my first longboard

**andre b 2010** · 08-21-2007 07:06 PM

i'm looking for some advice on building my own longboard. right now i ride a 45 x9.8 G2 bombadier. its a nice board, has concave and camber, and is great for cruising, and not too bad for bombing hills. i think i've gotten up to about 30 mph on it. so i'm looking for idea's on what to make for my first board, what kind of material, probably either baltic birch or maple. i'd like to put a kicktail on it, and maybe some camber. i'd like for it to be a longer board to dance on, but wonder if it would be easier to start off with something small, maybe even a mini. opinions?

**jspats40** · 08-21-2007 07:17 PM

Welcome to the wonderous world of longboard making, Andre.

I recomend using two 1/4 inch (6 mm) pieces of baltic birch. i would do the toothless style construction. Go to basic technique.
The most confusing part of that is the epoxy resin part. go here to understand it and find a dealer for it.

the other way is making a press. toothless has directions on it but there VERY detailed and use them if you wanna make a very very nice press. just understand the basics on how a press works and create your own.

goods luck

**jspats40** · 08-21-2007 07:24 PM

oh yeah and on what shape and length. go in the 40-50 inch range. i think its easier than making a mini and has room to dance.

for the shape, just design a classic style. 8.5-9 inch width and some room for a nose and a tail. making a kick tail on the board is anoying if you do the basic toothless technique, you have to be creative.

good tip for aligning the trucks is "laser level."

**Daniel M.** · 08-21-2007 08:24 PM

you wont be able to put a functional kicktail in with the 1/4 baltic birch. get the 1/8 if you want to do a kicktail, or if you want flex out of a shorter board, that way you can do 3/8in thick rather than 12/in

**andre b 2010** · 08-22-2007 10:20 AM

hey, thanks for all the advice. i've read through the toothless construction and understand most of it. i'm not quite sure how u use the wood screws, can someone clear that up? also, i saw on another forum and somewhat easy way to make a kicktail, it said to make 5 or 6 parallel grooves in the underside of the board and bend it up, then fill the grooves with epoxy to keep the curve of the kicktail. also, for wheel cutouts, which i would like to make, do u just take a saw to it and cut them out, or is there some special way of doin it?

**jspats40** · 08-23-2007 08:06 PM

i think toothless was talking about when glueing the baltic birch you should screw the birch boards together with cheap wood screws.then trace you board stencil on the top birch board and then the trace with wood screws 2 inches apart and 1 inch away from the trace. get what im saying?

i never made wheels wells on a board before. i wouldnt give good advice for that.

**andre b 2010** · 08-24-2007 09:55 PM

Originally Posted by jspats40

i think toothless was talking about when glueing the baltic birch you should screw the birch boards together with cheap wood screws.then trace you board stencil on the top birch board and then the trace with wood screws 2 inches apart and 1 inch away from the trace. get what im saying?

i never made wheels wells on a board before. i wouldnt give good advice for that.

ya, i got it now. i thought at first the screws actually went into the board, not around it, thats wut confused me, and i was asking about wheel cutouts, not wheel wells