Board Builders

*cutting the bottom *

Very similar to my press only i used 3mm mdf layers. fitz said i should have a sacrificial layer of ply top and bottom to stop the sharp edges digging in to the ply but it ended up ok but once again i was doing 3mm. with yours it might be good to use one. keep the layers you want stuck together separated from the extra layers by a sheet of plastic to stop the wrong bits sticking together.

what do you mean cutting the bottom???

cutting a triangle off the base where it pokes out of the mdf.
spot the difference in the pictures

pressing tomorrow, i filed off all the sharp edges and its smooth as now.
would have pics of press but camera loader isnt working.

what do you guys recommend, when using the 4mm marine ply ( a thick veneer in the middle with two really thin facing veneers on the outside with some watertight aa bond or whatever.) how many layers should i use???

im thinking of doing one horizontal grain inbetween two lengthwise grain sheets. (three sheets) do you think that itll be stiff enough??? im worried that this wont hold up.

should be good, probs could have had all the ply one way but let me know how it goes., see my latest pics on build pics 2

design looks good but the finishes in the pic of both of them looks a bit shaggy.
how r they holdin up to weight?

Great (i'm 70kg), the one with the orange wheels i just chucked extra leftover black glass on it and the glass was going hard at the time i did not want to waste it. But the green wheel one i just left it glossy, seriously who cares what it looks like, they hammer, the first one, dodge finish, has had some serious testing semi fast big 10m pendies n stuff has too much flex but great fun, the newer one diff ply, diff glass, and heaps stiffer, still waiting on grip tape but put other barrels on it and wheel bite no issue now. Cannot wait to ride it, Lime green zigs new bones reds and a great urge to go fast. Bring on the grip tape.

By the way have fun with your finishing skills flyboy. Ha

haha if i dont post any pics up here of the boards, u know what the finish is like

yeah pressing decks is the easy part. Getting a high qual finish is another thing all together

steve, if only i could watch you do ours. i recon id learn a bit.

Probably not as much as you think, I still have a lot to learn myself. Maybe we could watch Pete and Ash at Glyde or Sakamoto doin their thing then we'd both learn something.

ye, ur new battleaxe looks really flash.

im so hyped to get to work,

put the board in the press yesterday, damb it looks like a lot of concave.

whats the board in the group display pic called? it looks so so so sick

scrapping the press altogether, making a new one on the other side of the base. it was just way too much concave ( 1 1/4 inches). bad miscalculations on my part. this time im going for about 1/2 - 3/4 inches concave with an inch of rocker, trying to duplicate the comet fsm's, it felt awesome when i stood on it.

btw, i dont know if it is just the concave or what, but the board is super super stiff. do you guys think that it would be the same if i had less concave and rocker????

i really like the stiffness.

Yes more than likely it is the concave. Especially if it was 1 1/4"

less concave will make for less stiffness given that everything else is kept the same. By how much for your specific materials is something you will find out shortly

yes i would imagine so, the press to make the board would be crazy

just wondering does anyone know of a guide to board building

you just commented on it, if you go to the bottom of this page and look at the funny things called numbers and read from 12 to 1 look at the links, you want to learn about, but make the effort. its how steve and i did it and it works.

Then ask questions. and we would love to help but we will not repeat all the stuff on the groups page already.

hey, the board is cut out and ready to be sanded down.
dont have a sander at my place so i hav 2 wait a week till the hollidays r over u before i can unleash limitless abuse upon the school graphics workshop. ( got the maddest teacher which lets me do pretty much anything)

the concave is really comfortable and the board has the tiniest hint of flex, but im certain that thatll be nullified once i get glass on it.

btw, i still dont understand how the stencils work when your painting. i tried printing out a design, using a stanley knife to cut it out, then taping it to the wood and spraying it.
but it was all faded and smudged so i need to find a better method.
im not very good at painting so im a bit stuck, anyone have a good method for doing wrighting, like logos?

masking tape the board, then spray with spray adhesive, then stick image to it, let it dry, cut image with a scalpel,weed out image area, paint, remove tape, done.

sweet.
just gotta hope i dont cut too far with the scalpel

u should be able to just cover the bottom of the image with paper glue, right?
cos i dont have any spray adhesive...

Groovy! show us some pics!

sounds sweet dylan,
ye i would expect a topmount to handle differently to a spud....

hey guys, thought id post up some pics of the first build ive done that im relatively happy with. mini with a huge kick, no cave. pretty simple build but was fun, the graphic turned out pretty well to. check it.

looks rad!

hey guys, myself and marine ply have a love hate relationship, i hate the fact that its so splintery, it hasnt got a very good colour, its plelaminated. but i love it because my dad rode over one of my blanks today with the concave facing down, like a speed bump and didnt realise, and when i politely told him to reverse, there was nothing wrong with the board

ps, im till looking for a better material for my next batch, hopefully i can get some bamboo

just wondering...
what is the difference in performance between fibreglass and carbonfibre, to my knowledge they are both used with the same sort of resins,
is it just that carbonfibre has the 'bling' name to it (so it can just sell for much more or its harder to produce thus making it more expensive,) or is it actually quantifiably better?

ps, how thick is onle layer of carbonfibre on a deck?

carbon has different qualites to glass, if used correctly it can add strength with little weight compared to glass, putting a layer on the bottom of your board might make it look spaceshippy but will do very little to make it a stronger board.

Carbon fibre is on average 3 times stronger than the same weight fibreglass. So is it better? Depends what you want in your final product. It is much harder to work with oweing to the fact that unlike fibreglass it is hard to tell when it is wet out properly and any mistake is much more costly....

I agree with pete that carbon done the correct way will make the boards stronger but most use it to make somethings look good. Also there is a variety of diferent carbon that do there own specific jobs.

I use boat fibre glass as lamination with epoxy resin usually with 4 layers 3mm ply, if I were to add stiffness to my board although minimal, am I better to add a layer of glass on top of the deck?

correct me if im wrong, but wouldnt it add more strenght to the board if put on the bottom?
to my understanding, fibreglass has more tensile strength than compressive.

hey, guys
i just saw the coolest thing!
well what this guy on silverfish did was he got an old deck, then cut of most of the wood, only leaving a wooden frame, then filled the rest up with expandafoam, he then sanded it flat with the board. and sandwiched it between a few layers of 6oz glass
like i dont kow what the end result was, but it looked really awesome.
if this could be replicated, it could turn an old dull board that uve had 4 ages into a new lively creation,
like it wouldnt be as light as a foamcore built from scratch, but it would be a way cheaper, way easier way of making your own foamie!
what do you guys think?????

dude thats how most foamcore boards are built, lots of guys do it with evos, but not so much with expanding foam, if you have a spare board I suggest you try it.

was it the FSM or another board?

ye, that warped fsm!
do you know how it turned out in the end?
if not expanding foam, then where can you get that airex stuff people talk about, pvc foam?
wouldnt it be really expensive here,
like the aim would be to make it as cheap as possible without going into the structural integrity...

is it that extruded polythylene foam that you can get from insulation companies?

I think that the expanding foam would be alright, but the problem with the FSM was that he didn't have holes in the foam for the resin to soak through as you would have for vacuum bagging I think that it would be best if you have it in a press or bag.

Just be carefull as a lot of foam products do not have inherited strength properties. Most foams require a lot of glass and resin to make them strong.

if anyone is looking for expanding foam; Blackwoods sell it

@Alex Schulze -hey man.. what kind of epoxy resin are you using? like, what brand etc? cheers

damb, so you need a vac bag which then raises the price up quite a bit

whats the difference when laminating/glassing/ epoxing something in a vac bag vs no bag? pros cons?

much more excess resin can be removed with the use of a vac bag.

anyone tried "styleplantation" bamboo?
the 6.5mm sheets that come in 1220/ 2440??

where do you get them from how much etc.