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Customs finally arrive....and they're sh!t. A venting thread
- Thread starter surfadelphia
- Start date
Dang. I own 3 OTR Roberts bought within the last 3 years and the glass jobs are actually really good. I just ordered a new custom 4 weeks ago....will update and give ride report when it shows up...they haven’t responding to an email going on 2 weeks...don’t want to poke the bear and end up with a rush job...
Seems like this happens more often on the batches he does right before he skips town.
It's obviously Xanadu.
No, you were just 30 years younger. It happens to all of us.
I glassed a 12' dinghy myself. Surfboards are different, but maybe I could figure it out if I could figure out how to put in the fin boxes. I suppose you rout out the fin box slots and glue them in at the end.
This is probably something to try on a board for my oldest first. Since this part is the hardest, it's probably the most expensive step.
My other option is to wait forever for all these kooks to get their midlengths.
The three Roberts I’ve over the years have been great. One off the rack and two customs. One custom was ordered with a team light glass job, which felt great but made me realize my hoofs and budget made that an impractical choice moving forward
Glassing is hard because of the turnover. You get a good crew and someone inevitably leaves. Or in the case of one mentioned shaper in here, someone dies. It's a constant in and out. Then, sometimes someone has a bad day. It doesn't take much of a lapse during sanding to leave some weave showing. A lot of glass shops spray clear on to hide that sh!t. My son used to sand years ago. After awhile, he couldn't take it anymore. Living in a closet running a grinder day in and day out while covered in sh!t and wearing a respirator isn't an easy thing to do. Plus, he was pissed at the guy running the hot coats. He was making the job harder. All this is why people quit. Hence the turnover. If I may, it's also a reason for substance abuse. The only way I could sand someone else's boards all day long would be stoned to the gills. But not many shapers are running their own glassing anymore. It's all sent out. Where ever you send it there are all the above problems. One batch of boards may be perfect. The next 20 that come back in the truck, not so good. It's a constant problem. And right now, ALL the glass shops are buried in work. It's insane. The glasser across the street from me is turning down a lot of work. I'm barely answering the phone anymore. I'm locking the front door and just one board at a time. It is seriously crazy right now. Hopefully it goes back to normal.
But yeah, if you guys want to try your hand, I can be persuaded to cut. Cuts start at 33 bucks. Help is 2 dollars a minute. That's fix your file help, (just so it will convert and make a cut file) or design help. You have to understand that as a single hobbyist, you are going to be at the end of the line. The guy with 20 files to cut on a time crunch who has good files/blanks delivered to my door is going to be ahead of you every time. It's possible, but this is not a line of business that is really worth pursuing beyond knowing that you are helping out the next Al Merrick. lol
I have been ordering custom surfboards for a lot of decades. Considering my age and my first custom being for my 6th birthday, that's a LOT of customs. Not very many in there that were disasters. I can think of a few. But not many. Frequently I didn't pay for them or paid materials costs, so there's that. Plus most of the people I have dealt with know me. Even if you are paying full pop, if you pick it up and hate it and the shaper is unresponsive, sell it. Take the loss between purchase and resale price and go somewhere else. The shops are screaming for used boards on consignment. VSS owner was in here, he knows I have two rooms full of boards plus more stashed in the shop and at my father's house. He was encouraging me to bring them in. Sell that sh!t.
But yeah, right now, it is insanely busy. If you don't want that custom, god bless you. There's a hundred guys behind you that are looking for your spot.
But yeah, if you guys want to try your hand, I can be persuaded to cut. Cuts start at 33 bucks. Help is 2 dollars a minute. That's fix your file help, (just so it will convert and make a cut file) or design help. You have to understand that as a single hobbyist, you are going to be at the end of the line. The guy with 20 files to cut on a time crunch who has good files/blanks delivered to my door is going to be ahead of you every time. It's possible, but this is not a line of business that is really worth pursuing beyond knowing that you are helping out the next Al Merrick. lol
I have been ordering custom surfboards for a lot of decades. Considering my age and my first custom being for my 6th birthday, that's a LOT of customs. Not very many in there that were disasters. I can think of a few. But not many. Frequently I didn't pay for them or paid materials costs, so there's that. Plus most of the people I have dealt with know me. Even if you are paying full pop, if you pick it up and hate it and the shaper is unresponsive, sell it. Take the loss between purchase and resale price and go somewhere else. The shops are screaming for used boards on consignment. VSS owner was in here, he knows I have two rooms full of boards plus more stashed in the shop and at my father's house. He was encouraging me to bring them in. Sell that sh!t.
But yeah, right now, it is insanely busy. If you don't want that custom, god bless you. There's a hundred guys behind you that are looking for your spot.
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What if you want a board cut from a shaper's file to a certain volume? I am totally unqualified to design my own boards. Essentially I would pay a shaper the market-rate for one of his boards and save the glassing cost (and time due to all the kooks ordering midlengths).
No. I can't do that. I won't do that. My shapers need to know that their stuff is their stuff. Nobody gets to use their files. No compromise. And most of them would NOT want to give a fledgling shaper a step up. The outlook would be that you are training/helping your future competition. You can pay me to design for you. A fair number of shapers do. 2 bucks a minute.
I'm surprised that nobody has come up with a CNC type sanding machine. Laser guided, it would see the swirls, change its own grits etc.
I think we're talking past one-another. I want to order a cut board from a shaper that hasn't been glassed, not use their files or even access them.
I'm not interested in learning to shape or accessing any of their IP.
Probably the technology is out there. The tech is out there for touchless surfboard milling as well. The problem is the cost. You pay 500 (or a million?) grand for a machine to mill titanium for aerospace parts and make bank. 500 grand for a shaping machine? You got to cut a LOT of fvcking boards to make the mortgage on a half a million dollar machine. It's just not worth throwing that kind of money at. The prices on the tech will come down. It always does. But it's going to be awhile IMO.
My kid started on my boards. I'm a fanatic about that tucked edge. That's of more concern to me than a little weave, but you need both eventually. As you know, where you put the tape on the hot coat can either help or hinder the sander re putting a clean edge in there that is following the design as intended. You have to pay attention to the sanding, but once you've mastered that, it's just mind numbing. Smart sanders are not sanders for long.
I got that. Cut boards are not entirely finished. You can fvck it up. You might be able to buy a finish shaped blank from a shaper if you can convince him you can glass. But he's probably not going to let you use his logo/lams. And most of them won't do it. That's just the lay of the land as they say.