KATEBOARD STUDIES
A Course in the Manu
Skateboard Decks, Tudka
HYDROLIC
PRESSES
PUMP 100-150
TONS NECESS
TO SQUISH
4-5 DECKS
INTO
EXISTANCE.
BANAN
A ROUTER
WITH A
QUARTER ROUND
BIT IS USED TO
SMOOTH YOUR
RAILS.
and Fabrication of
Wheels
Well, it's time to hit the books. But this year you don't have to skate to
school empty-handed during that first grueling week of classes. When
the teachers clobber you with the "What I Did Last Summer"
assignment, you can counter punch them by whipping one or all of
these special reports out of your tasty new three-ring. Or, just when they
least expect it, you can jump up and rap out an oral report. Have the
crew roll out the overhead projector and beam these pics onto the wall
for a psychedelic visual presentation.
If you are planning on majoring in metal shop, wood shop or
chemistry, well, need we say that these step by step details will provide
you, and whoever else copies them with a grade-A project and a cool,
homemade skate.
w/w
Hey Woodchuck
My Son SKATES!
THE MAKING OF A SKATEBOARD DECK
NAME? DATE?
Wood Shop I
Mr. Hayes
Your average board, stick, deck, plank, top, axe or que is constructed of seven layers
(plys or veneers) of hard maple. Think of a roll of toilet tissue (single ply) as a freshly cut
and debarked Canadian maple tree, then picture each individual tissue square as a
veneer, peeled from the roll by a big, sharp blade.
Seven tissues are stacked one on top of the other so that plys 1, 2, 4, 6 and 7 have the
wood grain running nose to tail and plys 3 and 5 have it running from side to side. As a
stack of tissues, this combo would be good for one wipe, but as a pressed and glued
skateboard, this combination of crisscrossed wood will provide a strong deck with a tried
and true weight-to-strength ratio, as well as a lively flex. The maple plys are laminated
together using an exclusive "moisture-lock adhesive laminating system with poly vinyl
glue." When you see quotation marks around a serious phrase like the former, it usually
means the source would not divulge the precise details of their system. In this case let's
just say the plys are laminated together and molded in fat hydraulic press under
serious tonnage, using a master form that shapes the concave and kicktail as it is
pressed and glued BE POLITE
Any dummy with a band saw and some sandpaper can cut out and finish their own
Slang?
SPECIFICS,
custom que from a blank. There are companies that sell blanks ready to hone and a few WHAT TOOLS
skater-craftsmen still make skates with their own whacked-out measurements, but most WERE
consumers opt for the finished product, which is routered, sanded, stained and
varnished. Six-color signature graphics add nothing but dollars to the purchase price of
board, however.
After a deck reaches the blank stage, it is either cut out by hand or on a smart jig saw,
where a master pattern is traced by a guide, which is connected to an arm, which is
connected to a blade or combo blade/router head, which cuts and shapes the edges
automatically..
On down the conveyer belt there is a drilling station that drills the truck mounting
holes four at a time. Most of today's decks feature three sets of holes: two sets in the nose
and one in the tail.
After the edges of the deck are sealed, the entire board is finish-sanded. A deck is
painted with a coat of colored lacquer and a coat of clear lacquer, then the graphics are
silkscreened on top of the laquer. Some decks appear to be stained, but actually they don't
have the colored coating, just a clear coating over wood that was "impregnated" with
pelor before the laminating process.
That's about all there is to skateboard construction.
WHERE'S THE SUMMARY?
NEEDED?