However, a skateboard is a surfboard’s shaped form, where four wheels are attached to the underneath. One person can ride at a time on the board and control by using the feet. Skateboard making is not as severe as people think. Only if you have some carpentry knowledge you can make your skateboard. It would be best to use a jigsaw, a skateboard mold, and a vacuum press with lots of patience for making a skateboard. If you want to use the board for a professional purpose, you need to use professional equipment pieces.
All the Skateboard Has Three Sections, As:
- The Deck- which is made of the wood
- The truck- made of metal and joins the wheels to the Deck
- The skateboard wheels
The Deck contains a characterized tail and nose with a curved center. Here I will show you the simple and easy techniques for building the skateboard deck.
Step-1: Form and Press the Wood:
- The 6-9 layers make this board of pressed plywood. You cannot made it just one piece of wood. More than one thin layer and veneer are layered, glued, and pressed together for several hours to make one Deck. Some use seven pieces; some use nine layers together. The thickness of the sheet affects the weight, flexibility, and riding properties of the Deck. Most of the Deck has a 10mm thickness.
- For the best result, always purchase 6-7 pieces of 30″x10″ plywood, which is 1/17th of an inch thick. By using this, you can make the base of the Deck. Most of the time, you can get this unique wood from big-box retailers. Hard type maple is best for its fragile veneers. For the sturdy, gorgeous wood, buy two hardwood “face” pieces for the top or bottom in mahogany or maple. But the thickness will be the same. I like to advise you to buy birch or bamboo for the “core” wood because of its stability, but the consistency will be the same. You can buy the crossband plywood, from where you can get two sheets for the center to increase board strength.
- First of all, take one piece of wood and then take a roller to apply a thin layer of wood glue on the bottom side of the face and the top of your first core piece of wood. Push lightly to join the two pieces together. Do the same process to join the seven pieces together. Don’t place the glue on only one side; place the glue evenly on both sides. If you want to build a professional board, you need to order like these:
- Face sheet
- Core sheet
- Crossband sheet
- Core sheet
- Crossband sheet
- Core sheet
- Face sheet
- Use masking tape to keep them together tightly; if you want to do something like the professional, you can lay the layers in the Styrofoam mold and move on to the next step. If you don’t have the Styrofoam mold, fit the wood between two same-shaped old skateboard decks to mimic their shape.
- Now seal the wood and mold in a vacuum bag. The vacuum bag needs to be perfect, or the board will not mold. Try to suction more air as you can do.
- Leave the board to mold for more than 7 hours or all day long, and check after 2-3 hours to ensure that the bag is ok. And the time to time, need to suction more air.
- Now, it’s time to open the bag to allow some air in. And then slowly slide the bag out. Also, remove the mold afterward.
- This is the step to cut your board in the right shape. Take a large piece of paper and then fold it in half. Now draw out the shape of half of your board, fold it on the top and bottom, flat along the sides from the paper’s folded edge. Now cut along the outline of the article. You can see that the board’s tail is usually slightly narrower than the tip or the nose.
- Doing the work must use a jigsaw to cut the board into a proper shape. You can cut accurately if you use the band saw or a scroll saw. After that, sand both sides of the board with a belt sander and curve it slightly down. You can edge the board to curve towards the wheels, which is not more than 4-5mm. Use a hand sander, and fine sandpaper, and the grid is not more than 400 to smooth both edges.
Now Custom the Design as You Think and Like Your Dream.
Step- 2: Build a Skateboard Mold:
- Until you find a flat skateboard, you have to press the wood together into a mold and professionally curve your board. To do this process, you need a large piece of Styrofoam, a vacuum with a hose attachment, and a vacuum bag where you can fit your skateboard and mold. For completing this process, you need to glue and stack several pieces of Styrofoam to get it 4-5″ inches thick. You can get the Styrofoam from the home-improvement stores.
- To make the outliner of the board shape, you need to cut out a piece of paper as large as your Styrofoam thickness. It would help if you cut both sides of the Styrofoam evenly.
- It would be best if you cut the outline of the desire board shape. Some have concave in the middle, some board is curved upwards 2–4 inches (5.1–10 cm) and flat on the other side. You can use a ruler to make a straight line on the middle and then gently curve upwards for the last 3–4 inches because the board’s ends are 1/2-1 inch higher up than the middle. It is the actual outline of the professional shape.
- Now transfer the outline to your Styrofoam. Trace both of the side’s design, then the flat bottom of your strategy must be on the top of the Styrofoam block. You need to use a ruler to draw a line and also connecting the curves. You should draw two horizontal lines over the top of the board.
- When you do the above process, the Styrofoam will look like a flat-topped hill, so you need to measure your outline’s distance to the top of the Styrofoam block in 5 places. Mark the height of each of the spots. You should draw a line with a ruler from the 1/2-inch mark on one side of the foam and a 1/2-inch impact on the other side. Try to cut horizontally and make a 1⁄2 inch (1.3 cm) deep incision across the foam. Cut diagonally also 1/2-inch chunk from the entire width of the foam. Do it until you get the desired curve.
- To remove the rough spots, sand the board with 100 grit sandpaper. The sandpaper will quickly remove the foam and give a smooth finishing to the curved edges. ON the top of the mold, you can get a finished deck.
- The foam mold can customize easily and design cheaply. Besides this, you can buy a blank board from the local shop and do the other steps.
- Now, use a board to drill holes for the trucks. Trucks are big pieces of metal that can hold the wheels in the proper place. Just place the old Deck over the new Deck. And then take a pencil to mark the holes. Use a drill machine to make the holes, and you will get eight holes, which is two sets of four on each end. If you cannot get any old board, make sure your trucks will be in the center position. If you found a 10 inches (25.4 cm) thick board, then the center points will be 5″ from each edge. You can use a ruler to make a centerline.
Step- 3 Assemble a Custom Board:
- Skateboard customize with few parts; they are- Deck, tricks, bearings, and different hardware. You have to use lots of wheels based on the board size; to make a skate, you have to do eight screws and eight bolts collections.
- For adhering to the grip tape, peel off the grip tape, lay it down to clean the board, and press firmly to attach it to the wood. Use a screwdriver, then rub the tape along the board’s edge until the tape makes a white outline along the entire edge. Use a box cutter to cut the extra grip tap. If you found any air bubbles, make a hole in them with the knife’s end and press the tape into the board.
- Different skaters use different types of trucks, so choose the perfect trucks appropriate for your state board. Also, choose the right wheels for your riding. Go to the local skate shop and find out which wheels are best for you. Skaters who do many tricks want smaller and stiffer wheels, for example- 50mm, 101A. The skaters who want to do much cruising want softer and bigger wheels- like 70mm, 78B.
With some basic knowledge, you can make your skate and feel how easily you can finish the whole process. If you follow the overall guideline, you can make it more nicely that you can think even it, that I am sure. Skateboard making is fun, but you cannot make a professional board without some professional pieces of equipment.