Board Builders

Normally, the minimum order quantity is one crate. We do fumigete and supply fumigation cetification. What size of veneer you need?

Ok great, so what are the dimensions of 1 crate? Is that 1 cubic metre?

what is the minumun amount? Id love to get my hands on some but dont really want a whole crate!

Ditto Joe - what's the low-down on sizes and costing?

heres my press in action and the shape the board will eventually be the board will be 4 layers of 3mm marine grade hoop pine with fibre glass on both sides and yes this press is made of steel i knocked it up at school in an hour

and heres what this little beauty should look like when done

hey guys, im new to this group and to board building. I finally found out where to get hoop pine in melbourne so im gonna start my first project this summer. ------------Question: Will i be able to rib-press tub concave and a tiny bit of rocker into 4-5 layers of 3mm layers? or should i get the 1.5 mm and use 9 layers. Im asking because the latter is twice as expensive. Thanks

Hay Anton - welcome aboard (no pun intended!) - a rib-press should be able to do all layers in one go for basic concave - rocker is a little harder with a rib-press, but should still be acheiveable.  What is your rib-press setup like if you don't mind me asking? Also, I'm Melb based - where did you source you veneer? (again if it's not an issue to divulge your sources) Deeks.

hey, thanks for responding. The design of the press is a little hard to explain, ill post pics eventually, but its basically ribs for the concave, and along the length of the deck ill make each rib higher or lower (as well as rotate if necessary) to make the rocker. I've called plyco for the hoop pine. Ill probably get the 3mm sheet (af A-C hoop pine) and go from there

OK, cool, quite elaborate then.  I've made a couple fo simple presses (check out my photos if you want).  That makes a nice even concave and you can realy apply some pressure.  Plyco will supply you ply (I guess as the name infers) not single veneers I guess - I used 1.5mm hoop pine ply in a Roarockit vacuum bag and it made a killer board I'm getting a lot of fun out of.  Post your pics when your ready - be keen to see.

3mm hoop ply will work fine in your press as long as you don't get too greedy with both the concave and the rocker. Have a nice healthy concave and small rocker or less concave with a bigger rocker. Also the more ribs the better   : )

fitz gave me a run down on how to make a concrete press a few weeks back.. i ran the idea past one of my design teachers at school and two weeks later we had this...

how did you make it?

wow...!

What school do you go to :O!!! Thats rad! 

i go to cronulla high... yep i was pretty stoked when my teacher said we could make it at school...

pretty simple making it... we knocked up a blank double kicker then you just basically make up a formwork with the blank deck in the middle creating the two sides...

heres a link to something similiar to what we did..http://www.diyskate.com/concrete_mold_02.html

just gotta make sure when your pouring the concrete in, you pour it evenly between both sides... seeing as concrete is heavy if you fill all of one side first it can cause the board to twist a little and then your left with a twisted press which is not so good.... we ran threaded rod in ours so that we could bolt it to the hydraulic press at school....

bro thats sooo neat , wish my school would do somthing like that

How did you get it up right? 

O builders of boards, i wish to stiffen my super shaka with some carbon or some cool stiffening shit, maybe even fibreglass. Any insights or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. If someone is able to do it for a small fee or a trade for swag i would be stoked.

hey im making my board right this second and i was wondering whats a good depth of concave for my mold?

Hey Daniel - what sort of press are you using?  I porsonally would go for more than about 20mm (three quarters of an inch) but open for contradiction!  any more than that and you're asking for sore feet...

sorry!  make that would NOT go for more than 20mm...

yeah cheers man, ive got a vacuum press, yeah already cut about 20mm depth of concave into my foam, working great!

Fat Pigeon do a service were they will carbon fibre it or stiffen it  for you

Cool Daniel - yep, vacuum is the way to go!

hey dudes. i'm really interested in building a board for myself but i dont know where to get started. Sorry for sounding like a noob but i'm new to woodwork and I just don't understand the basics, like whats the veneer? is it expensive to build your own vacuum bag and press? if so whats a cheaper option? again, sorry im just curious and wouldnt mind giving this a go

Hey Dude - where to start...!

Veneer is a thin layer of timber (anywhere from less than 1mm to say 3mm) - it's tough to find good veneer in Australia (from my experience) so a lot of people seem to use very thin plywood - you can get plywood in 1.5, 2.0 and 3.0mm thicknesses that can be utilised in a very similar way to actual veneer.  This stuff can be quite expensive.

Vacuum presses allow you to make more complicated/intricate shapes, but I'm not sure I'd recommend them for a novice as there's a lot more prep-work to do and higher degree of difficulty involved - the idea of building one versus buying onee would be more daunting..

Cheaper options - a simple rib-press will give a good concave, is pretty fool-proof and you can use readily available plywoods like 6mm marine ply (2 sheets) laminated in the press to make a decent board - see link here: http://www.skateboardracing.org.au/photo/photo/listForContributor?x...

I started with a rib-press and haave moved onto vacuum pressing but still get a lot of enjoyment out of my original decks from time to time.

thanks heaps dudee ;)

With more than 10 years of experience on bamboo veneer, we could supply good bamboo veneer in various thickness. www.smartbamboo.com

im actually thinking of a dimm press might be easier. anyone here have experience with it? know hwere to get the foam? its this one if you dont know. http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/forum/longboard-board-buildin...

and also, if i did that would i be able to cut the board afterwards into a shape so its not a rectangle? or before? thanks dudes

one of my boards awaiting fibreglassing

concave (its the same on both boards)

the other board with final coat of resin on the bottom ready to sand them have a thin layer of resin on top.

and the press that made it all (see the other pics ive posted to see it in action) i made this at school the day i finished my hsc my metal work teacher just "yeah mate use as much steel as you like!"....i used about 15kg of steel to make it. 

Sweet build Alexander with some gnarly cave!

Dude, Dimm press is great, where to find foam has been covered several times in this thread. Read through the whole thing and everything will be come clearer. Cut out your shape after pressing..

5 hours later and ive read the whole thing... still got a few questions though sorry. would the cheap ply from bunnings give a 2 inch drop in the dimm press? and for a clamp should i just make one? cheers

and also $80 for foam? any know alternatives?

the boards bellow that i made are made of 4mm hoop pine from bunnings and it was very good quality wood and has a stamp saying "Made in Australia" might have been fake i dont know but it was still really nice wood and easy to work with apart from the god damn wheel wells, fuck i dont know how you guys do it but it took me ages! i used belt sanders, orbital/osilating sanders...a router and the end result of near a day and a half is still un-semetrical but at least they actually work.    

i agree a 2inch drop would probably be suicide with hoop pine really better off with venneer like bamboo and strengthening it with fibre glass or carbon. yeah i adam i reckon a jig is the way to go...wish i could find one.  

ehh thats annoying but thanks guys. maybe ill start with just a topmount with cheap wood. and anyone found cheaper foam or is it gonna be $80? cos for something im gonna cut up and maybe only use once...

anyone had experience with this?

http://www.thefoambooth.com.au/front.asp?pid=46&ProductID=SS10

@dude yeah bro i bought foam for $80 with shipping and they gave me heaps of it, enough for about 5 molds

@dude, dont buy luarn ply from bunning, shit stuff..

get some good hoop pine for around 65 a sheet, way better than any shitty cheap bunnings ply

Wrong polystyrene dude! You want to make sure its extruded. And yeah building boards often isn't a cheaper option than buying one. Especially if your only doing one

sweet thanks daniel. im gonna go buy it and have a go. how thick do you guys reckon? 3cm?

Get on that Alex!!!  shoot me his details if you think he's got an ample stash and looking to ship for a moderate fee!  Deeks

sweet...!