Skateboard

[scottcox]

Hey 'botters, Happy New Year!

I hope everyone is well. I wanted to share a small project with you.

One of the kids' wooden skateboards was left in the grass where I sometimes park my truck. Well, my truck won, so we needed a new board for the skates. I had some extra acrylic around so I designed a simple board in Aspire and we're back in business.

The traction grooves are v-carved using a "machine on vector" profile toolpath.
The skate mount holes are peck drilled and the cutout was a simple outside profile.

Piece of cake! .....If you've got a shopbot and the right software!



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[wberminio]

Very nice Scott!

I ran over my impact driver.Can you help me out?

[john_l]

Scott, Let's see a video of you hopping on there and throwing that stick around a little.

What tickness of acrylic? Looks cool.

[myxpykalix]

I hope your boy knows that he now has the coolest skateboard around...not to mention the coolest dad for making that for him!! lol

[rb99]

Will Plexiglas hold up to the punishment?

I would feel better if it was polycarbonate...

Nice work.

RIB

[jdervin]

Scott--

Great idea! What's the thickness of the acrylic? Also, what is the center-to-center spacing of the trucks? And lastly, is the surface flat, or did you do something to curl the ends up a little?

[scottcox]

Hi guys. Thanks for the comments.

The acrylic was 1/2" thick and it holds up to my jumping on it, so it should work for a while. I've got thicker stuff if this should break.

The size and spacing of the wheels were based on the old board. I also looked into bending the acrylic for the kicktails, but don't have the right setup for heating it correctly. I might soon. It looks simple and inexpensive.

The kicktails would help with those big jumps I make.....cough, cough.

Erminio, Sure I could help you with your driving, but I run over stuff too. ;-)

[john_l]

I've bent acrylic up to about a 1/2" thick with my home made benders. Similar to the one in this pic, they use a fibreglass heat strip element (meant for pipe thawing) layed into a routed piece of plywood, with several layers of foil tape and aluminum to keep it from scorching the plywood. I can bend a 22.5deg angle in 1/2" after it cooks about 15 minutes one side and then about 5 minutes the other side. Thinner sheets take less time and can be heated from one side only.


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[john_l]

Does anyone here have any experience laminating wood skateboard decks?

[mikeacg]

Scott,

My concern would be, if it broke, would the edge be razor sharp and cause some pretty bad injuries? I love your design but I would hate for anyone to get hurt.

John,

I've been messing around with one of those electric charcoal grill starters (basically an electric coil with a handle) and have had pretty interesting results. Looks like you can handle a pretty big sheet with your setup though! What are you making with it?
I've never laminated a skateboard deck but I have done gluing jigs for a number of laminated products. My most recent effort was a laminated oak edge for a corian countertop I cut for my bathroom.

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[mikeacg]

John,

Seems like a deck would be a pretty simple project. You could cut top and bottom molds complete with bends on the ends on your Bot and layer in wood and glue. Then throw together a press using a bottle jack or two to form it.


996

I got some pretty tight corners with this application and no cracking. I cut 1/8" strips on my tablesaw and soaked in a plastic garbage can (no heat used).

Mike

[john_l]

Mike we make neon signs here also and I use the heat element setups to make acrylic backers to hold the neon in storefront windows. The edges are heated about 3" in from the edge and a return is bent up on all four edges. This is stronger, quicker, and cleaner looking than glueing an acrylic strip at 90 degress. I made 4 different lengths of these heaters from 3'-10' and we use them lots.

It looks like you do have good success bending wood. was that a counter edge? ??? What kind of wood?

I am 45 years old now but, when I was younger I used to skateboard for both recreation and transpoortation, every day. The boards that the kids use nowadays are called freestyle boards (double/compound concave mould for the kickflips they TRY to do before busting their ankles and falling down). Other than graphics, I swear most of these boards are all almost the exact same mould. As you might be able to tell, I never grasped this style of skating, it was after my day hahaha.

My style was more like downhill concrete surfing and I really enjoyed it. I still have a few boards that I made when I was a kid and I now ride with my kids (but more carefully).

There used to be lots of different style boards that are no longer available from the old manufacturers. I think I want to find some thin maple and experiment.

[john_l]

Yes acrylic would leave a sharp edge if it broke but I just stood and bounced on a scrap of 1/2" plexi that is about 28" long.. placed between 2 4x4 blocks. It flexed but no where near ready to break and I am FAT.

[mikeacg]

Bathroom project (still not done but getting closer. Still waiting for the plasma-cut aluminum skirt for the bowl. I'm doing a Koi fish grill design to be backlit with orange LEDs. The counter is a piece of gray granite looking corian I bought at Habitat for Humanity, trimmed with some black oak I milled from my neighbors dead tree.
When I was a kid, skateboards were more like a board with roller skate wheels (but I'm real old - and fat!) One of my friends owns a board company (I don't think they manufacture - just sell) so I guess I'll have to check them out because they must have changed a bunch.
Sounds like that acrylic is a lot tougher than I gave it credit!


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