| Archive for pavedwave longboarding distance longboarding, flatland pumping, cross-country adventuring, boardwalk cruising, and all things skateboarding and good times |
| geolemon |
LDP experiment DIY boardWell, semi-DIY.
I speculated before about using a shlong for LDP (without cutouts, of course), because that design has inherent wedging built into the trucks - and for LDP, you built up quite a bit of wedging. Yet all LDP boards seem to be flat (not counting any camber). So, I thought that warranted an experimental build. How about building an LDP shape, with an upturned bend just aft of the front truck for a little inherent wedging (and maybe a more comfy place to put your foot where it's less likely to slide off the nose)? Edit: I nearly forgot to mention the side-benefit of having the front area behind the front trucks dropped lower a bit, making it easier to step off and push when you do need to... or even just to get going. 
Since this is an experiment, I didn't want to go through all the expense and hassle of buying good veneers, epoxy, 'bagging supplies, designing and building a press, etc... So, I started with this, from Eastbilt 
It's 48" long, almost 13" wide, and has 29" between the kicknose and kicktail. Good experiment material for $30 and I can just watch TV until it arrives... [whistles while I wait]
In all seriousness, it's pretty close to what I would have pressed myself. I probably would have gone for 5 plies rather than 7. I might or might not have done a concave with that 5 ply. I might have gone a touch steeper on the nose. But really, not far off. |
| geolemon |
I ordered it Friday, it showed up yesterday (Tuesday). Can't ask for much better than that!
Tuesday I spent some time laying out a basic shape that I had been pondering, and the drill patterns. This evening after work, I made some tweaks to the final shape, added the hourglass, refined the nose, etc. After about 15 minutes with the jigsaw and maybe another quick 15 on the upright belt sander, this is what I have so far: 
As you can see, I gave it a tail for doing manuals. Or... I doubt very much I'll be able to ollie this beast - but if I could ollie up a curb even that would enhance the places I could do some LDP with this thing! Hello, downtown!
It's about 42" long, and 11" wide. I gave it a bit of wheelbase adjustment - two locations in the back, and four up and down the nose. Wheelbase range can be anywhere from about 27" to 29.5", measured from the inside truck mounting holes. I probably should stain this thing... I'm not going to go crazy, probably not even do much more sanding - this is an experiment after all. If it works, I'll build a "real" version, right? I'm doing some painting today. But it's raining... that's bad news for spraypaint. And doing it in my basement... even using a respirator... bad news. Anyway, more pics soon. |
| LD skater since 1971 |
I was thinking about doing the same thing with the flat/concave blank from east built. Are you going to fiberglass the bottom and top? |
| geolemon |
No fiberglassing on this one - it's a full 7-ply maple blank with a full 11" width with concave - it's already so rigid I'm wondering if that'll be a penalty or not...
I was actually pondering routering through two plies of the wheelbase, just to give it the possibility of some flex, but decided against it as I am curious what a board that's so rigid will pump like. And I have another experiment that I might do down the road - I can always operate on this patient later!
But even if this shape works, I may do a composite version of it down the road... again flex is my concern with that operation too. I'd love to do a slightly cambered and flat 4-ply version with a foam core... I've even got foam core and quite a bit of Kevlar left over from an industrial fabrication project I had to 'bag a couple years back - that would make a fun base for a board. But even though I have it, it would still be a pricey thing to mess up, even if you just accounted for resin waste and peel ply / bleeder breather. 
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| LD skater since 1971 |
Vacuum bagging gets expensive. That why I never made Foam/fiberglass wings for my R/C hand Launch Gliders. I just bought them It took some times 3 month to get a wing. Or I made Trash planes out of EPP foam and packing tape.
I think Skateboards could be different if you made a clamp or weighted mold. Uncle Wiggly made clamp molds with fiberglass between the wood layer of the board and used resin instead of glue on their boards. I think they used wax mold release sprayed in the molds before laminating the composite wood/fiberglass boards. They did not need to use peel ply because they sandwiched the fiberglass between the wood layers of the board. I had Dave make me a 5 ply titanium stringer freestyle decks for my little freestyle board company. After I had 50 madrid board break like match sticks for my team riders. Paul Schmidt started out with a weighted mold for his boards. The weight was his Volkswagen van over night on top of the wood mold he made till the glue dried. When he first started out in the skateboard manufacturing business. Brad Dorfman made him a state of the art wood shop at Vision skateboards but after awhile Brad started to rip Paul off. He opened up his own wood shop on borrowed money from credit cards. To open as New Deal skateboards that became the mighty PS Stix. Now Paul use hydraulic presses and CNCed routered boards and is the only manufacturer to claim he has made over a million boards. |
| geolemon |
I heard that claim! I think he was interviewed on Sirius Faction channel by Jason Ellis one evening as I was driving home...
Anyway - we'll consider this board my start then. 
I painted it a fun/obnoxious lime green color, and blasted it with gold AND silver glitter spray and clearcoat just for fun - going for that old school So.Cal Lowrider / county fair bumper cars metal flake effect. Bear in mind, I really didn't spend any time on the painting, even less time on the prep... I nearly gassed myself in the process - even though I wore a respirator and turned on my exhaust fan, it was raining (another sign I really didn't put too much care into this paint job) so I painted it in my basement - and forgot to open the windows for air intake. A respirator doesn't do much good when you don't have the spray booth set up properly! So, a little rescue from my girlfriend for some fresh air about midnight and... Anyway, here's some painted pics. Despite myself, it mostly came out better than I expected - definitely fun effect with the glitter: 
I really am not so concerned about the paint job - I'm not ruling out the possibility still of cutting right back into it for some round II experimentation... rather expecting it, actually. Hopefully there will be some nice weather tomorrow so I have a chance to grip and mount this thing, and take it for a little test drive! ...although, I may be short in the non-angled riser department... |
| Barry |
How Do All
I don't seem to be able to see any pictures in your last two posts geolemon, only a red cross in a white box? anyone else not see them? sorry if it is just me;-) |
| geolemon |
It could be anything - maybe your browser?
I have the pictures hosted on silverfish as attachments in this thread: http://www.silverfishlongboarding...uilding/80888-ldp-experiment.html ...maybe if you aren't a member there the pics don't show up or something - I don't know honestly. Can you see them if you click that link? |
| Barry |
How do
Strangely enough I can see them now, how bizzare  I am a member on Silverfish also, must have been a hitch with my browser.
Very nice job there, how many wheel base options
That is a real nice paint job too, will be interesting to hear how it rides for you. take care, Barry
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| LD skater since 1971 |
With the kicked nose truck mount the paint job fits perfectly because it will ride low like my Bustin Spliff. Now just put the band War on your Mp3 player and play Lowrider song on loop.
Very cool paint job needs some von dutch pin striping. Might is well if it raining. |
| geolemon |
Well, I got a test ride in today! I could use some feedback from people with more experience than me (that's all of you!).
On the side, I work as an advisor for a local public skatepark (and an instructor - I teach little kids beginner lessons) as my way of giving back to my skateboard community, and helping new kids along. I took a kid's shift today, so I worked the skatepark for 6 hours today. Gave me the perfect opportunity to grip this board and set it up. I had to get a little creative with the grip tape since all I had was a sheet for a shortboard... I set it up basically as it came off my Gravity Diamondtail - stacked Khiro wedges in the front and all. So right now, it's got a LOT of wedging - meaning it's EASY to accellerate even with almost no speed. It's a small skatepark, so not a lot of room to really get cruising - but I wonder still if my top speed might be limited because it's SO easy to turn this Bennett lock-to-lock right now. I think I'll replace one Khiro wedge with a stack of 1/8" risers and see how it changes. 
As you can see in the pic a little bit, even with my 170 pounds on it, even in 11" width, it has a little bit of flex to it, I was pleased to discover! It almost felt like there was a little flex right at the nose bend, but that might have been an illusion due to the unique feel. And you can see, it fits a size 10.5" foot well... next time I might go 10" in width, but it doesn't feel too large. And, the angle actually is pretty confortable. I probably wouldn't go any steeper, but if you ride a wide stance, it actually compliments the angles of your legs. And it doesn't penalize you if you move forward to really work that front truck when accellerating. The park is small, there's not much room to really get going. Tomorrow's ride on real streets should provide a little more info! ...but it was a ton of fun bringing it to the skatepark. Basically everyone wanted to give it a try - I think 4 or 5 of them actually got pumping too. So maybe THAT is a good sign too.
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| geolemon |
UGH! I had a BAD BAIL tonight... road rash, bad - had a car stop to ask if I was alright, if they could call for help...
I brought my girlfriend, my board, and her rollerblades to a local scenic bike path for a first test. Let me back up a sec also: Last night, I made the decision to take one of the two stacked Khiro soft wedges out, suspecting maybe I had too MUCH wedging up front. I replaced the wedge with a stack of two 1/8" flat riser pads, and didn't give it a second thought. Back to today: I got on my board, and gave it an initial pump across the parking lot to see if I gained any top speed (I didn't want to slow us down on the bike path). Well, suddenly I was lying on the parking lot with a huge tear in my jeans, bleeding from my knee where I used to have skin, and a nice hole in the palm of my hand. I went down so fast I don't remember falling - and I'm a veteran of falling (20+ years of shortboarding!). Good thing I'm dating a nurse. No, really.
Anyway - cause: Wheelbite. Wheelbite I didn't have yesterday! So, I'm going to take a rotary rasp and carve out some deep wheelwells, just some ovals where the marks on the deck are, just for safety's sake. THEN, round II of testing. I have another picture to put up, of the assembled board, but I'll get that up next time... |
| geolemon |
See the above post for my motivations ^^^
So, not wanting to wheelbite again, I hogged out some really deep wheelwells - they are scooped out so that they eventually leave only the top ply of the board. I used a router for the first passes, and a rotary rasp to sort of smooth them out, but again keeping with the experiment theme opted not to really finish it off (no sanding, no filler, no smoothing, lol). My how a paintjob goes bad quickly... I primed and painted the new wounds quickly in my garage to seal them off and even had paint runs. I set it up at the skatepark, and there was this permanent marker there...
Well, anyway - I definitely cured it of wheelbite, and I enlongated the wheelwells strategicaly (using touchdown and measurements) to allow me to still play with the wheelbase options without biting. I'm still lacking a "real" LDP deck to use for comparison - who wants to sell me their Pulse or Mermaid?
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