my first homebuilt

[jester56]

i built this board for my son to learn on as he could not afford a commercial board . it is 145cm long x 43cm wide . it has a 12mm klegecell core with 3layers of 6oz glass top and bottom with a sheet of laminex [kitchen bench top] on the bottom . the top is finnished in acrylic car paint [ all i had available ] the fins are injection molded plastic [cheap ]

[sailrtnow]

How far in the board both from the rails and tips did you put the fins in?

Were you able to get them completely straight?

I am trying to come up with a good gig to figure out where to drill holes for the fins. Does anyone have any ideas?

[zfennell]

you're a good man, pop.

[Toesidereefer]

Take a straight edge longer than the board and line up the tips of the tails end to end. Draw a line from the tip and measure up to where you want to place the fin from the tail. If you don't like the fins to be so close to the rail just measure in from your reference line. This way if your board isn't exactyly symetrical because of handing shaping at least your fins will be in line end to end and somewhat even.

[jester56]

thats exactly how i lined my fins up toeside .as for positioning i just put them where they looked write they seem to work ok and after seeing guys ride plywood boards with no fins i don't believe fin placement is that critical but i would like to build a board with fin holes in different positions to see what difference the fin position makes

[kiteboardingcentral.com]

Where'd you get the fins?

I'm looking for a cheaper alternative to fins... considering you can't buy them for less then 15 a piece!

After reading injection molded I looked around for home do it yourself kits but couldn't find any so I'm assuming you found them at a store...

[jester56]

i bought the fins from a sailboard shop that was dabbling in kite gear, i don't see the need for fins made out of g10 glass as they will wear out as quick as plastic fins. i saw a website that was selling fins for about five bucks but i can't remember what it was called . it was somwhere in the usa

[kiteboardingcentral.com]

If you can remember what the site was, please post it here, or PM it to me.

[jester56]

http://www.omnitech-engineering.com/fins/default.asp try this site

[kiteboardingcentral.com]

Funny thing is, I just remembered this thread and I found those about 6 days ago... but thanks!