" Hi Grant, as part of a fundraising effort for the Christchurch Quake Victims, I was asked to make a handplane as a spot prize at the New Zealand premier of 'Stoked and Broke', so here it is, laminated paulownia with poker work, stain and linseed oil, built in handle (like you advised), stoked to do something fun and help raise money for those poor buggers in Christchurch."
We all know that the bee and the honey comb are a dam good team when it comes to building ideas. Well meet Mike Grobelny from New Zealand. He has taken that idea and some technology and lifted the bar for us all.
Old ideas new ideas , it is all out there in front of us we just need to know where to look sometimes.
It helps when you are a computer design major and have a work shop like this to use.
Light , strong and only the beginning for Mike.
"I've used 12 paulownia lengths this time as I found I can get easier access when chambering & less waste, cons - more gluing up ."
" I used Purbond instead of epoxie as its much more user friendly (only time will tell if this was right decision) ."
Close up of the chambering
"It has a bees wax/gum oil finish, keeping in with the whole "Green Board" thing. I noticed a small ding/dint in one rail one day (as the wax doesn't have that hard finish) but continued to surf, then a few days later noticed it had self repaired."
" I used the pro box fin system so I can utilise glass fins (I find timber fins can be a little stiff & I wanted a little bit more flex performance).
Hope you enjoy the shots
Mike Cunningham from New Zealand just finished this all Paulownia handplane with a little stain and linseed oil , all ready for a trip to the Gold Coast for some warm water and couple of waves at this weekends Alley Fish Fry.
Paulownia is a fast growing tree that is idea for surfboards.It's light , strong and waterproof in salt water. Ideal for surfboards.
Nice little lump there to start with.
This is the setup of a portable saw mill.
You just set up over the log and whittle away at the log in slices.
The centre of a Paulownia tree is interesting as it has a hollow core just like a piece of bamboo. It even has segments even though they have no effect in the grain pattern of the timber.
Not a bad outcome.
Tony started with setting out the outline on his work bench and then setting up the 8mm ( laminated 2 x 4mm) Paulownia stringer. You can see he has used metal brackets to set the stringer up nice and true.
Pretty solid stringer, a great starting point. You only get a good result by making sure you have a good starting point with stringer and frames all nice and true and that they all fit together well.
All Paulownia skins glued up and excess trimmed off.
He has glassed the under side of the deck and the bottom
A bit more strength added in the nose area as there isn't much thickness there when it is all shaped down.
Frames all set up and top rail band on
Extra blocks glued in for the goretex breather to be fitted later
More timber needed for the beefing up of the fin area.
He has trued everything up and made sure it lines up to the outline and that all the frames are level so as to not get any twist. And then he has glued the small pieces of wood on the ends of the frames to hold it all in place.
Glue it up , all hands on deck with the clamps and sand bags. You can only do this if you have everything lined up and in place and locked down and able to take the weight. Otherwise when you add the weight it will twist and distort the frames. Not good.
Deck on. Those small pieces of wood glued on the ends of the frames take the weight of the sand bags and hold everything in place as the glue goes off. Once the deck is on with all those glue points on all those frames , then it is very strong and not going anywhere. Put the time in to fit everything and check that it goes together without lots of effort in a dry run or two to make life easy for yourself. Have all your gear ready. Clamps ready and in easy reach. With this many you may need a spare set of hands as well.With paulownia be sure not to have tha clamps mark the top surface too much as you will have to sand it out. Line the sand bags down the middle of the board to hold the deck skin in place and lined up to your marks. Then clamp away.
