Solid Wood instead of Plywood?

**Aussielongboarder** · 08-14-2007 12:02 AM

Hi Guys, I am a newbie to this board-building business. I have made my 13 year old son a 36" lonboard of sorts out of plywood (photo attached), but I was wondering if it is possible to make a board out of solid timber instead of plywood.
My local timber shop has a machine that can plane wood down to any thickenss. I recently got them to shave down a piece of Radiata pine from 19mm to 12 mm. Whilst this wood was nice to work with and looked good, it unfortunately split right down the middle after the 3rd ride! I guess radiata pine isn't that strong a wood! Does anyone know of a stonger hardwood I could try and shave down? Thanks, Brian.

**melifont monk** · 08-14-2007 12:25 AM

G'day mate.
yes you can use solid wood....from memory kahuna do solids....as do a host of other companies like soCal skates etc...

a few of our own gum varieties are pretty damn tough....but remember that it'll be heavier than a ply board.....also think about aluminium and mixed composites (fibreglass, Carbon fibre.)....also, as an aussie check out the aussie thread in the international section. seeya mate.

**Irish** · 08-14-2007 08:05 AM

Originally Posted by Aussielongboarder

Hi Guys, I am a newbie to this board-building business. I have made my 13 year old son a 36" lonboard of sorts out of plywood (photo attached), but I was wondering if it is possible to make a board out of solid timber instead of plywood.
My local timber shop has a machine that can plane wood down to any thickenss. I recently got them to shave down a piece of Radiata pine from 19mm to 12 mm. Whilst this wood was nice to work with and looked good, it unfortunately split right down the middle after the 3rd ride! I guess radiata pine isn't that strong a wood! Does anyone know of a stonger hardwood I could try and shave down? Thanks, Brian.

You dont want to use pine. You can use oak and I dont think your board would ever break. Its heavy but tough.There are other hardwoods you could use Just google hardwoods and get some names of species. If your thinking pine is a hardwood , I believe your wrong. Its great for building houses and cabinets , but even crossgrain I dont think it would hold up under the weight of skateboarding,, unless it was a childs weight.
Poplar may work well for you. It doesnt have the pretty pattern oak can have but its strong.
If you do another board out of plywood,, you really need cabinet grade plywood.
Good Luck!

**Raketemensch** · 08-14-2007 08:10 PM

Pine is definitely not a hardwood.

One of our main tenets from downhill skiing through the woods was, "If you have to hit a tree, aim for a softwood."

Spruce, fir... If you're gonna crack your head, choose your target wisely.

**cam75** · 08-15-2007 02:58 AM

hey mate, i use hoop pine, but in the plywood variety
pretty good stuff they used to make fighter planes from it in the second world war
pretty cheap and readily available in austraila, and the boards i have built have come out pretty well so far

**Aussielongboarder** · 08-15-2007 11:27 PM

Cam 75, Raketemensch, Irish & Melifont Monk -thanks for your replies ! I had thought that radiata pine wasn't particularly suitable but I had some lying around and I thought I would give it a go. I've also got myself some 12mm marine ply so I might give that a go soon too. But for now I'm off another tangent - vertical laminating of hardwood strips! - say Maple, Merbau, Oak etc. I got my local saw mill to rip some 42 x 20 mm lengths into 20 x 20 mm by 48" pieces up for me. I'm gonna try and glue them all together and then get them to stick it through that planning machine and plane it down to 12- 13 mm again. I might whacka a few cross screws in too - wish me luck and I'll post the results (one way or another!) soon....

Thanks, Brian.

**Davdoodles** · 08-16-2007 06:52 PM

Try Tassie Oak (Eucalyptus Regnans) - it's available everywhere in Oz, cheap as, in long, straight, knot-free milled lengths. It's reasonably heavy, but it's strong-as-bleep, and comes up a lovely light colour under varnish. I make wooden boat-parts from it and, while I've never tried it as a longboard, there is a centre-board I made with a lovely airfoil cross-section which makes me think that you could make a great longboard from two pieces of Lengthx130mmx12mm, pinned (joined across the grain with hardwood dowells every eight inches or so) and epoxied, then planed on the bottom face so it thins towards the edges - giving the impression of lightness, while also saving weight. Heck - I might try it myself!

**Ogre** · 08-16-2007 07:14 PM

I've made dozens from Oak and Mahogany..Mahogany is my favorite! Mid weight and strong as all hell! Poplar splits easy due to it's straight grain.

**dwf137** · 08-16-2007 08:28 PM

yea, as stated, hardwood is nice. Only thing is it is really heavy, and not as strong as ply.

**Aussielongboarder** · 08-16-2007 09:07 PM

Hello Again Guys, thanks for your further advice. I got stuck (pardon the pun) into it and started glueing the stips of what will hopelully form my next board last night. I drilled holes at various intervals and put dowels in to help locate the strips and hopefully add some strength.

The wood I used was mainly Maple, Merabau (from a bit of old decking I had hanging around and a couple of strips of pine - yeah I know it's a bit dodgy but I needed a couple of extra stips to make the board wide enough - approx 9 1/2 inches!!). So far the total cost of the wood has been $10.62 AUS plus the cost of the dowells & glue.

It was a really messy process and I used a lot more glue than I anticipated. Anyway, it's all together now and waiting to dry in my hasterly designed press. I've attached some photos to show the progress so far.....

Brian

**VulgarDisplayCFH** · 08-16-2007 09:22 PM

Edit. NVM...

**CanyonCarver** · 08-20-2007 10:34 AM

I like what you did, Brian. You'll just have to test it once it's dry.

**Aussielongboarder** · 08-20-2007 07:45 PM

Hi CanyonCarver; thanks for that! I checked out your web site and your boards look great. Hey - what sort of grip tape do you use on your decks?

I bought some of what was supposed to be "clear" grip tape from a local shop here in Sydney, Australia. Last night I tried putting some on a board that I recently completed for my son and it looked crap!

It was more white than clear and hardly see-through at all! I ended up tearing it off and surprise, surprise half the shiney new laquer and some of the stickers that I had carefully applied came off with the tape!

**melifont monk** · 08-22-2007 12:51 AM

that happens....the more time consuming way...but the best: greg phillips from Ozone- house of boards ( made snowboards for years...melifont and ourselves are going to be making some bamboo boards later in the year etc...) has the end of the world but i'm still here clear grip tape...

1.paint on a layer of epoxy resin on the top of your finished board.
2.sprinkle rough brown sugar onto the now tacky epoxy.
3. leave to set COMPLETELY
4. boil your kettle (or five.)
5. Pour boiled water over sugared epoxy, it will dissolve the sugar leaving a pock mark that is rough.
6. repeat until sugar is gone.
7. don't hurt oneself with new tape....it is REALLY grippy.

**Aussielongboarder** · 08-22-2007 01:46 AM

Hi Melifont Monk, thanks for that great info. I just have two questions:

1. When you say "rough brown sugar" do you mean that nice sort of brown sugar you can sprinkle on your porridge (oates), or the granular sort of brown sugar (I think it's called Raw sugar) that you find in Yuppie coffe shops?

2. By "leave it to set completely", do you mean until the varnish/epoxy is totally dry ie: 24 hours or so?

Thanks, Brian

**allstardavy** · 08-22-2007 01:50 AM

Originally Posted by melifont monk

that happens....the more time consuming way...but the best: greg phillips from Ozone- house of boards ( made snowboards for years...melifont and ourselves are going to be making some bamboo boards later in the year etc...) has the end of the world but i'm still here clear grip tape...

1.paint on a layer of epoxy resin on the top of your finished board.
2.sprinkle rough brown sugar onto the now tacky epoxy.
3. leave to set COMPLETELY
4. boil your kettle (or five.)
5. Pour boiled water over sugared epoxy, it will dissolve the sugar leaving a pock mark that is rough.
6. repeat until sugar is gone.
7. don't hurt oneself with new tape....it is REALLY grippy.

thats a really interesting method. never heard of doing that, but it sounds like it works great!

**johnspurlock** · 08-22-2007 08:29 AM

Originally Posted by Aussielongboarder

Hi Melifont Monk, thanks for that great info. I just have two questions:

1. When you say "rough brown sugar" do you mean that nice sort of brown sugar you can sprinkle on your porridge (oates), or the granular sort of brown sugar (I think it's called Raw sugar) that you find in Yuppie coffe shops?

2. By "leave it to set completely", do you mean until the varnish/epoxy is totally dry ie: 24 hours or so?

Thanks, Brian

Brian, the "Yuppie" or Turbinado Sugar is the best. It is sugar in its first stage of refinement and the grains are about the right size for a really "grippy" finish.

**Aussielongboarder** · 08-22-2007 11:06 PM

Originally Posted by johnspurlock

Brian, the "Yuppie" or Turbinado Sugar is the best. It is sugar in its first stage of refinement and the grains are about the right size for a really "grippy" finish.

Thanks for that info John - I'll head off down to my local cafe' and grab a bunch of that sugar from right under the noses of all those De Caf, soy Latte' drinkin' Yuppies

right now!!! ha, ha, ha...

**melifont monk** · 08-23-2007 04:38 AM

yep he's right...you want the roughest, grainiest most hard ass sugar your hands can find....

with the drying i mean completely 24 hour total rack time....it is important that the epoxy is SET....not just touch dry, if you do it then you'll foul the epoxy....after is set, from memory most epoxy can handle hundreds of degrees of tempreture without issue.....so boiled water is perfect for getting the sugar off.

**Davdoodles** · 08-24-2007 01:04 AM

One thing to keep in mind, particularly in Australia: Epoxy, like a lot of 'plastics', has only one natural enemy: sunlight. UV rays, sooner or later, turn it brittle, whitish and weak. Boat builders always cover it with paint, or several layers of UV-stabilised varnish. You can't really do that with the grip method above, so make sure you don't leave it lying around in the midday sun, store it under a direct sun window.

But don't let that worry you - if you use it as it was intended (ie long days skating), but put it away when not in use, you will trash the board well before the goop dies.