The wood arrived and I started the building process. I glued the 7 ply layers together. (Shout out to my minion Tyler for helping me frantically glue and place the layers together evenly before the glue set). I ordered the wood normal cut, normal cut, cross cut, core cut, cross cut, normal cut, normal cut. Normal cut is just the grain of the wood going down along the length of the deck of the board. Cross cut is the grain going perpendicular to the length. And a core cut is the core of the maple tree, so the grain of the wood is more circular. This combination will give me the most strength while still having flexibility. (The picture is of my deck layers clamped under even pressure of longer sturdy wooden boards to shape the my wood straight. (I did not realize how warped 1/16th of a an inch wood would be).

 

I also drew my artistic designs on adobe illustrator, in hope of being ableimage1 to laser etch into the wood. I just realized I may have a problem, since each layer of wood is so thin. If the laser burns through to the glue between layers it will weaken the board, which will decrease functionality and may be dangerous to the rider. My minion, Sami will help me figure out if it is possible tomorrow.

 

For the art on the top of the deck I invented my own font to write out my friends name in. I will have clear grip tape over the top.

 

If all goes well, tomorrow I will have something that actually resembles the shape of a longboard.

3 Comments. Leave new

  • Kenzy O'neill
    April 18, 2016 12:07 am

    Laser-engraving the board sounds like a great idea. If you happen to be unable to use the laser cutter on the board another idea could be to laser cut another piece of material and then use clear epoxy to laminate it to the surface of the board. Additionally, you might be able to do something cool with a wood burning tool!

    Reply
  • Samantha Maierhofer
    April 14, 2016 4:19 pm

    Glad that it’s coming together! Ya I actually had the same thought about the laser engraving (I’ve never tried to engrave paper but sounds like Brendan may have had success with this in the past). Do you have some scrape piece to test with? This way if it doesn’t work the whole board isn’t ruined. Another thought, we could cut out a stencil of the design and use it to paint the bottom is engraving wont work?

    Reply
  • Brendan Warren
    April 14, 2016 1:03 am

    You should have no problem laser engraving the wood. The laser cutters can engrave a piece of paper. Just crank the power way down and keep the speed high. Worst case scenario, you can always run the cycle again until you get the look you want, just make sure you don’t move it until you are happy with the result!

    Reply

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