Library of Board-Building Tips, Resources & Ideas

[Ted]

Baltic Birch plies individually are 1/32, and 3 come glued together, which means that when you glue a 5/8th inch deck with Baltic Birch, you get 4 of your own glue lines, and 10 more that are already there, by the manufacture. These glue lines are always very thin and strong glue lines. The reason you can tell they are strong, is because when you snap a strip of it, or 4 strips glued together, your breaks never create delamination. The break occurs in the wood, all along the same line.

5 ply baltic Birch boards, being 5/8 thick are not by rule of thumb going to be flexier than its maple 10 ply counterpart.

Composite strength using wood is all about the number of laminations you can add to your stack of material. A 5/8" thick stack of 1/8th material is going to be weaker than a stack of 1/32 material stacked and glued to the same hight. The more laminations you have the stronger the material will be.

When you laminate one sheet of veneer on top of another, it's the difference in length between the curvature of the top sheet to the curvature of the bottom sheet that allows it to maintain its shape and strength. More laminations and the stronger the sheer strength of the glue = more strength.

Unfortunately with material like Baltic Birch, because they are already a laminate are more ridged than same thicknessed pieces of solid wood , When laminated into a 3 dimensional form the rigidity of the material works against its laminar strength. Stiff materials continue to pushing against the lamination even after being glued. They wants to return to their original shape.

If we had a choice between 1/8 baltic birch plywood and 1/16" baltic birch plywood to build a board with what would you choose?

If we had a choice between a stronger material over a weaker material for building boards, what would you choose?

There are four good reasons why I would recommend building boards using Baltic Birch and I do this almost daily. It is easy to work with, it is accessible. it is relatively cheap and it makes a fine board. However it has its limitations and there are plenty of other materials out there that work better.

It's always a breath of fresh air here when someone posts an interesting vertical lam, bamboo or composite board or or pushes the limit with interesting shapes or alternative materials.

Here is a new board I just built.
It's a 1" dropped bamboo board.
1/8 bamboo - 1/16" maple - 1/8 bamboo and carbon top and bottom.
It was double vacuum bagged in one pressing. One bag to pull the carbon into slots I cut in the bamboo (top and bottom) and the outer bag to bend it around the mold.

Ted

[sk8terdp]

Me and my friend are getting in to board building and well i was wondering if you could give me the low down on painting them. We painted my friends and my board and it turned out pretty nice. but it wasnt that shiny and my clear coat is pealing off. I used this clear coat in a paint can and used around 6 layers of that. but i never wetsanded or sanded at all. Also i just want to learn how to get a cool base color, maybe some fades and stripes later on, of a a cool color, such as glow in the dark or maybe a vibrant cool color, and apply it to our decks and then make them really shiny. also whats the deal with the flake stuff? how do i wetsand? i used spray paint on my deck is that good? what do you use? what do you use to get the grainy colored wood affect? what type of clear coat should i use and how do i apply it?

sorry for that huge wall of text but i am utterly confused and would love some help

[footballplayerchris]

ZOMG!!!!!!!!!! So sexy!!!!!!!!!!!!

[virx67]

Me and my friend are getting in to board building and well i was wondering if you could give me the low down on painting them. We painted my friends and my board and it turned out pretty nice. but it wasnt that shiny and my clear coat is pealing off. I used this clear coat in a paint can and used around 6 layers of that. but i never wetsanded or sanded at all. Also i just want to learn how to get a cool base color, maybe some fades and stripes later on, of a a cool color, such as glow in the dark or maybe a vibrant cool color, and apply it to our decks and then make them really shiny. also whats the deal with the flake stuff? how do i wetsand? i used spray paint on my deck is that good? what do you use? what do you use to get the grainy colored wood affect? what type of clear coat should i use and how do i apply it?

sorry for that huge wall of text but i am utterly confused and would love some help

I've used spray paint before, with an oil based varnish. It worked out quite nicely. I believe I used Rusteolum. What I did was put down 2-3 layers of varnish, then spray painted 3 layers on top of that. I then finished with 2 layers of clear coat.

Here's an example of the result:


The peeling and flaking was probably due to incompatible paint mediums, like using a oil based spray paint and using a water based finish. I used oil based varnish and spray paint (I believe it was oil based, but it is extremely hard to find out what type of paint is in the can.)

[virx67]

Just out of curiosity, what is the general rule for bending a 1" drop in Baltic birch? I remember seeing it a while ago, but searching hasn't really helped me. Isn't it like 1" over 3"?

[Liam]

i did one inch over 2. i think you could do one inch over one inch.

[virx67]

i did one inch over 2. i think you could do one inch over one inch.

sounds good. I'll probably do that then.

[virx67]

Vacuum bagging tutorial.

Well, it's not exactly a tutorial, but is a great resource for making a vac-bag.

I also found this:

http://www.veneersupplies.com/catego...K__-__O/Maple/

The prices seem fairly reasonable, but I do not know whether the veneers are acceptable for board building or not.

[blackyak]

Can anyone hook me up with a link for fiberglassing with a vac bag? I've been going through the forums and can't find it.

[toxicC]

idk if 1/8th in will bend 1 over 1 very easy. just use a lot of pressure in the press. you should pm me if you find out any info while doing it. i am making a mold for a 1" drop soon. just havent narrowed what length to go over with.

[funkpod]

Hello, I am wondering if someone still has that bolt hole truck pattern/template from brainfartalerts, if it's still available. i searched through the threads, but i keep running into dead links.

Let me know, thank you!

[ZacTheHorseLongboarding]

Another source you could check out is Zac The Horse Longboarding We have a board building page if your interested.

[JakeK88]

Ok so im going to make my first board soon. I plan to use the roarockit vacumm press. looks like it will be the easiest for me. i want to build a stiff speed board. similar to a rayne avenger or the sayshun speed. I weigh about 180 about 6ft if height makes any difference. Im trying to figure out how many layers i should use.

[HighOnHills]

Ok so im going to make my first board soon. I plan to use the roarockit vacumm press. looks like it will be the easiest for me. i want to build a stiff speed board. similar to a rayne avenger or the sayshun speed. I weigh about 180 about 6ft if height makes any difference. Im trying to figure out how many layers i should use.

If you're using Roarockit I'm going to assume you bought the maple veneers with it. For a stiff speed board I would recommend 8-10 plies of 1/16" maple, but the number of layers depend on what material you are using and the length of board you are making. Also whether the board is going to be top-mounted or drop-through. My buddy just made a 7-ply maple drop-through deck with no reinforcement and its way too flexy and is cracking from the torsion. At your weight I'd go 8 plies if you want something a bit lively, 9 if you want real solid, and 10 if you want extra sturdy (and heavy).

[JakeK88]

well yeah im going for a top mount for sure. i think ill be going for about 38 1/2" to mabey 39". yeah i planned on just getting to plys that come with the set for my first build. so i guess ill go for 10 plys then. thanks

[danielsl]

say if ill use some junk wood on a few boards not for rideing just for practicing the building methods will it be the same as bb? cuase if i want bb i have to import it so for now ill use 5-6 plys of 1/16' of what ever wood i could get..

[JakeK88]

does anyone know if its possible to somehow epoxy a fabric like an old shirt to a board? I thought i remember seeing something on here like that but i cant find it anymore. basicaly i wanna use an old punk shirt as a grafic on my board and apply it similar to the way u fiberglass a board

[JakeTrotta]

does anyone know if its possible to somehow epoxy a fabric like an old shirt to a board? I thought i remember seeing something on here like that but i cant find it anymore. basicaly i wanna use an old punk shirt as a grafic on my board and apply it similar to the way u fiberglass a board

Same process as fiberglass. I have found that it goes a bit darker after you put it on. Also, fabric is more prone to wrinkles.

[JakeK88]

sweet thanks. ill just stretch it out and pin it down real tight

[Squirrlyismyname]

GOOD IDEA


Vacuum press your boards in a pressure chamber!!!!!!!

(an old air compressor tank modified with a door and vacuum line for the bag)



The more air and excess epoxy/glue you can press out of your materials; the stronger it will be.