After 34 years in the same job - about 20 of those working for myself pulled the pin 4 weeks ago ,
Got back into the man cave for the first time in 6 months
Has been really fun to catch all the swell from midweek fronts coming through that normally I only get to watch from the front door at work

Even have time to read and post **** on seabreeze

Looking at your mancave you have a selection of boards to go through.
I work for myself and enjoy being able to have a lifestyle but still not the same as not having to work.
Your a lucky bugger, enjoy every day

Select to expand quote

515 said..
Looking at your mancave you have a selection of boards to go through.
I work for myself and enjoy being able to have a lifestyle but still not the same as not having to work.
Your a lucky bugger, enjoy every day

Thanks definitely enjoying it - we battled for years to find the work / life balance - in the end lucky enough to be able to sell up and get out .

with the boards half of those are the kids / grandkids . The 2 I am surf the most atm are still in the back of the Ute - pin tail single fin for the fatter breaks and a quad fish for fun everyday beach breaks - loving the fish atm .

Stoked for you!!! Every nights Friday and every day is Sunday,Enjoy,I love Tassie posts,beautiful part of the world

Select to expand quote

justaddwater said..
Stoked for you!!! Every nights Friday and every day is Sunday,Enjoy,I love Tassie posts,beautiful part of the world

Haha , yes very true do lose track of what day it is .

Hey Tassiedevil so yeah not all your boards but do you build your wooden boards?
I hope you're getting plenty of waves

been making the timber boards about 5-6 years now mainly for my own use , thinking these are my favourites so far -

Enjoy retirement mate.

Tassie are they hollow or wood over EPS?

Excellent work, enjoy retirement best time ever.

Select to expand quote

SP said..
Enjoy retirement mate.

Thanks mate hope all is well up your way .

Have heard your having a below average surf season

Select to expand quote

IFocus said..
Tassie are they hollow or wood over EPS?

Excellent work, enjoy retirement best time ever.

Thanks , yep certainly been fun so far

These boards are all foam core - some polystyrene , most EPS . Have found for me with freight charges to get blanks down it's cheaper - saving about 200 plus per board , plus the added recycling benefit - getting old tip shop boards and stripping them back to score a blank for about 5-$20 makes more sense . Have made hollow and chambered boards in the past but thought for both there was a much greater amount of work for minimal gain - so all foam core last few years .

Couple of those in the pics of my man cave are half built surfboard coffee tables / wine racks - have found they are pretty popular and good for raising funds for more boards for me to surf . Make them foam core stripping down old esky's - we used to throw out 20-30 esky's per week at work before I found a use for them ( great for the environment ) now no longer working will have to find a new source . This is what they come out like . Added benefit the wife loves the wine racks - happy wife - happy life

top one went to Burleigh , middle one east coat Tassie , bottom one is wife's wine rack

Excellent work mate love the different timbers, been making Paulownia over EPS for a couple of years myself.

Just doing a 9'3" long board for summer will be the 1st long board I have owned.

Just starting to shape the rails.

Select to expand quote

IFocus said..
Excellent work mate love the different timbers, been making Paulownia over EPS for a couple of years myself.

Just doing a 9'3" long board for summer will be the 1st long board I have owned.

Just starting to shape the rails.

Have yet to try the paulownia timber - priced it few years back but the freight even then was a killer , interesting to see what the final weight in your longboard comes out at .the longboard I made for my daughter in the top pic came out at 8 kg - timber macrocarpa , red cedar , Huon pine - cork rails.
About to start a little 4foot 6 board for my granddaughter - something different using Blackwood laminate to minimise the weight .

Yeah took me a few boards to get the weight closer to a PU board I improved at glassing fill / seal coats plus now take the paulownia back to 3mm thickness.

Not sure how the long board will turn out weight wise hope to laminate then fill coat, sand finish no gloss coat.

I was getting some paulownia off a bloke in Perth 2200mm x 300mm x 5mm but he disappeared then tried the guys on the East Coast but they had run out ended up getting some direct from China good quality and cheaper only issue they wanted to sell be a 1000 plus lengths managed to get one mob down to 50 which I have just about run out of.

Let me know if you want the details.

That would be great thanks

Are you guys vacuum bagging the paulownia to the foam?
I have done a few hollow wooden ones but very labour intensive so changed to PU.
Foam core might be a good compromise.
BTW - recently retired, shaped a new longboard, tore my meniscus before I could get it in the water (:
Hopefully get on it this year although my son will probably christen it!

Select to expand quote

rattlinbones said..
Are you guys vacuum bagging the paulownia to the foam?
I have done a few hollow wooden ones but very labour intensive so changed to PU.
Foam core might be a good compromise.
BTW - recently retired, shaped a new longboard, tore my meniscus before I could get it in the water (:
Hopefully get on it this year although my son will probably christen it!

Bad timing tearing the meniscus just after retirement .

For me haven't vacuum bagged as yet - thinking that will be the go with the grand daughters little board - all mine are glue and clamp - is a you tube video by deep creek TV using same method

Nice work Tassiedevil with your boards and awesome coffee tables and wine racks to fund more.
The hollow core wood boards look a lot of work, especially to get the rails done.

I used to build epoxy sandwich boards and vacuum bagging with rocker jig and at one stage using 2mm ply deck (can't remember) but couldn't get full wrap on rails (boxy slalom windsurf boards). Out with the jug and steam ply and cut vees to get it further around rails. One board I used 0.8mm model ply (boats/planes) and could get further but not complete wrap.

Ifocus - on your wood why so thick? Helped our polyester laminator build a few short boards with EPS core boards with ply 2mm top and bottom, not full rail wrap but thinking could use strips of this veneer on the rails which is a third vacuum process and clear epoxy would look great.

Rattlinbones - injuries suck, got a rotator cuff tear and plenty of rehab but just have to put up with bit of pain.
Good luck with your recovery and please post photos of your board built - its great to keep the forum active

Select to expand quote

rattlinbones said..
Are you guys vacuum bagging the paulownia to the foam?
I have done a few hollow wooden ones but very labour intensive so changed to PU.
Foam core might be a good compromise.
BTW - recently retired, shaped a new longboard, tore my meniscus before I could get it in the water (:
Hopefully get on it this year although my son will probably christen it!

Congrats on the retirement, on the meniscus tear I tore mine 4 years ago tired every to rehab with physiology doctor was going to operate but I had a plasma injection and it worked, they said it could last for 6 months or years everyone is different they said, I was out of the water for 6 long months and back in it 2 weeks after the injection. Until that Lacey dropped in on me and i hyper extended my elbow out of the water another 3 months

Thanks Mac, never heard of that so googled it - interesting, could be an option. I actually did it 8 years ago and never did anything about it and it slowly improved although never quite right. Now might be the time, although my GP reckons give it more time and see what happens - apparently we don't heal as quick when we get older!
515, I don't have many pics but have a couple. 9'2" noserider (started longer but I fecked the tail so had to modify. A bit narrower as found my other wider board was uncomfortable for hips if sitting too long.



Did this because I was never happy with the first one I did (also 9'2" but 23" wide).

Tassie PM'ed you.

Rattlinbones yes vacuum the deck and bottom on over EPS foam build out the rails using strips. Read this guys blog and it will give you all you need to know.

515 could go thinner but the Paulownia will start to crack and fall apart a little I get it in 5mm and plane back to 3mm would also need to glass a little heavier IMHO.

PS. Tassie weighted the longboard its 4.6kg without fin boxes and glassing.

So what funds are considered for a comfortable retirement anybody know?

Select to expand quote

IFocus said..
Tassie PM'ed you.

Rattlinbones yes vacuum the deck and bottom on over EPS foam build out the rails using strips. Read this guys blog and it will give you all you need to know.

515 could go thinner but the Paulownia will start to crack and fall apart a little I get it in 5mm and plane back to 3mm would also need to glass a little heavier IMHO.

PS. Tassie weighted the longboard its 4.6kg without fin boxes and glassing.

Glen any chance you could put up an attachment to the vacuum bagging blog - keen to give it a go but have a few queries - eg . do you need a vacuum bagging vacuum or will a shed/ house vacuum be enough / do you need the vacuum attachment or just tie / tape the vacuum hose in the bag / do you need the breather clothe some talk about . Also thinking of trying the next one fibreglass / resin free - some of the blokes are now using water based polyurethane paint to water seal - pretty keen to give that a go - save a bit of weight but avoid the stuff around it can be playing with epoxy and fibreglass

Select to expand quote

Macaha said..
So what funds are considered for a comfortable retirement anybody know?

Best recommendation I can find for a couple to get a balanced income from pension and personal savings is around $400 thousand each at 67 retirement age ( 10 years away for me ) .

think it varies a lot depending on lifestyle - some like my old neighbour can live on very little and retired 4 years ago with about 40 thousand in the bank on a full pension and he seems pretty happy . Still gets away in his caravan for holidays and trout fishing

Select to expand quote

Tassiedevel said..
Glen any chance you could put up an attachment to the vacuum bagging blog - keen to give it a go but have a few queries - eg . do you need a vacuum bagging vacuum or will a shed/ house vacuum be enough / do you need the vacuum attachment or just tie / tape the vacuum hose in the bag / do you need the breather clothe some talk about . Also thinking of trying the next one fibreglass / resin free - some of the blokes are now using water based polyurethane paint to water seal - pretty keen to give that a go - save a bit of weight but avoid the stuff around it can be playing with epoxy and fibreglass

Tassie this blog is really good for the whole process including vac bagging.thewoodbuddha.blogspot.com/ has a great way to build board stand.

Bought a 3CFM vac pump off the net you get them for around or under $100 you also need a vacuum gauge ideally a switch but for the odd board you can switch manually for 3hours if you use PU glue.

For my own bag setup I used Bunnings plastic table cloth (www.bunnings.com.au/crystal-clear-0-3mm-137cm-vinyl-tablecloth_p6640026 can't remember what thickness I used ) stuck together with double sided tape leaving one end open.

To connect to the bag I used a boat fitting like this (www.boataccessoriesaustralia.com.au/bronze-skin-fittings) but I didn't pay that much added a couple of steel plate washers and rubber seals.

Select to expand quote

Macaha said..
So what funds are considered for a comfortable retirement anybody know?

Macaha everyone is different 1st step is to work out how much you are going to spend some can live on $20K a year and some cannot survive on $150k plus.

I have a mate who lives on $20k and really lives the life, find a good financial planner and he / she will break it down for you.

BTW Macaha the long board design was based on you recommending a McTavish fireball I made some changes for me but it will be similar.

the barefoot invester has a good section on retirement on the pension , basically you need a free hold home , and part time employment to take advantage of the rules , its worth a read .

How much to retire on! With increased costs of living and probably governments increasing retirement ages it's a concern.
It sucks that paying tax and then getting a minimal pension when NZ has so many permanent beneficiaries rant over!
Make the most of everyday

Rattlinbones - great looking board, so adding single concave in the nose and the material adds color.
Agree whole point of your own boards to suit you so narrower better for your hips.

IFocus - awesome work, great compliment to base your board on well-respected McTavish fireball and tune for yourself.
Interesting on the link with the fly screen - I would use fiberglass cloth for strength but everyone has their own preferences.

Tassiedevil - with vac bagging to get even pressure over the whole board is to use breather cloth and shade cloth works well as well as having hose with small holes for the length inside the bag. good to mount it on flat say 100mm width board so the hose doesn't indent into surface. As with IFocus use a rocker jig and a gauge so you don't over vac it. Just do one side at a time and doing a dry run first is always good.

Select to expand quote

IFocus said..

Tassiedevel said..
Glen any chance you could put up an attachment to the vacuum bagging blog - keen to give it a go but have a few queries - eg . do you need a vacuum bagging vacuum or will a shed/ house vacuum be enough / do you need the vacuum attachment or just tie / tape the vacuum hose in the bag / do you need the breather clothe some talk about . Also thinking of trying the next one fibreglass / resin free - some of the blokes are now using water based polyurethane paint to water seal - pretty keen to give that a go - save a bit of weight but avoid the stuff around it can be playing with epoxy and fibreglass

Tassie this blog is really good for the whole process including vac bagging.thewoodbuddha.blogspot.com/ has a great way to build board stand.

Bought a 3CFM vac pump off the net you get them for around or under $100 you also need a vacuum gauge ideally a switch but for the odd board you can switch manually for 3hours if you use PU glue.

For my own bag setup I used Bunnings plastic table cloth (www.bunnings.com.au/crystal-clear-0-3mm-137cm-vinyl-tablecloth_p6640026 can't remember what thickness I used ) stuck together with double sided tape leaving one end open.

To connect to the bag I used a boat fitting like this (www.boataccessoriesaustralia.com.au/bronze-skin-fittings) but I didn't pay that much added a couple of steel plate washers and rubber seals.

Thanks heaps mate - nice to have things simplified

Select to expand quote

515 said..

Tassiedevil - with vac bagging to get even pressure over the whole board is to use breather cloth and shade cloth works well as well as having hose with small holes for the length inside the bag. good to mount it on flat say 100mm width board so the hose doesn't indent into surface. As with IFocus use a rocker jig and a gauge so you don't over vac it. Just do one side at a time and doing a dry run first is always good.

thanks mate. -do you lay the breather cloth / shade sail over the entire board surface