Build Off Contest Entry Thread 2008 Open Theme

[.secrets]

ive got three boards pressed, and one is almost complete...but I am not sure which one I should enter. I could also use the board that I just got done pressing for a buddy....hmmm

all of these boards are sick as hell, congrats on some great builds!!

[tomlarry@hotmail.com]

[funkpod]

wow, boby, that's a FANTASTIC looking board!

[Greg.]

Will

AMAZING JOB I WOULD PAY SUMS OF MONEY FOR THAT BOARD!!!

[wallstreetjazz]

My Board is a large mini-cruzer. It is 30 inches long and 8 inches wide. I don't have any pictures of it in the press but I have the plank before and after plaining. The Bord is 3/8th of an inch thick. Made of poplar and red oak with one sheet of fiberglass on each side. It has Randal R-II 150's with Gravity Super G 78a's that I had to swipe from my other longboard Because I ran out of money. It's the first board I have built so I didn't try anything special so it's flat with no concave. My next board is going to be more experemental. Here are the pictures:

The board after the press:



The desing aginst the blank after plaining:



Rough cut of the blank done with a jig saw:



After sanding the edges:





Fiberglassing the top and the bottom:





The finished board:











That's it...

[Dimm]

Okay well I already posted this about two weeks before but I had totally forgotten about this contest. So here I go again... my friend wanted me to build him a custom board with a theme, the theme being Russia. So I decided to design him a cruising board around the Russian Mig fighter jet (following picture)


After some thought I sketched out a few options.


Then I got some 1/16" hard maple 1/4" Baltic birch. The board would be a birch-maple composite. There would be 1 layer of 1/4" birch in the middle with two 1/16" sheets of maple on each side. The result is a board which had a lot of the durability and strength of maple and a some of the nice flexibility of Baltic birch.

I drafted the final design on the wood once it was properly cut to size.


This is a picture of my press.


I pressed the layers in between two outside of 1/4" Baltic birch.

Then I cut it out.



Then I sanded and routered it.





Since it's a cruising board the concave was very light.


Next came the paintjob. I taped it up and sprayed it red. On the top of the board it's written Vladikavkas (in Russian) which is my friends hometown.





Then the finish griptape wheels and trucks went on (Randal 180's and kryptonics classics) and I gave it right to my friend (in the picture) he loves it!

[absorbentpig]

With Wefunk/CLB no longer producing their beautiful boards, the only way to get my hands on one of those foamcore topmounts was to build my own. Starting from their tried-and-true design, I added my own tweaks to set my board apart. I added a 1/8" recessed area where the trucks mount for flushmounting 1/8" shock pads, dual wheelbase options, and a new board shape with a wider nose area.

Specs:
L: 41"
W: 10.125"
WB: 30.25/31.25"
Concave: 3/8" with a 6" flat middle section

Materials:
1.5mm Finnish Birch, UD Carbon, UD Fiberglass, +-45 Fiberglass, 0/90 Fiberglass, Texalium, 3/8" Divinycell

Two plies of 1.5mm Finnish Birch out of the concave mold:


After preliminary shaping:


In the bag for top skins:


Out of the bag:


Foamcore shaping:


Shaped foamcore:


In the bag for the final time:


Out of the bag:


Top:


Bottom:


Bottom again:


Concave:


Complete setup:


Again:

[Everett McCord]

absorbentpig that board is so sweet I love the silver texilium looks amazing

[Ferrarimk13]

how do you guys make such nice boards?! foam core, carbon fiber, texilium, you guys are insane.

[wardlarson]

im speechless! i dont see any boards here i wouldn't LOVE owning. good job everyone keep them coming!

[sidewalk_surfer]

Man, EVERYTHING looks awesome! That sugar board is phenomenal!

Mines not done in time, but i figure ill post what i have done now, and ill finish up with a full build process album when its all done in a new post.

the idea behind this build was to do a lightweight all purpose board, with an emphasis on freestyle and carving capabilities. inspiration was taken shape-wise from wakeboards, and constructionwise from snowboards. it has UHMW sidewalls and tipblocks, is constructed of maple and aspen, and will be laminated with directional carbon stringers, glassfiber, and thermoformed UHMW translucent white top and bottom sheets, grip impregnated on the top. it was all cut and shaped by hand.

I am testing a concept that is utilized on many of Salomon's higher end boards, in which the core is milled thinner, and in some cases to a spine between the feet. this creates a load bearing beam that minimizes the torsional stiffness in that region. by using a design like this between the riders feet, and coupling that with very torsionally stiff nose and tail composites, the rider can twist the board, steering both axles independently. the black board pictured below was layed up in a similar fashion (without the core profiling), and has preformed absolutely beautifully. it allows you to have a board with a tight turning rear truck that can be used to kick out the rear of the board, while simultaneously making turns that work very well for pumping and higher speeds. the profiling in the board is all functional, and is designed to create ribs and beams that more effectively transmit energy from below the riders feet, directly to the trucks. there are also two reinforcing beams created by the baseplate cutouts and wheel wells that will reinforce the kicks.



the bottom roughed out, mocked up with the 169 indys and 71mm 84a Alligators.



the concave shot. at this stage, the top of the board is pretty much done. the concave was all hand cut with a belt sander, orbital sander, and primarily with a razorblade. most of the board has a mellow concave, however the rails ramp up close to a half inch. the concave wraps around slightly into the standing platform, creating a tub shape to lock the feet in. there is a subtle concave in the kicks as well.






starting to look a little better! this is about where it is right now, most of the bottom still needs refined and made symmetrical. the front 1/3 (except the mount) in this photo is pretty well finished, but theres still alot of work to refine the core to where i want it to be finishwise. The wheel wells will not be that big, but instead, the top and bottom sheet will be brought together to a surface to fully seal the core, and then minor cutouts will be added to clear the large wheels.



both about 47-48"

thats about all i have for right now. like i said, im bummed i couldnt make the deadline, as there are some awesome boards here, but this what i got, and you bet ill post the finished results! i also have a full build process album on facebook goin if anyone wants more detail on that.

[boby]

AMAZING JOB I WOULD PAY SUMS OF MONEY FOR THAT BOARD!!!

Thanks, In the near future, it will be available. So watch out.

[redundor]

wow, there are some really nice boards in here already. the finish on boby's board is amazing, funkpod's mini is wicked, and absorbentpig's deck is just epic.

So here is my humble entry. Inspired by Mc99David's board in the carving contest and some conversations at the giant's head freeride, I decided to make a top mount downhill board with using w-concave.

First, I'll throw up some pictures of the board in the construction phase. I didn't think about entering this board until after I pressed it, so there aren't any pictures of the unpressed wood. I used 5 layers of 1/8" baltic birch cut to about 11" wide and glued them together using tightbond 3.

Bottom of the press (next time i'll cut the bottom plywood wider for sure):


two top pieces:


here are two pictures of the pressed blank placed back in the press. You can see how much it sprang back, which is probably a good thing because the rise in the middle is just right as it is:



For the shape, I knew I wanted lots of room for the front foot, so I took my shape that I had used in the past (link 1 and link 2) and widened it out to get the first version of my board.

Me sanding down to the line after the roof cut out:


sanded blank prior to wheel wells:



Painted and gripped deck (you can see the routered out wheel wells that made in the second picture):



I rode the board around like this, and decide that even though I liked the origional shape, this version was just not doing it for me. So, back to the drawing board to try and tweak the shape to something a bit more streamlined without cutting down on the foot space too much. Here is what I came up with.


Wheel well detail:


The next step was to router out the truck mounts so that the trucks would sit on a flat surface, rather than spanning across the w-concave.

Rear routered out for randals:


And here is the final product. A flush mount downhill board with w-concave. The specs are:

Length: 41.5"
Width: 10 5/8"
wheel base: 32"

Top:


bottom:


w-concave:


The board totally rips, and I love the way the concave feels on toeside turns. I am pretty happy with how it turned out, even though there are always things to tweak the next time around.

[hoch92000]

It is my honor to simply be an element in this effort.

Speedemon: Fantastic job on the stain.

Boby: Absolutely lucious.

Tomahawk: The board and central rectangle is sick. That carpet is sicker.

bryan0818: Those screws on the Toothless look like a pretty row of rivets. That sunrise is affectionately calming like George Harrison's "Here comes the sun".

Kolayaco: Fantastic all around.

vj922: Ok, so you are bringing a Lambroghini to a friendly little race.

docobb: Surgically clean.

skibum_55: That glue piece is absolutely Narly. Like "SAW" narly. Seriously, who needs a Hellcat?

Funkpod: adorable.

Wall street: The mini's are represented!

Dimm: I'm digging the mellooooow concave on that Mig.

Absobentpig: Wow. That texalium looks incredible. holy crap!

Sidewalk surfer: Love the cutouts. Might need to nip a bit more for Randalls.

tomlarry: your graphic says it all, the chill moon and the vivacious city life.

My submission is from my Greenleaf series. Rather than be repetitious, I will direct you to my thread regarding "http://www.silverfishlongboarding.co...post1297104923" for the intro, method, and press pics. It will guide you through the press process.

The final cutout seen on image #18 was created from a blank initialized by center lines (both longditudinally and across the waist). It was then trimmed to 9 in wide. The cutouts for the head and tail (or both ends if thought symmetrically) were created using this board, "http://www.silverfishlongboarding.co...hlight=gravity" as a template. Then the waist was cut. The result is a 9 in board with an 8 in waist, more or less.

The board is 100% Baltic Birch completed by (in successive steps) sanding, a water based stain in two shades, inkjet transfer for graphics, and finally MinWax clear gloss polyurethane and Shark Grip paint additive (essentially fine sand) for the finish.

Rather than show all of these steps, I have included a pic showing all of the materials and tools I used. Sometimes, this information is more important than the instructional pics.

For the shaping, initially sand to shape with a belt sander (shown in the how to thread, used 50 grit). Then router the bottom edge only. My handheld Bosch router was a suggestion from Arcane. Thanks. You will need this tool. Next sand the surface with a sheet sander (this is truly a luxury, since hand sanding is the acceptable alternative.

Next comes the stain. Use stain conditioner first, then stain. I used that blue tape for the edges. Still bled. Phuc&! The hunter green stain was blended out to the edges by overlapping areas of one coat, two coats, and three. Oh, indelible magic marker for the black lines.

The graphic transfer was achieved using inkjet tranasparency first protected with Krylon matte finish, then transferred using Gel Matte medium (liquid). The Krylon was allowed to dry on the transparency for and hour, then the gel matte medium was allowed to dry overnight before removing the transparency, leaving the graphic.

Then for the top, two coats of poly. Sand grip. Then one more coat of poly. Three total. For the bottom, 4 or 5 coats (can't quite remember) of poly, sanding with 220 then 400 between coats. Voila.

I also wanted to create an awareness for Originals trucks. Truly a unique ride, but often unloved because of the skill required to ride them over 15 MPH without sliding into oblivian. Simply dewedge the back truck with two 1/2 in soft Kiro riders and you are golden, even as a novice rider like me. 20 MHP and over is no problem. I believe Original need not create a lower angle back truck, but simply offer a back wedged riser similar to my geometry. The wheel base as mounted is 32" and to be honest, it works best with a wheelbase of less than 30". At 32" the back still slips a bit, but at 29", it is truly solid.

The wheelbase for this topmount can be adjusted to 32, 34, or 36 in. For Randalls and Paris trucks (and other similar reverse kingpin trucks) use the 34" setting to avoid wheel bite (note that a 32" WB Original setup is equivalent to a 34" WBRandall setup). The 36" WB can be used for biga$$ wheels like Flywheels.

On a couple of pictures, the other two boards in the series are depicted. They are not in the contest. Sorry, they got into the pics. $hit happens.

[sharkbait7]

these boards are rediculous, i am in awe of what everyone is doing.

i decided to try out a drop deck speedboard.

it's 9-ply maple with two layers of 6 oz (i think) glass on both the top and bottom. 43.5" long, 9" wide, 26.5" standing platform, about .5" concave (it's gorgeous, feels sooo good), very slight flex, but can't feel it while riding

in the pics it is set up with bears and zigs but it will be set up with 42 42 randals, red khiro barrels in the back blue in the front, and in heats



in the press



before cutting


roughcut



glassing





paint


grip


concave



the rest: jonathanond - Photobucket - Video and Image Hosting

[Xgecko]

this started with a red oak board and a maple board I picked up from Home Depot that had really nice grain...I had no idea what I was gonna make but after cutting it to strips I realized it was gonna be narrow. It sat in my living room as a 4'x7" taped plank (my wife was not ammused) until after staring at it for 2 weeks I decided that I needed a mini. Hind site being 20-20 I will never use red oak again is is a PITA to get smooth and fill the grain though it looks great. The bottom has 15 coats of poly wet sanded between coats and it's just smooth
after glue up before shaping. I've had it out twice and it really is fun to skate I never thought I would need or like a mini but it just seems to be a fun board for dorking around

Specs
Length............25"
Width.............7"
Wheelbase....17.5"



various shots during sanding and shaping




Finished and set up

[timmiedisc]

Here is my entry for the open contest and is called the Road Rod. This is actually my first build and I have been rather happy with the results. I used 2 peices of 1/4" Baltic Birch that I pressed together in a very rudimentary press (once again this is my first board and I wanted it done before 8/1). Given the simpleness of the press the board is quite solid.

I have already been riding the board for about a week and I love the feel, it is very flexy. It has about 3/8" of concave and about 3/4" of camber. My next board I am going to try and increase both. The board specs are below. I would love to here anyone's thoughts on the board.

Length 42"
Width 9 3/4" at widest point

Press


Press Again


Rough Cut


Paint


Camber


Complete Bottom


Final Product


Side View

[funkpod]

great 1st build!

[Kolaya]

timmiedisc, nice board man, it looks like something i would love to ride. Keep it up. I understand what youre saying about the deadline thing, i was in the same boat!! But it came out great none the less, simple does not necessarily mean not good.

[Kolaya]