Kai’s senior project

  Senior project day 12. One more day left to work on my board. Today was a productive day on my board. I spent the from 9 to 4 today working on speed railing and setting up a couple of other things. At 4, I went to my baseball BBQ, the last sports commitment I probably will ever have. After the BBQ, I went home and spent another couple of hours working on the board. After 11 hours of work, I can say that I'm in a good spot to get the board shaped and almost done by tomorrow. hours: 11 total hours: 70

Senior project day 11. I can’t believe that I am working on my project on a Sunday, but I'm afraid that this is what has to be done to finish the board in time. Today was a jam-packed day. I spent the morning adjusting the nose and tail blocking to fit the frame properly. After that tedious work, I got the nose and tail blocking set and in place. After that, I proceed to put in the chine. The chine is a small strip of wood that runs down the board to give the board more strength. Prepping and setting the chine was a long process, but after a little bit, I had the chine glued in, and all the glue whipped away. After the chine was put in, I proceeded to glue in the starter stip, which was pretty much the same process with this chine but a different wood shape. When everything was glued together, I decided to call it a day. Hours: 10 Total Hours: 58.5

This week went pretty well with building my surfboard. I had a couple of hiccups along the way, but I think I got the majority of them solved and out of the way. I believe that by midday Wednesday, I will have a finished board that just needs to be coated with epoxy and fiberglass. Going into this project, I didn’t think it would be as time-consuming as it was.  This week, I felt that I got a  bunch done on the board. I got the frame glued onto the bottom panel and the chine set up and ready to go for tomorrow. Back in week one, I made a big mistake that I thought I had fixed, but it turns out that I didn’t fix the issue. The issue was that I cut the bottom board too narrow in a couple of spots, making it hard to put nose and tail blockings in. Without that small and easily avoidable mistake, I could probably be at a point where the board would be exposed by Wednesday. Over the last two days, I have spent most of my time trying to correct that mistake, and I believe that I hav...

Day 10 of senior project. Today was a pretty tedious day of work. I spent my day making tail and nose blocking for the surfboard. Pretty much the tail and nose blockings are wooden blocks shaped to be the nose and tail of the board. After 5 hours of drawing, cutting, and sanding, I had finished all 4 of the nose and tail blockings. I had just enough time to glue down the blocking before going to the last day of baseball practice. Practice today was working at the Andover middle school and teaching some kids how to play baseball.  Hours:5 total: 48.5

  Day 9 of senior project. Today wasn’t a productive day at all. The majority of my day was spent cleaning glue and re-shaping the board. Re-shaping the board took me a while because I had to do it by hand with a draw knife. A jig saw wouldn’t be accurate enough and sander way too slow. After I finished cleaning up excess glue, it was 2:30, and it was time to leave and go to baseball practice. Baseball practice today was a bunch of fun we ended up playing basketball for the whole practice. After practice, I went to the play, which was better than expected. hour 5 total:43.5

  Day 8 of senior project. Today went pretty well. Today started off with me reading the manual about how to make the rails. After doing the reading, I proceeded to add more glue onto the board to help secure the frame to the bottom panel. Tomorrow I will take off the strongbacks. I didn't get a lot of hours on the board today due to my baseball game, which turned out pretty well.  I’m trying to stay on track to finish the board by Wednesday, but It might take a couple of more 10-hour days. Tomorrow should be a pretty productive day. hours: 3 total hours:38