shaping the blank

so we have a raw blank at this stage i guess
before we go any further just a bit about rocker tables
rocker tables are the best and most accurate way to vac skins on to a core
they are made from EPS
they need to be a certain thickness so the dont warp or twist under vaccuum
and they need a flat bottom
you make them with same template you use to cut your blanks
its basically the bottom offcut but with a flat bottom
its good to proctect your rocker table with some 3mm mdf and it can be glues in place with contact or gorilla glue
bevel or round off any corners so they dont tear your bag
there is a picture of a rocker table below that i made with some insulation sheet
it is too thin, i intend to glue another sheet of 50 mm foam to the base

so now we have our raw blank and our rocker table waiting

now we shape the core
the nose and tail will be a bit thicker and the rail material will stick up a bit over the foil at the ends of the foil
first thing is weigh the blank onto you shaping stands and get those high density rails down to the same height as the foil
use a power planer
then foil out the thickness in the nose and tail.
have a couple of squares of 3mm thick balsa or foam sheet, to lay onto the (what you think is) the finshed tail so you can visulize the finished overall thickness.
basically you foil away the nose toalmost nothing (on a potatochip thruster) and the tail to desired thickness.
now its time to do the rail bands(plane the rail bevels)
cut the rail bands with a power planer, as in john carpers shaping 101 or such (plenty of shit on youtube)
you have a 2inch mark from the rail and a 4 inch one
although i find its more you need to adjust these when you use that little rail radius sketch i pictured above

here it is again, it shows the hight of the rail material at the outline and the hight at 15mm in from the outline.
this is how you work out the distance in from the rail for your first marks to shape to.
you can actually use your finger on the bottom of the board as a marking guage and draw a line along the side of the rail material that marks the point (the rail material height at the outline)where the first rail band is cut to.
they look good and now you cut the second rail band.
so it should like a surfboard with the two main bevels cut.
do not touch the bottom at all, leave it flat and square edge.
also the top needs to be left with a square edge (this ensure a clean joint at the skin)
so again refer to the sketch and you will see the skin wrapped down on to the bevel and flat edge
and it shows how much material will be later removed once the skins are on.
then you block and round everything off as you would shape a normal surfboard
but the rail edge must remain square.
(you shape eps with a courser grit like 40 or 60 grit and the core can be finished at about 80 grit is fine)
okay so the core is now done