My original plan for the X6 was to make it a thruster, but after it took form I kinda felt that quad was the right way to go. Then I sifted around my box o’ parts and found that I had exactly 5 fin boxes of the same color so I decided why not both.
To cut fin boxes I use the futures install kit. I played around with making my own jigs for a while but then I caved and bought the kit. You’ll be doing this three to five times per board and if you’re planning on making more than one board it saves a lot of time. Routing fin boxes is one of the steps in making a board where you can really mess things up if you’re not careful so rather than jeopardize all the work I’ve done up to this point I feel better going with a pro kit.
Start by marking where your fins are going to go. If you’ve got a shaper’s square it should have guides for measuring the distance from the edge and the toe-in of the fins. It really makes laying out fins easy. I’ll extend the lines out a little bit extra to help with placing the jig and target.
If you’re using the kit, place the base plate on your mark and line up the target. One trick I’ve learned is to tape down the base plate so it doesn’t move on you.
Once you’re sure everything is all lined up, route it out. If you’re working on the stringer you will need to take several shallow passes. If you’re on the sides you really just need one pass. I like to give it at least two just to make sure I didn’t lift up at any point.
Here’s another trick. BEFORE you take off the base plate, insert your fin box and make sure it fits well in the slot you just routed out. For extra credit, you can insert a fin to make sure everything is lined up how you’d like it.
Rinse and repeat until you’ve got all your slots cut for the fin boxes.
