D I Y Skateboard Short (Welcome Home)

Pressed boards back in the day. Got inspired by all the cool DIY videos. Found a bunch of my old stuff decided to share.

The wood is commonly known as sugar maple (hard rock maple is a skate term started in the late 70s or early 80s). It is rotary cut into veneer with a thickness of 1/16 inch. I do believe this wood is more than a dollar a square foot, (unless you're willing to buy it by the truck load) and there is approx 18 square feet in each board.

P.V.A glue (white carpenters glue) is perfect for gluing your deck. If you're interested in improving your lamination you can combine P.V.A. glue with a catalyst: aluminium chloride. Aluminums chloride is corrosive and is only available through industrial suppliers. This catalyst causes the glue to "cross bond" creating a superior bond. Apply the glue with a hard rubber roller; this is the easiest way to get a consistent application of glue by hand. Do not glue both sides of the plies or put on too much glue. This extra glue becomes kind of like an extra layer which causes a board to soften up in the sun. Any left over catalyst needs to be disposed of properly, as it is a hazardous material. This particular catalyst does increase dry time a bit, but can be compensated for by heating your mould since it still behaves as normal P.V.A. glue.

One of the biggest questions I get is how I built my first moulds for my press. I used car bondo for my mould because it was the cheapest material I could pour and sand and could stand up to repetitive heating and pressure. I Press them one at a time with two two tonne bottle jacks placed over where the trucks will be. I jack up until they do not move anymore in a metal frame with the mold on the bottom. There is a tonne of ways to cut out a deck. One easy thing I did was press thicker decks out of 1/8 inch hard board and cut templates out of them that included the wheel base. Then after drilling the wheel base in the blank I connected them with long bolts through both wheel bases sandwiching them together with the thick template on top. This way I could use these templates to cut out each deck one at a time on a router table with a flush trim bit. This way your boards will be consistent!

Remember -- Wheel base placement is the most important thing.

On a final note Commodity prices are through the roof! It is impossible to make a board for under $30.00 (CAN) when working small scale. I personally wouldn't touch this industry unless I had about $500,000.00 to sink into promotion insurance and materials. Also I would need to find a lot of quality wood workers to run it! The Pros will leave you in the dust and your boards will never be seen as a comparable product at a retail level regardless of how good they really are. The bro-down support is gone in the skate world! Most Shops make very little profit in this economic climate; they want sure fire sellers these days and little Johnny wants a "Chris Cole deck" not a garage construction special.

So who the hell am I? Just a dude that truly loves skating, that's why I press boards -- not for money. I've been on a board for 25 years and pressed my own for 9, worked in another skate manufacturing shop, and a few retail skate shops. My boards have won local wood show competitions and that says something because I'm from a mill town and wood working is a religion here. Still want to do it? Find a sales rep already working in the industry - but good luck convincing them to rep your product. However this would be the best way to find any real and consistent sales. Me personally I'm going to make coffins. That's a growth industry!

Any other Questions? I'd be glad to answer.

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Howto & Style

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• DIY
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• skateboards

[TheKOKOT33]

thanks a lot man.do u have any experience with long ones?i m from czech republik and here in central and east europ r none except us and canadians ones which cost nearly twice as in us and coupple shitty promo ones.so my bro has a carpentery workshop like propper one,so i like to try to build it here.just coupple of them first.thanks again because here everyone keeps his informations.good luck.yeah and what about snow ones?

[myfriendgoatcock]

@TheKOKOT33 Wow that sounds like a very challenging market place! Very cool that you have a good wood working shop to use. I never have made long boards. But, price wise they probably would be a little easier to make a couple bucks on. Snowboards are technical as hell to make! There are so many more things inside a snow board compared to a skateboard. Maybe someday I will get to confidence to try to make one.... I don't know if I would want to test it though :) Good luck to you and your bro!

[TheKOKOT33]

hi,great vid especialy the information below.can u tell me how many sheets u used and if thay r all cutted in same direction?I mean the strings of wood.R all sheets cutted the same direction as these strings or some sheets r cutted across?thanks

[myfriendgoatcock]

@TheKOKOT33 Hey man, thanks for the compliment. The common skateboard is 7 plys. 5 plys are long grain and two are cross grain. The best is getting a hold of a broken skateboard. Then start digging into it to see how the wood plys are put together. I hate to admit it, but I learned everything from all the boards I broke over the years!

[Orlondo100]

hay man how much do u spend on the wood and what type of wood is it

[myfriendgoatcock]

@Orlondo100 The wood veneer spicies is called sugar maple. Price depends on where you buy it. I've seen prices as high as 6 bucks a sheet at the retail level. Deffinately shop around. If you can find a wholesale supplier the prices get way better, but you have to buy alot at once.

[myfriendgoatcock]

@BenjieBuddy Thanks man, I guess one of the best places to start is at Roarockit skateboard company. Click on the "woodworkers" tab and you'll find Veneer Packs for street boards and long boards. But..... Stay away from the vacuum press! It is not the best way to press a board. Cold hard pressing of 2 tons or more will give you a much more solid board :) If they don't have big enough veneer packs google skateboard veneer suppliers. Hope that helps man!

[snakesession]

Another awesome DIY vid! Very interesting and fun to watch. Keep it up!

[PowderConcreteNWaves]

does anyone know where i can get everything aside from the glue. im trying to start making decks and start a local buisness.

[TheJacksonshredder88]

haha coffins huh??? damn these past couple of days this is all i have been thinking about...pressing skateboards..lol but i read ur info and i am bummed out now. i thought i could make a boatload of money but now i start to second guess myself. maybe i should try coffins..lol