Hi guys,
I have been doing some researchs about integrated decks for the last months and I found few people with different really good ways of building them(I am thinking about @chaka and @evoheyax). However, because I’m on a restricted budget, I will be using a method which I haven’t seemed to see anyone using on this forum. I also want you to keep in mind that this is a personnal project and I won’t sell it. So, this is it:
So, I thought about it and I would first press the top and the bottom with 3x 1/16’’ of canadian maple veneer and I would use the press shown below.
Secondly, I would cut the top lid from the rest of the board.
Thirdly, I would press the core with 18x 1/16’’ canadian maple veneer.
Fourtly, I would cut the space for the hollow core.
Fiftly, I would cut the shape of the deck out of the 3 boards.
Finally, I would glue the top, the bottom and the core together with the clamps shown in the picture, but without the press.
So, my question is : Do you know anybody who has done it like this? If yes, did it worked out pretty well and if you don’t know anybody, do you think it could work? If you have any advice for me, it would be awsome too.
Hope you can help me with this project!
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Just looking at the diagram, there’s really not much meat left in the center for strength, with all that cut out and only 3 plys on the bottom. Also, 24 plys is going to result in an incredibly thick and heavy deck. If it were me, I’d look into using a couple layers of composite for reinforcement on both top and bottom, either CF of GF, and maybe rearranging those cutouts to take more advantage of the length of the board, to leave some extra meat in the width for added strength.
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Thanks fo the help! I will try to adjust my design according to what you brought up. I will also check for 2-3 layers of carbon fiber to add some strenght. Do you have any opinion about the press or anything that you would modify?
I don’t really know anything about pressing a skateboard deck, so I can’t really give any advice regarding that.
Nice idea !
I already thought about doing the same thing but gave up because of the hughe thickness without even trying lol.
However i’ll strongly recommend to add one or more fiberglass layer between two sheets of maple, it’s a strong wood but for your part that is just over and under the components it may be better to make it harder, more solid you know.
Looking like this with 4 layers (That’s a lot actually, you wouldn’t need this much) in sandwich with epoxy on a non-integrated deck, it is absolutely impossible to flex this one.
After that there is lots of « tricks » to make your deck look less thick, like sanding the borders to have a sort of inverted concave at the bottom, like Haya deck does it actually.
Impatient to see how it’ll look like !
Your press looks really nice by the way, good strength repartition !