Taking it Further: Custom Building
Designing, shaping and building custom boards is the advanced level your students can achieve once they have mastered the skills of building the basic pre-shaped boards. Please view our tutorials to view the steps required to move into the advanced area of board building.
Ted Hunter's pioneering use of foam to create a one-sided mold to shape a skateboard, has given builders the ability to create new shapes to their heart's content! A one-side mold eliminates the need for more cumbersome, time-consuming and expensive 2-part molds. Foam is quick and easy to shape, works well in a vacuum press and is inexpensive.
With so many builders now designing and shaping their own styles of decks with the Roarockit method, it is has pushed the technology, design and manufacturing of skateboards into a higher realm than ever before. Commercial board manufacturers have to keep pace now with the many innovative board designs that independent board builders have created.
Students are a part of this revolution, coming up with their own ideas and styles to push board design to the edge. Advanced skateboard design class is a valuable addition to the world of skateboard design.
Composite materials such as carbon fiber and fiberglass can be used in the Thin Air Press as well as inlay and marquetry techniques. Uncut sheets of veneer, foam slabs and large Thin Air Press vacuum bags are the materials and tools of choice.
Use of a bandsaw or jigsaw will be required to trim out custom shapes.
Points of Learning:
- explore existing skateboard styles, shapes in relation to their uses
- construction planning and designing for a new or improved skateboard
- include these construction properties
- changing the number of veneer layers
- including more or less cross band grain or long grain layers
- strength and flexibility vs shape
- using different adhesives, ie: wood glue vs epoxy
- learning to use composite materials, ie: carbon and fiberglass
- drafting custom templates for a new deck design
- shaping foam molds using templates, foam sheets and hand tools
- hands-on experimentation while building custom decks
- Surform or hot wire method to shape a foam mold
Please note that Taking it Further as listed on this page requires a high level of experience with both building decks in the Roarockit Thin Air Press and using composite materials. This is not recommended for first time builders, trust us!!