hello and welcome back to switch and lever! today we're going to make something whichhas been on my to do list for a long time, and with spring approaching, i ask, is therea better thing to make than a skateboard!? i won't bore you with the history of skateboards,but instead, let's just dive into designing our board. this board is going to be a smallskateboard, reminiscent of a penny board. the shape itself will be similar to a cruiserlongboard, but much smaller and with a kicktail in the back. we're going to start from an already preexistingskateboard, whatever the cheapest brand knockoff penny board brand i could find at the store.
the deck of these boards are made from plastic,and you want to start off by removing it completely. the only thing you're after are the truckswhich share more commonalities with longboard trucks than those of regular skateboards.due to the shorter deck of the penny board however they do ride a bit different, andis a lot lighter to bring with you. make sure you keep all the screws and nuts and set everythingaside for later. to make this penny board inspired skateboardwe're going to be pressing and laminating an entirely new deck from layers of veneer.to do so however we need to start off making a mold in which to press our veneers. in thiscase we're going to use mdf to make our mold, but you could use chipboard or even regularwood if you so desire.
start off by cutting a bunch of pieces roughlybigger than your final board will be. also make sure they're at least as long and wideas the veneers you will be working with so you don't have any overhang when gluing. makesfor a much easier time clamping the mold together. since this is a fairly simple shape, and theonly bend in the veneers is at the kicktail, the mold can be fairly simple. here we'regluing together four layers of thick mdf into one slab, and two into another. these willserve as the top and bottom of the mold, with the board inbetween. after the glue has dried thoroughly you canmark out the angle you want for your kicktail on the top of the mold and cut it off. makesure you don't, like me, use a woefully dull
bandsaw blade or your experience will be abit tedious. go slow and steady! once the wedge is cut off you need to affixit to the other part of the mold. a bit of glue and a couple of screws should to thetrick nicely. proper alignment is key, so the mold will close properly during gluing. if we can add a clamp across the curve inthe mold we will be able to press the veneer together much better at that point. to thateffect, drawing a line that bisects the angle of the cut, and then two parallell lines givesus a guide for where to cut away a little more material which will give glue clampsenough purchase to really put some pressure on that bend. and yes, that bandsaw bladereally should be sharpened or replaced.
smooth off the cut surfaces on both the topand the bottom of the mold to remove any saw marks, and round off the edge on the top partof the mold to ensure a nice smooth bend in the kicktail. finally, to protect the mold, and to preventyour veneers from being glued stuck to the mold, cover it in packing tape or somethingelse which will resist any glue squeezout which may occur. i probably don't need totell you how much it would suck if you glue your mold shut. if you have very long pieces of veneer youmay want to cut them shorter ahead of time, both to save glue and to make the glueup goa bit faster. just make sure you still leave
enough material to fit your board design. this is seven layers of maple veneer, whichhas five layers with grain running along the length of the board, and two layers with grainrunning across, to make sure it has rigidity in all directions and won't split during use.this excellent veneer was donated by roarockit skateboards europe for use in this video.i do suggest you check out their products if you're at all interested in building yourown skateboard. they have a great vacuum molding system which is definitely worth the investmentif you plan on making a few boards. the glue we're using here is titebond iii,mainly because it's a very fluid glue, that also has a longer working time before it startssetting up, making the process of applying
glue and clamping much less stressful. applying the glue to the veneer is best donewith a roller, and you don't just want to slather the glue onto the veneer. apply athin coat, the veneer should just about be shining with a thin sheen of glue, that'senough. if it's dripping over the edges you're using far too much glue. also make sure you'reapplying glue to both sides of the veneer before placing together to ensure good coverage.if you have too much glue on your veneer it may cause weaknesses in the final board, whichmay cause it to break prematurely. remember that you're on the clock though, and you reallydon't want this whole glueup and clamping to take much more than 10 minutes in total.
start by adding clamps across the kicktailbend, now you can see properly why we cut out a little bit of mdf in those areas. fromhere, go on to add all the clamps you have. i'm even breaking out the bar clamps heresince they are the ones which will give the highest pressure out of all clamps i have.don't be stingy though, add all the clamps you have, or that you can fit. nice even pressureall across the mold will ensure a great result in the end. you may even be able to use ratchetstraps if you don't have enough clamps, as they should give a good all around pressureon your mold. if you've done your glue up correctly you should have little to no squeezeoutfrom inbetween the layers of veneer. now rest, you've done enough for one day,let the glue do its magic and come back tomorrow.
the very next day i know you're excited, so get to it, removeall those clamps and gaze at the wonder you've made. a bent piece of plywood! of course,a piece of plywood a skateboard does not make, so let's move onto the actual design. print out your design on multiple pieces ofpaper and tape them together before cutting out so you have a template of your board.i marked the location of the bend on the template, so lining that up and taping it down ontothe plywood was very easy. mark the holes where you will later drill and mount the trucksand draw an outline all around your template to transfer it onto the plywood.
follow your lines as closely as possible onyour bandsaw, while still leaving a millimeter or so on the outside. try to cut it as perpendicularto the board surface as possible. when you get to the kicktail angle the board up sothe tail lays flat on the table. on a belt sander or disc sander, take off the last millimeterof material to the line and smooth out any roughness left by the bandsaw. since you'resanding end grain on some layers, regardless how you hold the board, you are likely toget a bit of darkening of the board due to heat, but that's not too much of a concern. if you have access to a router, or a routertable, the next step should be fairly easy. install a round over bit into your router,set the height properly and round over all
edges of your board. this may introduce moredarkening of the edges, but still don't be too worried. if you don't have a router, youcould use files and sand paper to round over your edges, but doing it with a router ensuresthey get a bit more uniform. depending on the quality of your veneer youneed to sand the top and bottom surface of your board as well. the roarockit veneersare quite nice, so not much sanding was really needed. to take care of the burn marks frombefore sand down the edges, and make sure the edges blend nicely into the flat surfaces.i started with 120 grit sand paper to get out all the marks, and then 240 grit to smootheverything out. if you have an orbital sander this work should go quite quickly, but evenby hand it shouldn't take too long to get
done. as long as you didn't sand too deep you shouldstill have the marks we made for drilling left on the board. you can mark them downa little deeper as well to make it a little bit easier to drill them out. the best wayto drill these holes are no doubt with a drill press, as you get nice and perpendicular holesthrough the board. if all you have is a hand drill that works fine too, just try to becareful you're drilling square and hitting your mark. putting a block of wood on thebottom also helps prevent blowout, which may mar the finish of your final board. using a piece of scrap that you cut away earlierfrom the board set the depth stop on your
drill press to the right height for the countersink.you want the nuts to sit just ever so slightly below the surface of the board, so there isno risk that they snag onto anything. setting the depth stop ensures that you don't go toodeep, and therefore your screw not being solid enough in your board. the more material yourcan have between the screw heads and trucks the better. a light sanding once the countersinks aredone smooths out any grain which may have been lifted when making the holes. we're almost done now, just a few more steps.using a few scrap bolts, washers and nuts, make four posts (one in each corner of yourboard) to elevate it slightly off the ground.
this will enable you to easily varnish bothsides of the board at once, without having to wait for one side to dry before flippingand doing the other. i'm using a polyurethane varnish, and ratherthan doing one thick coat i'm doing plenty of very light coats instead. with light coatsit's much easier to control the final quality of your varnish, and you have a much lesschance of unsightly runs and drips in your varnish. you can even thin your varnish withup to 1/4 mineral spirits to make it spread more easily. after you've done both sides,and checked for drips, wait for a few hours before moving on to sanding. indeed, even though we just varnished it we'regoing to sand it again. this time we're using
a 600 grit sand paper to just knock down thehigh spots of the varnish. this may be from bubbles, or any grain that may have risen.you don't even need to bother removing the sanding dust from your board, as that willactually help fill in any uneven areas when the next coat goes on. add another layer ofvarnish, just like the first. wait, and then sand again. repeat this process until you'vebuilt up 4 to 6 layers of varnish. i usually don't sand between the last two coats, asthat way if i miss something in my last coat i won't end up with a dull spot in the varnish. after everything is completely and thoroughlydry, usually after 24 hours or so, you can remove the hardware. unscrew the nuts andremove the bolts from the board. the washers
may still be stuck in the varnish, but that'sreally no problem. and now for a public service announcement.always remember to choose the right tool for the job you're doing. even though the toolwhich is closest at hand, like a utility knife, may seem like the ideal tool to remove washersstuck in varnish it's really not very clever to use a very sharp tool where a dull onewill do much better. if you still manage to stab yourself in yourhand or finger using a utility knife, apply immediate pressure, hold your hand high toreduce the bleeding and try not to panic. hold pressure for a few minutes before assessingthe injury. if the cut is deep enough, go to the hospital, otherwise clean it and applya bandaid.
once all that is done, go get a blunt screwdriver and carefully remove the remaining washers from your board. of course, to ride your board you're goingto need grip, so let's apply some grip tape. before the grip tape goes on, clear out thecountersinks again just to make sure they're not gummed up with varnish, especially thosethat did not have bolts in them. since this board is mostly just flat, with one littlebend, applying grip tape should be very easy. remove the backing from the grip tape andstart in one end, slowly working the tape gradually down the board. take a piece ofthe backing and rub the tape down on the board to make sure it's stuck down well.
to get rid of the excess grip tape gake ametal rod, like the shaft of a big screw driver, and rub it along the circumference of theboard creating this crisp bright line all around the board. we do this essentually doremove some grit from the griptape to make it easier to cut off. taking a utility knife,like the one you hopefully did not stab yourself with, or a razor blade, run the blade throughthe grip tape from the bottom and follow the line around the board. it may take you a fewboards until you manage to get the hang of getting a nice crisp cut around the board.like you can see i didn't do too good of a job, but as long as it's on there and looksdecent you're golden! to make sure the edges are less likely to lift during riding youcan take a piece of the grip tape that you
cut off before and gently sand down the edgesof the griptape, blending them a little bit into the board. use something sharp, like a drill bit, andpoke holes in the grip tape where the holes for the trucks will go. i would also recommendcutting away the grip tape that's just around the countersinks to make sure that the boltsseat all the way down and don't protrude to the surface of your board. once at this point you basically just haveto put your trucks onto the board and get ready to take it out for a spin! i really hope you enjoyed this video, andi would again like to extend a big thanks
to roarockit for making this video possible.hope you all enjoy spring, ride safe, and respect the power of utility knives! if the weather is poor, or your varnish isdrying too slow for your taste, check out some other videos from switch and lever. also, you know the deal, follow on facebookand instagram, it's what the cool kids do! until next time!
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