Here is the start of my new project. A classic 6ft pintail single fin.
Going to attempt to re-use old hardwood fence pailings for the deck.

looks like business is good...three frames ready to go.
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Its amazing how many old fences are left out the front on the curb for the garbo to pick up.
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Cheap way of building a board...though weight is always an issues.
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Cheers Buff

I'm interested to know what the finished weight of a board like this would be. Old hardwood fence pailings are usually Vic Ash, or Tassie Oak (in Vicco anyway), which according to my calculations would mean the skin alone would be around 3kg if kept down to 3mm thick (Jensen method). Perhaps a 5kg hardwood board is possible...I've got a bunch of Oregon (Douglas Fir) lying around that I was hoping to turn into a board, which while not quite as heavy as your palings, will be significantly heavier than my current balsa build...Anyhoo, I'd love to see weight measurements at key points in this build!

I just finished a 5'8 fish out of meranti and oregon...scavenged of course, weight is about 7kg all up. Oregon is nice to work with and resonably light. Not sure about the hardwood though.

Hey all,
weight is definately going to be an issue with this board. The majority of the pailings look like they are red gum, and are extremely heavy. The plan for this build is to keep the weight out of everything else as much as possible, i have used 6mm paulownia for the frame, works out to be lighter than 4mm marine ply, and feels pretty strong.

the bottom deck will be 6mm paulownia, and am planning on using 3mm pailings for the top. the hardwood should be strong enough to take the loadings when getting to your feet, so am thinking i will just go with a single layer of 4 oz cloth top and bottom.

will see how we go!!

Managed to make a little more progress on the single fin. I've glued the frame to the bottom deck and ripped one of the fence pailings to see how it is going to look.
I should be able to get 4 50mm wide strips from each pailing, which is really good.

Im not sure if the fence pailings are redgum or ironbark, but the grain looks sensational.

The grain in that hardwood looks great, maybe i should sacrifice some of my backyard fence for a board or two.

Here are a couple more shots of the progress.

The frame and bottom skin as shown below weigh in at 1.5kg. So it'll be interesting to see how much weight will be in the deck.


deck starting to go on.

The colour of that wood is stunning, it'll glow when its glassed !!

looks good! Keep us posted!