bending plywood

[KaiDune]

i ordered 50" X 100" X 15mm 11ply birch plywood, im gonna cut it into 10 strips of plywood, 50" X 10" and start building longboards. just wandering, Is there any way i could bend the plywood to make it into a concave or camber shape using household materials?

[Hugo D]

yes,

but first make sure your plywood is Baltic Birch plywood, if not, it's gonna break....


check out: toothless.tk and start reading from there...
then come back to this site and do some research on all of the things you learned on toothless'

[Terrorsathan]

so you think you're gonna bend 11 ply birch plywood, cut it out, and mount trucks and wheels?

Good luck.

[Hugo D]

never even looked at the 11ply's... got focused on the BB.
big mistake.... 3 to 5 ply's for bending

[howdyrowdy]

I hate to tell you this but the plywood you bought, 11 ply 15mm, is 5/8". That is far too thick to build a deck using proper building methods.

Hugo has you on the right track with the press idea, though IME boards must be pressed in layers to maintain concave and camber.

Common layering combos are 3 to 5 plies of 3mm BB (that's 1/8" layers) and 2 plies of 6mm BB (that's 1/4" layers). Some builders also use fiberglass as a layering option in addition to BB.

The practice of putting a single piece of plywood in a press in hopes of it keeping its shape is a major misconception for beginner builders.

[acrylicsalmon]

dont let these guys discourage you. You wont be able to get any bends in this wood, but you can build a really sick dropthough speed board using that wood. go on toothless.tk and find his instructions on a speed board.