In another thread, SP suggested a build thread on my Olo pintail gun skatee.
Thing is, I only have one photo so far, so might have to take another couple as soon as the varnish goes on.
Chrispy, the Original S10 trucks have black springs, but may need to go heavier.
Build is pretty easy, but it's fiddly.
First, get your timber. I have a friend who is an exotic timber importer. He gives me good wood so to speak. My first ultra longboard was Tassie Oak and New Guinea rosewood laminated together with the Tassie oak biscuited to the outside edges.
For this Olo shaped board, the timber is Jarrah about 5 inches wide, just over 6 feet long and about an inch thick. Add to this a strip of American White Oak just over an inch thick and an inch and a half wide as a stringer. I ran them through a mate's thicknesser to level out the sawn faces and planed them to make the joint faces as good as possible.
To join them, you can use a biscuit cutter, or dowels. I used dowels in this case. First drill the holes in the stringer about every four inches. Go all the way through, because you're going to put dowels all the way through it. Then clamp the stringer on to one piece of the Jarrah, using the stringer as the jig, drill dowel holes into the Jarrah, then swap it over to the other piece of jarrah and drill again.
Once all the holes are drilled, cut your dowels about 6 inches long. Glue is important, and I use Titebond, but can use Epiglue epoxy and Aquadere if you must.
Be very liberal with the glue in the dowel holes and along the mating surfaces, but only glue one side on at a time. Clamp it up overnight using as many long sash clamps as you can. Next day, glue the other side on.
Once the three parts are glued and solid, you can have it thicknessed on a machine, or sand it with a belt sander to even out any ridges at the joins. If you're good enough there won't be any.
Cutting the shape is similar to cutting a plan on a surfboard, but the timber is harder and the jigsaw will walk around a bit. I use a template I drew up and had put on a stick on vinyl sheet. make sure you draw a centre line top and bottom, and choose the prettiest tide of the timber for the top.
A palm planer is a good thing to smooth out the jigsaw cut, and to get it symmetrical. Once you're happy with the symmetry and have planed it smooth, you can either sand the edges round, or run a router along the edges to gt a rounded edge on the rails. Sand it all with a hand block once you're happy with the shape and the rails.
Get your trucks and place them on the board and mark out where you want them, taking care that your not going to get wheel bite.
If you have a drill press, the next step is easier, which is drilling the holes for the trucks. If you don't have a press, you just need to be extra careful with drilling right on the mark and perfectly vertical. I use a truck riser as the template for drilling. Drill the holes and put the trucks aside.
Now you get the choice of paint, varnish or oil. I use Feast and Watson Spar Marine varnish, and that's it. At least four coats with no sand, or any other grip stuff. Make sure you follow the instructions and sand between each coat. I find so long as the varnish doesn't get water on it, and you wear shoes it's not slippery.
Once your varnish is cured, about 48 hours, bolt the trucks on. You may need to buy some slightly longer 5mm dia bolts, because standard skatey bolts are usually too short with the board being an inch thick.
That's it, easy really if you're half good with a saw and a brush.
Speaking of what a new surfboard is worth and how much they cost. This skateboard will be about 12 hours work, plus materials, so will be worth about $800 to $900 based on similar stats to a surfboard. Any questions?
MichaelR
> 9 months ago, 4 Apr 2013
pm me a price please. i would also like it signed and numbered as well. so that would be number 1 as a commersial venture for you yeeeeeeeewwwww
seeing as I never started a hollow timber board I might give one of these a go
