Hanging the Bush Pig

 Mike Connor's 9ft hollow wooden Bush Pig is now complete and hanging in the new Lennox Heads surf museum.

http://michealconnorwoodwork.com.au

Great turnout at the Ukulele demo @ Patagonia Burleigh Heads

All sorts a people a drawn to the ukulele

They had a great turnout on a hot old day.

Local Corndale wood worker and wooden board builder among other things Mike Connor also makes a great ukulele.

www.michealconnorwoodwork.com.au

Come and learn all about it from the master

If you have ever thought of building your own Ukeulele , now is your chance to get an insight into what is involved. And there is no one better to get lowdown on the whole process than good friend Mike Connor. Mind you he has more wood in his shed than anyone I know. And he could turn it all into something beautiful and useful , what ever you want.

So give Keith at Patagonia a call and book your spot. (07 ) 5576 1901

In the woodshop with Mike

Good mate Mike Connor is a great craftsman in all things wood. Here he is in his element , helping Tony Crimmins machine up the timber for his new deck.

It certainly helps to have the right gear and someone who knows how to use it and keep it sharp.

How easy is that Tony ? A whole top and bottom skin glued up thicknessed and ready to be fitted to the frame.Also the rail bands cut and ready to be laminated to the frame.

Looking good

So if you need some timber machined Mike will be able to help you out for sure. He is also keen to organise some board building classes in the future.
Check out his new website : www.michealconnorwoodwork.com.au
You will see he makes Ukuleles as well as a wide range of other things wood. He has a large store of different timber and a wide knowledge of them and their uses.

The Woody "Bush Pig"

Mike Connor has just picked up his all Paulownia Pig. Like myself he built the foam one as a trial horse at Christmas to see how she went. All good and lots of fun so a wood one was next.A classic shape that suits wood for sure.
You can catch up with Mike at the Gold Coast Surf Museum Saturday night as he is one of the guest speakers.Or check his board the next day in the park at the Alley.

Bush Pig off to the glasser

Mike Connor has finished the "Bush Pig" and headed for the Gold Coast for glassing. The board is all made from Paulownia , frame, skins and rails. A classic shape that is well suited to this construction method and should be a great ride. Mike will be one of the speakers at the Gold Coast Surf Museum on Saturday night 7th of August. The board will be there as well for sure.

Call the surf museum to book a place or buy a ticket on :
(07) 5525 6380

A great opportunity to meet a few guys and put faces to names before the day in the Park the following day.

Mikes pig nearly done

Last summer Mike Connor and I shaped and glassed a board each to test out some design ideas.

Mike went with the classic pig shape of the 60's. He loves the feel of it and decided it was the ideal test board to then build in wood. 9ft 6" x 23 1/2" x 3 1/8".

Here she is nearly ready to head off to the glasser next week to be ready for the wooden board day.

All Paulownia and a touch of Cedar.

Ready to be trimmed up and shaped.

Plastic wrap is a great for holding things with odd angles and shapes that you can't clamp real easy.

Tail blocks on the same way.

All hands on deck to get the rails glued on and in place.

Check out the finished board in a couple of weeks at the Wooden Board Day at Currumbin Alley Sunday 8th August. Mike will also be one of the guest speakers at the Surf Museum on Saturday night prior to the day in the park.

Last of the wood shed action

The more clamps the better some times...Make sure that you have a breather hole drilled at this point ,as once that bottom skin goes on , she all becomes a sealed unit and will be under pressure with any temperature changes . I have seen boards let go and concaves turn into nose bubbles. Not pretty and very disappointing after all the hard work you have gone through.Also be sure that you have holes in your frames linking all chambers of the board for the same reason.

Well the bottom skin was all glued down and clamped up on the Alley Slider.

Got the trim router onto the fish and knocked off the overhang on the rails top and bottom. The rail band acts as a guide. The glues makes for a bumpy outline .

One side nearly cleaned up.

Small sharp block plane is the answer.

The home made shaping stand comes in handy here.

Pretty good now , all the glue gone and planed down to the clean pre shaped foam. A nice sand and check the outline is flowing and true. This is a very telling part of things so far. Up till now in the build it has all been internal and a structural focus. But now what you do is there for all to see. If you are to run a cedar pin line say, then it will be highly visible as to how smooth that outline is.It is now also that you get a true sense of what the board will weigh , look and feel like as it is now a 3D version of all the 2D pieces of the jigsaw puzzle you have been handling.
So I waited for the glue to set , which is about 2 hours with the polyurethane glue we are using and loaded the boards and rail bands onto the truck. Next is to laminate the rail bands on and the tail and nose blocks , prior to shaping the rails at home.

More from the wooden shed

Well she is a big board and with an 8mm deck skin we needed 75 clamps to pull her down snug. We could have gotten away with less but if you have them it all helps.

Pretty well trussed up. Make sure you have everything level and square prior to the deck going on as once it goes on , that is it.

The foam in the tail gives you so much more glue area to hold the thin pieces in place.

The larger pieces of foam will be for the FCS fin plugs to go into and the foam in front of the butt crack will be to take the leg rope plug.The other foam will be to glue the V of timber onto that forms the fish tail block.

Yes winter is here once those westerly winds start blowing off the hills inland from Byron Bay.The wooden blocks down from the nose is for the goretex breather to go into.

Big board , big bugger hanging onto it.

This feels like a sweet little board and a great little experiment to share with some mates.

Strong as this little one.

The bottom going on the fish with it's slightly rolled V under the nose to a flat section under the front foot and a double concave and V out through the tail.

More from the week in the wood shed

Mike resawing some great looking Paulownia for decks and railbands.

The 10ft "Alley Slider" deck skin being sanded down to 8mm on the 600mm wide drum sander.This means that when it is glued down I will not have to touch it with sandpaper at all.

Mike finishing the first run of glue up the stringer to get the deck down on the 5ft 10" fish.

Every guy needs a mate to keep him company in the shed all day. This is Waddy short for Wadkin ( a brand of bandsaws ) He is a Jack Russell and a great little guy.

Getting a few planks through the thicknesser , ready to be glued up side by side to form deck skins up to 600mm wide.

The fish with the deck on with its concave out through the tail.

6mm deck pulled down no worries.

Mike had a visit from a mate of his John Buckham who builds guitars . Just unreal looking and sounding guitars, where would you start to build one of these ? Anyway he was off to the Guitar show in Brisbane and spent the night catching up and playing a few tunes on his great sounding instruments.