Your surfboard shaping and glassing stands will be your most important tool in creating your own surfboards. It needs to be sturdy enough so that the board does not move, but at the same time it has to be gentle so it does not ding your foam blank throughout the building process.
So before doing anything else, we recommend you dial in your surfboard stands. Here are the ones we made for ourselves...
SHAPING STAND
2×4 22″ length (x4)
2×4 6″ length (x4)
Carpet Scraps or Foam Padding
Ready-Mix Concrete
5 Gallon Buckets (x2)
Self-Tapping Screws
- Screw together a 2x4 and 4x6 with an 8" overlap so that the final height is 44".
- Place the leg in the center of your 5 gallon bucket.
- Pour the ready-mix concrete into the bucket while keeping the leg perfectly upright/level.
- Pour the recommend amount of water into the bucket and wait for the concrete to set.
- Once it's set, glue/screw the carpet (or foam) padding in the "U" shape.
- Repeat this process for the other stand leg.
Now for your glassing stand...
GLASSING STAND
We use an ironing board with some counterweights (bricks) for our glassing stand. It works like a charm! No need to get fancy here, just make sure that it's functional.
For you glassing stand, you will want to make sure that the board supports are narrow enough that you can wrap your fiberglass around the bottom of the board with an overlap of about 2" from the rail. You will also want your glassing stand to be a bit taller than your shaping stand to make it easier on your back throughout the glassing process.
Make sure to pad your supports to prevent dings! We used bubble wrap, but some other ideas include using pool noodles or pipe insulation.
Final Tip:
Throw down some tarps below your shaping and glassing stands before you start work. It's a relatively messy process, and tarps will catch all of the debris and make clean up much easier!