Skateboard #03 Glue-up board, clamp and pic heavy!

General Discussion
1

Greetings Swaylockians. Just finished(for the most part) skateboard #03 yesterday. I call it the glue-up board for now, still haven’t given it a proper name. The board consists of teak, afromosia, and poplar. In this order(the bold T is the teak stringer):

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The glue up was fun, and could also be called an investment in clamps and a lesson in Gorilla Glue. Seeing as how I love to work with wood, and love remodeling and doing outdoor projects, I called it a future investment in tools. Enough blabbin, here’s the pics:

Before pic:

First glue:

Couple more pieces glued on:

It was at this point that I had to borrow a couple of clamps from the neighbor.

I call this pic the Irwin ad:

I picked up a set of pipe clamps at Lowe’s. They are 1/2 inch, non-threaded type. They are sweeeeeeet! Highly recommended.

Almost done:

With belt sander, used 50,80, & 120 grit, then finished off w/ 180 grit w/ the random orbital sander.

Using one of my “blanks” as a tracing template:

Rough cut-out w/ the jigsaw:

After using a flush-cut bit on my router, and vacuuming the debris, the shape took place and I’m quite pleased w/ the results:

So there it is with no finish on it and an unfinished belly(will sand it down a bit). Seeing as how I’d like to do a HWS, I think I may use epoxy resin for a clear coat(any opinions? advice?). Bit more spendy than the other options, but I’d like to play w/ the stuff. Anyhow, thanks to all swaylockers for inspiration(paulj,herbs,& all you other skaters & wood workers). And, there should be a sticky for this forum that says you will need a boat load of clamps prior to enduring any type of wood working project! skate or surf.

i’ll post the final pics after a few coats of finish. good times…

WAsurfer

2

Nice job WAsurfer, looks good.

I am curious about something though. How thick is the board? I am very interested in making a wooden longboard skate over the winter and had figured that it would need a layer of fiberglass on each side for strength. Thought to myself that seeing as it is not laminated wood like a ‘normal’ sjate deck it wouldn’t have much strength on such a length. Overkill you think?

Good luck. Should look real nice when it is done.

3

That look awesome! My son’s been wanting a longboard that looks like that (not your typical 3rd grade look). I was also wondering about the fiberglass. Any opinions?

4

the board is about 3/4 inch thick. i’ve never skated on a non-layered board before so I wouldn’t be able to report in great detail on the strengths of this board. Perhaps others that have done similar boards can speak up? I can tell you that the finished board standing up in the first pic rides real nice w/ no fiberglass and is very supportive even w/ me on it. I’m 6feet 1inch, and weigh in at 205 pounds, it flexes nice and rides like a dream and it’s 9-ply birch plywood. I don’t have the exact measurements with me, but it’s approx. 9inches wide and 42inches long (i have size 13 foot, the benefits of making my own board=my feet fit on it!). hope this helps.

edit: also, since I wasn’t sure about the flex, that’s why i went w/ gorilla glue. I used generous amounts of GG and clamped the crap out of it. every piece was glued up, then clamped overnight.

5

Nice one, I’ve just shown this to my 13 yr old son who is into making skate decks, he loves this and wants to know what your opinion on a similar thing but using beech, cherry and redwood, (I think he’s found my secret stash of timber in the garage). So far all the decks he’s done are just a couple of layers of ply lammed up and shaped, he’s done some nice shapes for his mates who are now all getting into the long-board retro cruiser type thang. He asked me to glass one of them for him, which I obliged with but the wood flexed way more than the glass was able to (poly) so it all cracked, this did however look wicked until he trashed the board totally in a horrrrrrreeeendouus crash with a mate’s board.

Again…nice one

6

thanks. i appreciate the compliments! funny thing, your kid is 13, i’m 31!

in regards to the beech, cherry, redwood combo: i’d say go for it, and glue the crap out of it. here’s the properties of the beech and cherry compared to red oak:

the only thing that i’m worried about is the flex of the hardwoods. hardwoods tend to splinter more so than layered ply. hopefully the poplar I put in will help. not sure how, but i hope it does. if there are any experts out there, now would be a good time to speak up!

7

looks sweet mate. enjoy.