The Absolute Easiest Way to Build a Longboard

[Music] hey there it's chris from good roads welcome back i hope everybody is staying well staying healthy and safe we are deep into lockdown and quarantine and time has ceased to have any meaning whatsoever but the weather's been getting really nice and if you wear a mask and stay socially distant it's a really good time to get some riding in so maybe to help you get out there and do some riding in this video i want to show you the absolute easiest way to build your own longboard deck you only need a few inexpensive materials and a handful of tools to tackle this really fun project and at the end you'll have a custom fully functional longboard that you've made yourself so let's get started first materials now i'm not counting the stuff that you need to set up your board grip wheels trucks bearings bushing spacers hardware i'm only talking about the things that you need to make your deck and they are one two foot by four foot sheet of quarter inch baltic birch plywood can you use normal plywood i'm gonna say no it's just not strong enough it's marine grade plywood or bust on this one and you're also going to need some of this type bond 3 wood glue can you use other wood glues yes will they work as well no you can get both of those off of amazon so i'll have links down in the description you also need a finish of some kind so a polyacrylic or polyurethane or whatever you happen to have around and if you want to do art you need stuff to do art so probably some of that 13th century insect-based dye that you have to steal from the local museum or you know paints and markers and stuff next up you're going to need some tools but not many here's what you need some clamps something to cut your long board out with use what you got something to round the rails of your board routers files sandpaper all work really well here and a drill and a 3 16 bit you're also going to need three planks of wood that are as long as the board you want to make i'm using scraps from around the shop just to show that it really doesn't need to be anything special at all if you don't have scraps you can use some cutoffs from your baltic perch and lastly we're going to need a table or bench to work on and that's it just a quick note before we get started building you really can do all of this by hand this is a deck that i shaped entirely with hand tools earlier on the channel that series is a little bit old and i'm happy to say that the videos that i'm putting out now are of a much higher quality but if you want to take a look there's still a ton of good information in that series and you can see for yourself that you really can shape a deck completely by hand okay on with the build first step is you're gonna need to rip two sheets from your plywood you want them to be the width of your deck plus a little extra i'm aiming for a 9.5 inch wide deck so i rip my sheets to 10 inches make sure you cut in the direction of the grain on the outer veneers of the plywood once you have your sheets ripped you need to cut them to length my deck is going to be about 37 inches long so i cut my sheets a little longer than that again to leave myself some wiggle room flat boards are boring if we wanted a flat longboard we could just cut it out of a plank of wood we're going to make an actual deck with actual curves and here's how we're going to do it two of our spare lengths of wood are going to support the outside edges of our plywood sheets up off the table [Music] then we're going to lay that third piece of wood right down the center of our board and clamp it down we can use this to make concave which is the rail-to-rail curves that help keep our feet on the board and make turning easier and we can use it to make rocker or camber which are the nose-to-tail curves that change the feel of how the board rides and don't worry this is all for demonstration i'm going to show you how all of this works in detail shortly two things to consider at this point number one if you use taller pieces of wood on the rails it gives you the ability to have a deeper concave number two if you use a wider board in the middle you'll get a more u-shaped tubby concave and use a thinner board you'll get a more v-shaped concave even though this technique is really simple you can still get a lot of variation on shapes okay so now we understand the theory let's put it into practice just as some prep i like to cover my work surface with paper so i don't get glue everywhere then we're going to lay down our two outer strips of wood and on top of that we're going to put down our first sheet of marine ply making sure the edges are supported and that everything is lined up next we are going to cover that sheet with our type bond glue be generous with your glue it's better to have too much than too little it's really helpful to have something to spread the glue with and here i'm just using a piece of plastic that i cut from a laundry detergent bottle use what you got once you've got the first sheet of plywood covered lay your second sheet down on top of it then we're going to grab that third board lay it down the center of the sheets and use clamps to squish it down my table is a little awkward for this board size and some of my clamps didn't reach all the way so i'm using some additional scraps as far as to span the gap and here you can see the concave starting to take shape but like i said you can also get more subtle curves with this method and here's how if you want your deck to have some camber clamp the nose and tail down more than the center and if you want some rocker clamp the center down more than the nose and tail i'm aiming for some shallow rockers so i clamped my center down more and you can see that the nose and tail bend up a little bit and that's your layup done now you just gotta wait for the glue to dry you need to wait at least 24 hours but longer is better because it gives your curves a better chance to set in place there's always going to be a little bit of deflex when you demold the board and that's okay you just want to plan for it so after a day or three remove your clamps and check out your deck blank cool if all went according to plan you should have a pleasantly curved piece of wood mine came out pretty good with a nice mellow shallow concave and even the slightest bit of rocker tip to tail great now we have to shape this thing and get it ready to receive hardware and to do that we need a center line now your sheets may have shifted while you were pressing them so make sure to measure the center from where they overlap the places where one sheet overhangs the other aren't going to be usable i marked the center of my nose and tail and used a cut off from my plywood as a straight edge to draw my center line [Music] if you made a mistake no big deal just go back and fix it you can always sand it out next we're going to need to come up with a shape for our board i like making templates out of paper and then using my center line as a reference to get my boards nice and [Music] symmetrical [Music] maybe once it's laid out you don't really like what you see and you make some adjustments maybe you do that three times because you can't decide on a shape that you like this is your board guys take the time to get it the way you want once you've got a shape you're happy with it's time to cut it out some tools are easier for this but there's a ton of ways of making this happen use what you got once your deck is cut out you need to refine and shape the edges of your board and again there's lots of good tools for this use what you got next we need to drill our bolt holes and for that we're going to need a drill a 3 16 drill bit and a drilling template i've got one of those available for free on the website there'll be a link down below or you could use a guide like this one i've been developing this guide for a while now it really helps keep your holes perfectly lined and vertical if they haven't been released by the time this video goes out they will be soon so keep an eye on the channel and the site for updates on when they'll be available does your board need wheel wells mine did so i grabbed a rasp and carved myself out some wheel wells and with that done it's time for final sanding i worked my way up through the grits until the deck was smooth to touch um what about art do we want art sure i'm not going to get into board art and graphics in this video because that stuff is really personal and you can spend a lifetime learning about it but i will say that i did the art on this deck completely with paint pens and markers so you don't need crazy supplies to make something look good express yourself the only thing that's left is to give your deck a couple coats of finish and then it's done and here's mine it's as easy as that just squeeze two sheets of baltic birch plywood together with some glue cut it into a shape you like drill it finish it and congratulations you've made a deck and all for under 50 bucks and materials less if you've already got the finish but enough chit chat let's get this board ready to ride [Music] man this deck is fun between our move to the mountains and lockdown i haven't gone longboarding in a while and it is really nice to get out and ride pavement again and the deck has some really nice qualities the mellow concave gives me a good amount of control and is comfy without being too aggressive i can't say that i noticed the rocker that much but the deck does have a really nice flex which i wasn't expecting and i'm really glad i added these wheel wells i couldn't make this thing wheel bite if i tried so there you have it folks with a couple of tools some cheap materials and a little bit of elbow grease you can build a legitimately good longboard deck that's really fun to ride and i hope that i've been able to show you just how easy it can be i would be thrilled if this video inspired you to build a deck because that's what i want to do i want to help you get out there and make boards so if you like the video you can always subscribe this is just one of many diy board sports style projects we do here on the channel if you've got any questions or comments leave them down below i do try to respond to as many as possible and if you do build a deck i'd love to see it hit me up on instagram or something at chris from goodroads that's gonna be it for this one i hope you guys liked it and until next time i'll see you soon once you have your hole once you have your sheets ripped

Channel: Good Roads

Views: 88,259

Keywords: diy, longboard, long board, skateboard, skate board, skateboarding, longboarding, home made, build, shape, deck, custom, easy, simple

Id: YF9PGUfWZSo

Length: 12min 12sec (732 seconds)

Published: Fri May 22 2020