thanks! i finally have consistency in shape i’m getting from the mold, so i’m hoping to be able to use a blank to create a form for the boxes very soon.
it also helped that i added some tiny, slightly dulled nails to the center points at both ends of one half of the mold. No more guessing about where the center is. Now all i have to do is draw a line between the two divots at each end of the blank and i have an instant center line centered to the mold shape and not the veneer.
if anyone is thinking of having a wooden press mold made, i would strongly advise doing that. It takes ALL of the guesswork out of where the center is, so from popping it out of the press to lining up and taping your cutout template takes seconds instead of many minutes.
also, this one is @cmatson 's. For real this time. lol
try to ignore the washing machine. My mom always told me not to put my laundry out there for everyone to see, but i have to share my shop with the washer, so…
Nice to someone pressing decks! Invest in a good glue spreader when you get a chance it will save a ton of time. Spend around $300, the cheap ones perform poorly in comparison.
how do these spreaders work? got a good youtube link handy? i’m always looking for ways to streamline this.
for reference, at the moment i’m using a $13 paint roller and teflon pan. cleanup is 5 minutes and i can ziplock the roller for reuse up to a few days later to save glue. charging a roller takes almost as much glue as one side of veneer. a gallon of tightbond III is $27, so i try to be scroogey with it.
is a good spreader more efficient with the glue? how’s the cleanup? i can only press one at a time right now with a press time of about 6 hours before pulling out the blank and letting it cure over night before cutting, so glueing time isn’t really a bottleneck for me at the moment. I can stack veneer and have it in the press inside of 15 minutes.
@longhairedboy you look so happy in the video! it’s awesome! I really hope you can do this full time one day… Making electric skateboards is a form of medication… it’s exhilarating…exciting… fulfilling… I bet you don’t smile like a small baby in a candy store when you at your day job!
new t-shirt sloganworks sux build board’s be happy
Now let me talk about the deck… those line on the road side are so sweet… its a very unique and aggressive shape, modern & retro styling combined into one which is truly amazing in terms of design.
I can’t wait to see some trucks on it, also how stiff is this bad boy?.. feed me more of this wizardry
I’ve said it before & ill say it again, self build eboards are the future of skateboarding…
@onloop me too! i’m cough happy at my cough day job of course but yes i would love to do this full time. nothing would make me happier!
its pretty stiff despite being only 7 ply because of that sweeet w-dome profile. I have to bounce up and down pretty hard to get it to flex, and i’m pretty sure the flex points are not in the center of the deck but near the trucks. The center is where the dome is. It starts behind the front trucks and ends just in front of the rear trucks where it flattens out into the upward tail slope.
She’s 40" long with a wheelbase just over 26.5". Wired, filled, and stained she’s right at 5 pounds 11 ounces (i just put her on a postage scale). i’m not sure where that puts it in relation to other boards. I haven’t stripped my Gravity down to weigh the deck but it seems within the same ballpark.
I haven’t done any testing for wheel bite though.I figure the half inch risers i typically use on electrics will keep that down to a non-issue, but i am investigating some methods for creating wheel wells.
the peaks of the w-dome on the belly side are almost exactly the width of a space cell, and when it lays across the gap there’s enough room for some 12 gauge battery wires to travel down between the deck and the board so there are options for orienting the pack. you could also of course unpack some lipo prismatics or 18650s and run them down that wide gutter and keep your box even slimmer.
i have plans for boxes but i may list the decks for sale on their own before i figure all of that out. i definitely need to get my shop online. maybe tomorrow. It will be my birthday after all.
This deck looks amazing! The inlaid wiring is so cool. Also the shape of this deck reminds me a little bit of the PIt Bull Hoverboard in Back to the Future II, for some reason!
This one is about to get packed up and sent out. As soon as i find a box for it.
@cmatson I went ahead and took the time to countersink the truck bolts so you won’t have to tighten the bolts until they do it themselves. Should i throw in some clear grip for you too along with the box mounting kit? You mentioned you wanted to grip the top in black but i have like 50 sheets of clear if you want a sheet.
Titebond III ultimate wood glue. Its about $27/gallon. It seems like i’m getting about 5 or 6 decks out of a gallon on average depending on how my roller is behaving.
I really like working with it. It has a long enough working time to not only roll glue onto 12 sides of the 7 layers of veneer, but also leaves you plenty of time to still slide the layers around to get them as centered with each other as possible before laying them onto the mold. It takes 24 hours to cure, but i only have to keep it in the press for about 4 or 5 hours (i do six hours for good measure) before taking it out to set overnight to cure completely before cutting.
You can buy it at just about any hardware or home improvement store. I get mine at Lowes.
I just want to say that this deck has officially taken the spot for my #1 skate deck ever: and believe me, I’ve ridden a lot of different boards.
Haha I’m not just saying this to please @longhairedboy- he’s really gotten the shape and feel right with this one (especially when riding barefoot!!).
I will be doing a complete build thread of with this deck, and my arbor deck (which is almost done…) very soon! I also think I’m going to make another youtube video, this time with some better editing skills as I know a lot of people go right to youtube without even the slightest thought of posting on a forum…
