the rib and spline meets up is to be .218 inches and switch my bit from 1/16 to 1/8, will the machine make those calculations for me and just appropriate correct measurements? Or do I need my make my .218 inches smaller? I know I'm gonna have to stop trying to cut 1/4 material with a 1/16 bit, but I don't want to mess up all my cuts with 1/8 bit.

[brdad]

That is really cool idea. This is one of those projects I'd probably never use but might like to make.

Here is an answer to your bit question. It specifies the 3/16" bit, but is true to using any of the bits. And speaking of the 3/16" bit, in my opinion if the 3/16" bit will fit I think that'd be the one I would use even on 1/4" inch stock - that could be done in one pass then. The biggest issue would be dealing with the slightly rounded corners. I'd guess from your pictures you're using the cut path feature so you should not have to modify the measurements.


I know we have discussed this before, but I couldn't find the posts and so I'm starting this thread. Hopefully, it will be easier to find next time I get asked.

Question is: Do I need to add an inset or compensate when using the 3/16" cutting bit?

If you are using the Cut Path Tool with the 3/16" cutting bit, than it goes by the edge of the bit, whether inside or outside the path.

If you are assigning the 3/16" cutting bit to a vector path (drawing tools included), then it goes by the middle of the bit.

[AskBud]

Lawrence, I created that post while sitting next to the CW super excited and feeling like I'd arrived to my destination, but then an hour later noticed I'd broken my 1/16 cutting bit. I was cutting 1/4 inch material with a minimum pass of 1/8 inch. I'm thinking that I should've had 1/16 passes. I think my answer is to change to the 1/8 cutting bit, and I'll to make that change in CW design software. My question to you is this....I need my ribs to mate properly with my spline (the stringer that run up the board and connects to all the ribs). If I tell the software that the place where the rib and spline meets up is to be .218 inches and switch my bit from 1/16 to 1/8, will the machine make those calculations for me and just appropriate correct measurements? Or do I need my make my .218 inches smaller? I know I'm gonna have to stop trying to cut 1/4 material with a 1/16 bit, but I don't want to mess up all my cuts with 1/8 bit.
I've drawn sample lines and rectangles, all 5" long. The rectangles are .218 high. I've applied various bits to each to show what will happen.

The line carves will grow by the diameter of the bit.
The rectangle (inner) cut-out remains the same, other than the radii of the corners will match the bit diameter.
AskBud
5295352954

[fwharris]

Surfs up!

Great application/use of the CW! I agree with the others, going to either the 1/8" or 3/16" cut bit would be a better choice for cutting your parts out. If using the "cutpath" feature using the flip cut tool to get the correct offset should get you what you want..

I did vote on "how to improve the post" and voted more pictures. As you just stated if you want to sell these you do not want to post your mpc here as you know where it might end up. You have several options for selling your plans. Either through your web site, CarveWright pattern depot (patterns and projects are licensed to the purchaser so they can not be pirated)... Best of luck and keep us posted..

[dandjwoodenboards]

Wow, when I spoke to the sales folks they were very complimentary of the forum for support. Wow! They were right. Thank you all, I'm gonna sit down and try some of the things you all told me.

I'll report back with some results. My projects are rather large, so I'm going to apply what I'm learning to a smaller portion of the project. Doing this will allow me to check to make sure the project parts all mate up with a few samples. Thank you again. I'll report out my results.

Dave

[lawrence]

sorry I just got back to this-- looks like Bud once again came to the rescue! He's right-- you need to factor in the bit.

Lawrence

[dandjwoodenboards]

So, I have question. I want to run with Cut Path so that I can use the 3/16 bits edge (by the way why not 1/4 cutting bit?). Unfortunately my lines that were imported from my other AKUSHAPER surfboard cad software are vector lines (or it would appear). How can I get my vectors to be cut paths that can be cut by the edge?

Thank you,

Dave

[fwharris]

So, I have question. I want to run with Cut Path so that I can use the 3/16 bits edge (by the way why not 1/4 cutting bit?). Unfortunately my lines that were imported from my other AKUSHAPER surfboard cad software are vector lines (or it would appear). How can I get my vectors to be cut paths that can be cut by the edge?

Thank you,

Dave

You vector paths have to be closed (no open points) to be able to get the cutpath tool to activate. In the input box you can only select the 1/16, 1/8 or 3/16 bits, no 1/4 available. At the bottom left corner of the input box is "flip cut" button. Normal state applies the bit to be centered on your line. flip cut does the offset for the type of bit selected so that the cut out is cut on the outside of you line vs centered..

UPDATE:
Thanks to AskBud, he found a bit :roll: of miss info in my post here about the bit placement on the "cutpath" line. The bit before the flip in "inside" the line and not centered as I stated. The "flip cut" will move the bit path to the "outside" of the line..

[brdad]

Out of curiosity, did you find a way to get the board file from AKUSHAPER directly into the CW, or use the images from the PDF template?

[dandjwoodenboards]

Sorry it took so long to return my message to you. I had to follow this path. AKUSHAPER to HOllOW WOODEN TEMPLATE MAKER (this gave me my PDF) to an online PDF TO DXF converter to the DXF importer to the design software. I really appreciate everyone's response. I learned a ton and as soon as I started seeing the software differently I realized that I had to redraft my design to track my lines most cleanly. I started to cut my design this evening, but aborted it as I was relying on 1/8 and 3/16 bits. The machine would move from end of a 1ftx8ft and literally change the bits every 3 minutes between 1/8 and 3/16. It became clear that I needed to just cut it all out with my 3/16 and chisle what I need to to make it all work. Looking forward to reporting more success.