I am an avid fan of longboarding and skateboarding and had always wanted to build my own boards. Constructing longboards from scratch required intimate knowledge of how the trucks, axles, bushings, bearings, wheels and fasteners come together, especially if I was sourcing all my components from scratch.
To make the wooden deck, I table sawed three 1/2” thick pieces of plywood that I intended to glue together to create a solid yet springy deck.
I built a custom press and glued the sheets together while applying a large weight on top with the right mass to create the desired deflection in the center of the board (classic beam bending simple support problem!).
I then carved the desired deck shape using a vertical bandsaw.
I hydrodipped the deck with a custom design.
Water immersion transfer of “hydrodipping” is a really interesting process that requires the following steps:
1) Prime the deck surfaces by smoothing down with course and then fine grained sandpaper, and a clear coat of primer.
2) Select a polyvinyl alcohol hydrogrpahic film that has been gravure-printed with the design to be transferred and carefully place on water’s surface in dipping tank.
3) Since the film is water soluble, it dissolved after an activator solution is applied.
4) Begin by dipping the deck tip into the water slowly. From here the water’s surface tension allows the pattern to curve around the deck and adhere tightly. Any remaining residue washes off and the deck dries for a day.
Final touches: I bought some grip tape and laser cut a custom design into it. From there, I assembled the trucks and fastened them symetrically along the deck. Eh voila: longboard! I ended up making about ten of these in Dubai and selling them in 2016.
Cruising along the SF pier on a Boosted Board. Motorizing my longboard would be solid future project…