hey everyone,
i made a skate deck out of some plywood i found- 3/4" thick, 5 ply, not that great of stuff but i thought it would work. after i finished shaping it this afternoon i put it in the tub with the hot water, gettin it ready for a bit of concave and i saw a ton of air bubbles coming out from it. should i be worried? i was thinkin if there are air bubbles coming out, then theres water going in…will this just dry out or will it rot my precious baby?
thanks in advance,
tommy
Hi Tomcat,
A few too many variables for me to answer your question properly, but in short… not all ply is suitable for skateboards.
In your run of the mill wood shop, there is interior ply (for inside) and exterior ply (for outside). If you used interior ply and it’s gone under water… it’s gone to ply heaven now. If it was exterior, there are differnt types of that too… marine ply is usually best as it is glued with epoxy. (Usually used on boats but is good for a weather proof skate deck.)
Concaves on a skate deck are made when the ply is glued. A normal skate deck is usually 7 to 9 plys and when the ply is glued, it goes into a press that gives it the concave… the concave also gives alot of strength.
For a skate deck made from an already glued piece of ply, i’d stick with just a flat shape… trying to bend the already glued ply is only going to end in tears.
-Cam
check out this site for a skateboard building forum
http://www.silverfishlongboarding.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=17
Ply blows,
Make a deck out of OAK or another hard wood. You can make an old-school warped tail look by cutting a piece of wood to match your tail end and grinding it down to a low angle and by then clamping that on to the tail. If you are using ply, bubbles arn’t the prolblem, Its the glue getting wet which possibly could de-lamanate the ply. another ply method is to get 2 thin sheets and glue them up on top of another with something below them to warp some rocker into the deck as the glue dries. No water needed.
*rot is a result of prolonged exposure to moisture, one soaking will not do anything as long as you let it dry before you seal it.
Cheers,
Austin
cam: i got my info about adding concave/rocker/clamber from josh’s article in the resources. is this not a good idea?
im gonna pull it out after this post, go put some weights on it and see what it brings. im almost positive that its exterior ply considering it had been in a dumpster for a while…and before that in an outdoor enviroment. i know it wasnt the best choice of wood, but thats what was available, and after i finished my indo board i was bored, so i started cuttin.
thanks for the help everyone, but i think ive gone to far to go back…
tommy
Hi tomcat360
I’ve used about 5 various dumpster plys but never had that problem.
I got the water soak and clamp idea from this site and it has always done me well
www.geocities.com/snaggers2000
my guess is something with the wood.
yea, ive also heard this method from toothless longboarding (forgot the site name). i went down and check on how it was coming along with the weights on top and boards on the bottom rails, it hasnt done much…i guess ill add more weight.
thanks
tommy
My son wanted to make a longboard deck. We tried 1/2" CDX Fir plywood which is cheap and used for exterior wall sheathing in home construction. By itself it sagged and then broke in half when stood upon. So we tried again but this time used some left over glass and resin from the last surfboard - 2 layers 6 oz on the bottom w/ resin splash for coolness and 2 layers 6oz clear on top. The deck flexes perfectly for pumping but will not break with normal use. This is a cheap way to build a thin and flexy performance deck.
And for those that want to vacuum bag skateboard decks, visit http://www.roarockit.com/. I’ve used their kit and it works great. They sell pre-cut venners or non-cut (i.e. rectangular) so you can cut your own shape. The kits come with foam molds to put in camber and concave (on longboards) and tail/nose (on shortboards) but you can also cut your own foam with a hotwire and make any contours you’d like.
Use 1/8" baltic birch ply. Press or V bag for shape.
1/2"-5/8" should be about right.