First homemade longboard

Brennig · Post by **Brennig** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 11:08 am

Just finished the mold, waiting for the press to arrive tomorrow, and the wood on Friday. Specs should be : 28" x 8", 1/2" concave, 1" kick along 6". Basically it's a mini cruiser based loosely on the Wefunk Mini 28. It'll be made from 3 layers of 3mm Baltic Birch, no fiberglass (maybe).

Here's the mold.

Ben · Post by **Ben** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 2:29 pm

cool, good luck!

Michael · Post by **Michael** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 3:57 pm

Woo!

Eventually got round to shaping mine.

Just needs some fiber glassing, sanding, drilling and gripping now

Keep us up to date, will be interested to see how your builds go

Brennig · Post by **Brennig** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 4:10 pm

Show me, show me

Montana Rider · Post by **Montana Rider** » Thu Oct 04, 2012 11:42 pm

ill show you mine if you show me yours...

Kiwy · Post by **Kiwy** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 5:40 am

Montana Rider wrote:ill show you mine if you show me yours...

Strangely arousing when it comes to boards.

Brennig · Post by **Brennig** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 7:12 am

I have wood ...

... lots of wood. Figuring out where to put my wood ...

... my wood is too big for most spaces.

Michael · Post by **Michael** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:34 am

Brennig wrote:Show me, show me

Like i say, needs some sanding and wot not but that pretty much the shape of it

Brennig · Post by **Brennig** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:03 pm

Is that just an asymmetric rocker or is the back dewedged? 3 plies of 3mm BB ? Looks cool either way, looking forward to seeing it finished up, are you going to be building a mountain board?

More good news, found a good deal on some Formica so any boards I make should have a sublime face.

Michael · Post by **Michael** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:20 pm

The back is a kick and its just normal rocker, just not as much as i would have hoped :L

Yeah its 3 sheets of 3mm birch ply. Its fairly flexy, similar to a flex 1 tan tien.

And i dunno about making a mountain board. I'll stick to making longboards for the time being and if they are strong enough then its a possibility

Michael · Post by **Michael** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:28 pm

Need to make a better press though...

Brennig · Post by **Brennig** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 12:34 pm

Woops I was looking at it upside down. It's a big step from longboards to mountain boards, just a matter of practice. What press do you have at the moment? My vacuum press was around £60, looks to be a lot less time consuming and easier to make custom boards than with other presses.

Michael · Post by **Michael** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 2:23 pm

Its just a roughly build wood press. It would be great for normal boards but i think the convex was just a little ambitious.

I'm toying with the idea of getting a vacuum press. Where did you get the foam and actual kit from?

Brennig · Post by **Brennig** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 2:26 pm

East coast fiberglass, got a vacuum bag, breach unit and breather.
Amazon, got vacuvin (manual vacuum pump)
Already had the foam, it's just high density styrofoam.

Michael · Post by **Michael** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 2:40 pm

Thanks, i shall get Googleing

BgSurfer · Post by **BgSurfer** » Fri Oct 05, 2012 11:23 pm

Looking forward to see this build. Post lots of pictures.

You won't be able to use foam in molds for mountainboards without significant modifications.

sir seymour · Post by **sir seymour** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 5:35 am

The dimm press works pretty well and if you do your layup in several stages the angles you can get without vac-bagging are pretty impressive. http://vimeo.com/5084011
Can't beat a vac bag for the finish you get when using composites though.

Brennig · Post by **Brennig** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 5:50 am

Yeah, Dimm presses are very nice for pure maple set ups, but I'm hoping to use CF, Kevlar and obviously Formica and they'll need perfect distribution of pressure. A vac bag will pull off a mountainboard, its much less intensive than a drop (only one bend, not two) but I would expect the need for some clamps.

BgSurfer · Post by **BgSurfer** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:28 am

Brennig wrote:Yeah, Dimm presses are very nice for pure maple set ups, but I'm hoping to use CF, Kevlar and obviously Formica and they'll need perfect distribution of pressure. A vac bag will pull off a mountainboard, its much less intensive than a drop (only one bend, not two) but I would expect the need for some clamps.

But the tip MB bend is much deeper -- 3-inch drop for 35 degree tips. Estimating rebound for 2 tips and camber would be a royal pain also. Lots of trial and error builds.

You can use vac bags for the deep tip angles of an MB, just not with the form in the bag. You would have to put the bagged wood over a form and then clamp/pull it down into/over the form. The form has to be fairly rigid though. As Sir Seymour said, you may have to press only a few of the wood layers at one time. Roarockit has a photo tutorial (dead link right now) for external forms.

For clamping, you have to have some rigidness to the form. The point pressure at several points in the form will exceed foam compression pressure while clamping down. I have come up with an idea for foam+rib hybrid for clamping.

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BgSurfer · Post by **BgSurfer** » Sat Oct 06, 2012 8:39 am

Brennig wrote:A vac bag will pull off a mountainboard, its much less intensive than a drop (only one bend, not two) but I would expect the need for some clamps.

But the MB tip bend is much deeper, 3-inch drop for 35 degree tips. Estimating wood rebound for 2 tips + camber would be a royal pain also. Accurate tip angles with presses -- lots of trial and error builds -- this is why I went with Aluminum tips for deck build R&D.

You can use vac bags for the deep tip angles of an MB, just not with the form in the bag. You would have to put the bagged wood over a form and then clamp/pull it down into/over the form. The form has to be fairly rigid though. As Sir Seymour said, you may have to press only a few of the wood layers at one time. Roarockit has a photo tutorial (dead link right now) for external forms.

For clamping, you have to have some rigidness to the form. The point pressure at several points in the form will exceed foam compression pressure while clamping down. I have come up with an idea for foam+rib hybrid for clamping.

Roarockit tutorial page, photo tutorials at bottom (all photo tutorial links dead at the moment):

http://roarockit.com/rc_resources.php

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