Was thinking about chip and hicksy while I did this one. Not to leave out herbspitzer, he’ll be inspiring the next board, it’ll more go and less show.
I’d been thinking for a while that it would be fun to try to make a skateboard in the compsand way, so I’ve been messing around with this for the last week or so before I start on making a few customs for money (surfboards, that is). :o
I have a couple sets of trucks/wheels for it. One really cheap set of no-name trucks, and some super-sweet 110mm rubber-on-nylon road wheels, and a set of randal 180s and 75mm kryptonics. Probably put the cadillac wheels on this one, then save the randals and kryps for the next one I’m doing, a regular 7-ply maple with fiberglass carving deck.
Taped up balsa, sheet of 5/8 eps and male skateboard mold from 2lb eps
Laying out the glass to go between the foam and deck balsa.
Deck balsa/glass/foam in vac bag over mold. Weight for camber.
5/8 ply inserts for truck mounting.
Bottom balsa in bag over mold with weight for camber. Extra patches of glass over ply on both sides. When I did this pull at the highest vacuum I could muster, you could see where all the unthickened (no milled glass, microballons, etc.) epoxy that I used to set the ply inserts infused into the balsa directly above and below them. Hopefully that will give enough crush resistance to keep from turning this thing into a very beautiful bit of useless junk.
first iteration of “finished” blank.
I got too much springback on the nose and tail kicks with these first two skins (although the concave and camber stuck rock solid), so I did additional layers of makore/glass on both deck and bottom. These two skins I did simultaneously. Unfortunately I only had the makore veneer bookmatched for one side. finished blank, this time it held the curves perfectly.
Cut and true up outline, making the edges all 90 degrees (a trick on the concave edges!)
Bag on two layers of balsa for rails. Much harder than the rails on my surfboards, more curves.
Rails on.
Nose and tail blocks on.
Squaring up all the rails and shaping nose and tail.
Turning the “rails”
Tape off for glassing.
Glassed with extra patches under tail.
Cutlapped on both sides, hotcoated.
Sanded, sprayed, drilled, taped, trucks and Cadillac wheels!
