Week One Reflection

My first week of Senior Project was great and I made a lot of process on my surfboard. I started off the week by going to RP Johnson’s and Lowes in Tilton; we had to grab an outside tent and tarp. We initially thought that we would work outside but once we got back to Proctor Dave Salathe told us we could work in the basement of Rulon. Once we got back we started to fix up our workstation down stairs and I began to think up designs for my fish style board. After finding the perfect design, which is going to be a retro style, I then cut off the extra foam to get ready to shape the rails. On Tuesday I then started to cut of the extra foam with a handsaw to get ready to shape the rails. Making sure I cut the foam a little bigger than the actual lines I drew on the board leaves me a little room for error. After I used the handsaw to cut off the foam I then used sandpaper to shape the edges. I had to find a rail shape, tail design, and nose sketch in order to move forward. I decided to make my rail shape a round top half with a sharp edge going to the bottom. This type of rail is good for big waves because the board can grab the wave with the extra sharp edge. I then decided to make a retro style tail that is a swallowtail but it has sharp triangles instead of rounded ones. After my tail was cut I then moved onto the nose design. My nose was going to be short and flat style that will not have a sharp point. On Wednesday we then moved towards planning the board with the planer. This was a very important part of the board and it creates the concave the top of the board and on the bottom. The planer was put on the board and quickly shaved off most of the foam. On Thursday I finished the rails and sanded down my whole board so it was smooth all over. I then cut out the fiberglass from the roll and laid it out over my board so I am ready to add the epoxy next. On Friday we had to go back to Tilton and Concord to return a tent we bought earlier and pick up a battery for a powered handsaw. When we got back in the afternoon I then began to add the epoxy to my board. I had to fix the resin with the hardener in the perfect amount or else the board will not dry correctly. It is two pumps to one with two pumps for the resin and one pump for the hardener. I had to do about 20 resin pumps and 10 hardener pumps in order to get the right amount. After the first week we finally came down to Chatham and we met with our sponsor Ian. We went over our first week of work and showed Ian the progress we made on our boards. Ian gave us some construction criticism and gave us ideas for the second week. Hopefully next week I can get my board in a great spot so I really focus making my board look really superior to anything else.