# Questions about making a skateboard deck out of hardwoods.



## MD56 (Jun 17, 2015)

Hi, 

I think for my next dumb project I want to try and do a really nice skateboard deck out of hardwood. Something with some inlay and maybe a vintage surf feel. I'm thinking maybe a longboard, but that'll depend on a couple of the questions i'm about to ask. 


1) I'm thinking the length of the deck would come in somewhere around 38-40" long. I'd prefer to keep the board thin, but i also don't want it to have a lot of flex and end up cracking or something like that. Any suggestion on 4/4 vs 5/4? 

2) Given the fact i'm 200lbs, i'm guessing the board is going to flex a little bit no matter what. If I end up doing something like Oak/Walnut/Oak do I need to be worried about the different hardness or that the different types of wood might give differently? That wood combo is just off the top of my head, i really have no idea how i'm going to lay it up yet. We'll see what the hardwood store has in the shorts bin!


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## hwebb99 (Nov 27, 2012)

I would use hard maple or hickory. Either of those wood are about as strong as you can get without buying some exotic wood that is $$$$.


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## asevereid (Apr 15, 2012)

Ditto on the hard maple, as that is the most common for skateboards anyways. 
You can keep your thickness down if you look into the manufacturers method of cross veneering. 
Most decks are 7 ply laminations running in alternate directions.


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## MD56 (Jun 17, 2015)

Thanks for the info. I actually want to just do it out of board lumber, not really into laminating, but I totally know what you're saying.

I have some white oak I was thinking of using for the majority of the deck, and maybe some cherry for accent. White oak is pretty hard but we'll see. Making a run to the hardwood store this weekend, we'll see what they have in the way of maple.


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## Tim G (May 10, 2012)

My son and I built these longboards out of white oak and walnut.













They're 5/8ths thick. My kids like them.


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## MD56 (Jun 17, 2015)

Tim G said:


> My son and I built these longboards out of white oak and walnut. They're 5/8ths thick. My kids like them.


Those are gorgeous, is that solid lumber or did you laminate them?


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## Tim G (May 10, 2012)

MD56 said:


> Those are gorgeous, is that solid lumber or did you laminate them?



Thank you
They are solid wood. But some precautions were taken to add strength. We ripped the boards to about 1 1/4" then glued them back to prevent splitting. Also if you look closely you'll see that we cut a groove then glued a piece of contrasting cross grain wood to keep that short area of end grain from breaking.








Also instead of unsightly grip tape we used lucid grip. It's a clear spay on system


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## MD56 (Jun 17, 2015)

Tim G said:


> Thank you
> They are solid wood. But some precautions were taken to add strength. We ripped the boards to about 1 1/4" then glued them back to prevent splitting. Also if you look closely you'll see that we cut a groove then glued a piece of contrasting cross grain wood to keep that short area of end grain from breaking.
> View attachment 184305
> 
> ...


All great ideas, thank you very much for sharing. It looks like you have a little rocker in there, did you press the deck into a form after you glued it up?


Or maybe that's just an optical illusion lol?


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## Tim G (May 10, 2012)

We did not press the deck. What We did was before glueing up the "wings" We added a very slight bevel to each of the edges. Then after gluing it We spent a lot of time sanding it into a concave effect. It's slight but noticeable. Then lengthwise We steam bent it to give it a slight arc. We looked at many decks and tried to mimics them using techniques we're familiar with.


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## MD56 (Jun 17, 2015)

Tim G said:


> We did not press the deck. What We did was before glueing up the "wings" We added a very slight bevel to each of the edges. Then after gluing it We spent a lot of time sanding it into a concave effect. It's slight but noticeable. Then lengthwise We steam bent it to give it a slight arc. We looked at many decks and tried to mimics them using techniques we're familiar with.


Ok, the steam bending is what gave it that "rocker" (surfboard term). Very cool, i think most laminated decks get that through pressing, it's cool that you guys went so far as to steam and bend it. 

I feel alot better about the thickness though after having seen yours. And thanks for the tip on ripping / glueing everything back up to prevent splitting, I wouldn't have thought of that otherwise.


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## Tim G (May 10, 2012)

MD56 said:


> Ok, the steam bending is what gave it that "rocker" (surfboard term). Very cool, i think most laminated decks get that through pressing, it's cool that you guys went so far as to steam and bend it.
> 
> 
> 
> I feel alot better about the thickness though after having seen yours. And thanks for the tip on ripping / glueing everything back up to prevent splitting, I wouldn't have thought of that otherwise.



Thank you for having interest in the subtleties of what I love to do. You have a good eye and ask good questions. It's my pleasure.


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## MD56 (Jun 17, 2015)

Just an update, ripped up my maple, walnut, and cherry for the board last night. Everything is 4/4 except for the walnut (5/5) but that's just because it's what I had lying around. After glue up everything will be planed down, probably close to 5/8" 

A friend of mine who is good with Photo Shop made me a cutting pattern for the deck. I took an actual 9'6" longboard surfboard and had him turn in into just an outline and size it down to 40"L x 9.5"w. 

Will probably get this glue up tonight. The plan is to do a vintage surf style tail block for this also, but that'll be later in the process.


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## hwebb99 (Nov 27, 2012)

Just a tip. If you plane all the boards to the same thickness before the glue up it will be MUCH easier. Don't plane to your final thickness just as thin as the thinnest board.


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## MD56 (Jun 17, 2015)

hwebb99 said:


> Just a tip. If you plane all the boards to the same thickness before the glue up it will be MUCH easier. Don't plane to your final thickness just as thin as the thinnest board.


Really wish I would have seen this about 6hrs earlier than I did lol. 

Anyway, got everything glued up, and the next day went out and ran the whole thing through the planer to bring it down to a rough / uniform thickness... it went ok but i noticed my maple and walnut ended up with some gouges in it, sort of like pock marks. Not sure it had anything to do with the planer, could well have been just the lumbe. I guess that is why you plane everything to uniform before you glue it up. Oh well though, nothing so bad that I can press on. 

I'll post more updates as soon as I find time to do more work on it.


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## Oneal-Woodworking (Apr 14, 2013)

MD56 said:


> Really wish I would have seen this about 6hrs earlier than I did lol.
> 
> Anyway, got everything glued up, and the next day went out and ran the whole thing through the planer to bring it down to a rough / uniform thickness... *it went ok but i noticed my maple and walnut ended up with some gouges in it, sort of like pock marks.*
> 
> ...


Because you planed those pieces in the wrong direction... Cherry will do that as well depending on the grain and how 'figured' it is.

It also has to do with the cutting angle on your planer and the particular wood you fed through it. (not all wood is going to give the same results at the same cutting angle)

If you have straight blades - You most likely can 'tweak' those angles to get closer to where you want to be for the woods you are working with currently and if you get it right - 'direction' becomes less critical. 

The greater the angle of bevel ground on the face of the knife, the more the cutting angle of the knife is reduced.


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## MD56 (Jun 17, 2015)

OnealWoodworking said:


> Because you planed those pieces in the wrong direction... Cherry will do that as well depending on the grain and how 'figured' it is.
> 
> It also has to do with the cutting angle on your planer and the particular wood you fed through it. (not all wood is going to give the same results at the same cutting angle)
> 
> ...


Thank you for the info. Most of my projects so far have been out of Poplar and Red Oak, I guess those are more forgiving through the planer, never had any issues with either of those. 

I hear what you're saying about finding the angle, the only bummer is that my piece is about 11" wide and I have 12" Delta planer, so there's really no getting any angle on it. I need to take another 16th off or so, hopefully i can get through it without too much chip out. I think i'll be able to sand out most of what happened already, but it's borderline.


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## MD56 (Jun 17, 2015)

Update on the project... just need to figure out a finish and add some grip.


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## Tim G (May 10, 2012)

Wow!!!
Looks great. A finish is really going to make it all stand out.


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## Tim G (May 10, 2012)

Also. Love the look of the tail piece. 

I responded to your P M. But not sure if it went through because this app is not showing any sign of my response. Let me know if you didn't get it.


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## MD56 (Jun 17, 2015)

Tim G said:


> Also. Love the look of the tail piece.
> 
> I responded to your P M. But not sure if it went through because this app is not showing any sign of my response. Let me know if you didn't get it.


Got it and responded, thank you!

Yea it's about as basic of a project as you can do, but the tail-block makes it a little more special i think. I'm a surfer also so it really gives it's a vintage longboard surf look also.


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## jmohring (Feb 5, 2017)

*Fiberglass delamination*

I recently made a longboard out of multiple hardwoods. It is 36" long. It consists of two 1/4" outer layers made from cherry, oak, walnut, and maple and a 1/8" inner walnut layer. There is also fiberglass between the 3 layers. So the order is wood, glass, wood, glass, wood. I also added some slight camber to the board by making what is called a "ghetto press" in the longboard community. Basically I just put a heavy toolbox on it while the resin cured. Everything was going fine, until i used a bad batch of polyurethane varnish that took a week to dry. When it was finally dry i noticed one of the layers had delaminated. I've been told that it's because I used polyester resin instead of epoxy. I've also been given a suggestion for how to fix it, "For your current board I would mix some epoxy in a cut and try to pour it into the layers. Then clamp then overnight. The next day glass the whole board. It takes a while to completely deal the board. Make sure to do multiple coats." I'm hoping someone can give me better advice, because I'm not sure this will be a permanent fix.

Top









Bottom









Delam


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## Steve Neul (Sep 2, 2011)

Fiberglass are epoxy and even polyurethane are very hard products. It will have difficulty with the flexing of the wood used for a skate board. What you need for a finish is a marine grade spar varnish. It's formulated for wood that flexes. It was originally developed in the days of tall ships. They had problems with plain varnish flaking and pealing off the masts of ships do to all the bending they do.


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## GeneT (Feb 24, 2014)

Sweet!!!!


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