Mixing maple and baltic birch plies

[bpz]

I've only made one board... a 57x9" cross stepping machine of 3/4" baltic birch. I found the baltic birch locally, but it was hard to come across the shop was currently re-locating and only had a half-sheet (2.5x5 foot). For my next board I want to make a Smoothcut/BigRedX/everyotherspeedboard drop thru deck. I wanted to press some mellow concave into it but that's another topic.

Basically, I want this 2nd to be as stiff and solid as my 57" deck, but I don't want to work with 3/4" wood. Would 1/2" baltic birch at say, 42 inches long with a 34-36" wheelbase be noodley under my 165lbs? I was looking at the uncut veneers of 1/16" Canadian maple offered by Roarockit. Should I do something like...

1/8" Canadian maple (2 veneer sheets)
1/8" Baltic birch
1/8" Baltic birch
1/8" Canadian maple (2 veneer sheets)

For a solid 1/2" deck? Should the 1/8" Baltic sheets be thin enough to allow for concave to be pressed? The 1/16" maple should be, right? Let me know if I make any sense.

[chaindog]

no real need for the birch if youve got maple.

[bpz]

If I spend a crapload of money to ship veneers, I want to get them to last atleast 2 decks. S'why I was asking about mixing.

[chaindog]

ha well the answer is buying more veneers to offset shipping prices

[Lit]

1/2" b.b. w/35"wheelbase wont be "noodlely" . it'd be more "trampoliney", and far from stout..
obtw, i use 1/8"b.b. and never had a problem making deep caves

[bpz]

7 long grain 1/16" maple plies and 2 gross grain 1/16" maple plies (50x13) and a vaccuum press will cost 30 just to ship

[VolvoGuy]

7 long grain 1/16" maple plies and 2 gross grain 1/16" maple plies (50x13) and a vaccuum press will cost 30 just to ship

Vacuum pump is what's killin' ya. addimg more wood will hardly add to shipping costs.

[bpz]

7 long grain 1/16" maple plies and 2 gross grain 1/16" maple plies (50x13) and a vaccuum press will cost 30 just to ship

Vacuum pump is what's killin' ya. addimg more wood will hardly add to shipping costs.

Its a hand pump, can't be that heavy...

[VolvoGuy]

7 long grain 1/16" maple plies and 2 gross grain 1/16" maple plies (50x13) and a vaccuum press will cost 30 just to ship

Vacuum pump is what's killin' ya. addimg more wood will hardly add to shipping costs.

Its a hand pump, can't be that heavy...

Well, the whole press i mean. But if you add like, 3 moreveneers, it's not gonna be that much more.

[Lit]

gotta bite the bullet man..
might as well just stock up so you dont have to go through this again for a while

[Ted]

Both Norah and I are really pissed by the cost of shipping that you have to pay. UPS and the mail seem to be getting more expensive every day. We talk daily about how to get around this problem and Norah spends tons of time trying to find the cheapest price.

The only solution that I can think of is to buy in large quantity and we send it LTF...less than full...by truck. The problem with this solution is that people are spread out across North America and most people do not want to buy 1000 sheets.
If there were a bunch of deckbuilders in one area and if a quantity order was pooled together and sent to one location, the price would be less as the shipping costs drop and we could give a better deal on the material purchased. For this to happen someone would have to work with us to set it up,

I am sorry that the shipping is preventing you guys from getting veneer. Our intent was to buy the materials in bulk and sell it at a fair price...shipping seems to be screwing that idea up. We never thought that the price of getting something from one part of the country to another would be such a problem when we started Roarockit.

Ted

[bpz]

Ted - the way you deal with things and run your business should be an inspiration to all. I, and I'm sure many others, appreciate what you do. Thanks a lot for simply offering the veneers - I'll be sure to find out the maximum I can afford and just go for it. Do you, by any chance, offer special packages where say I could get 8 sheets of all long-grain veneer? Or will you only sell what you list on the site?

[Ted]

Thanks and will try to help in any way.
You can order any configuration of long or cross grain. We will even sell the veneers in long only if you like. Just let Norah know the amount, number of long and cross and where you are located. She will then be able to post an estimate for you.

Ted

norah@roarockit.com

[Bushman]

^ you got a full size pic of that art in your avatar? thats beautiful!!!!

[bpz]

^ you got a full size pic of that art in your avatar? thats beautiful!!!!

http://www.roarockit.com/ragged/Artist/Reach/index.htm

[Directive0]

no real need for the birch if youve got maple.

I disagree, different woods have different properties. Mixing the two gives interesting results. Take for instance using the memory and rebound of maple mixed with the dampening qualities of birch.

^ you got a full size pic of that art in your avatar? thats beautiful!!!!

you should see it in person sometime, come to TO dude

[bpz]

Have you done anything like I asked about, D0? I'm looking for a stiff board without much flex, but I want to use as little wood as possible. Not looking for a freaking 1/8" speedboard with carbon fiber and fiberglass and stuff... I want to stick with wood but use as little as possible.

[Directive0]

Have you done anything like I asked about, D0? I'm looking for a stiff board without much flex, but I want to use as little wood as possible. Not looking for a freaking 1/8" speedboard with carbon fiber and fiberglass and stuff... I want to stick with wood but use as little as possible.

we sure do!


we use that method for all of our boards, its economical and efficient. You can play with flex and torque ratios to get the type of board you want. Its great!

I find maple has a bit less play to it then birch, and is really springy, wheras birch is a more dead wood that'll flex easily and won't spring around annoyingly. However, if you want stiffness you're probably better off just ordering a big whack of maple

[Lit]

pizzle, i made a drop deck with 4 layers of 1/8" b.b. it had[got run over]
33" wb, a deep concave and at my 155pnds., was very solid with just a hit of flex. i'm sure the concave helped stiffen it, but it just wasnt stiff enough for that car

[THOR-ONE]

as D0 was saying, we use a birch maple mix up all the time.

why: look at the price difference between maple and 1/8" baltic birch (also think about the glue you save using pre-glued pieces). also the memory and rebound from the maple combined with the mute feeling of birch can be very nice.