Post by markwilliamson on Jul 19, 2020 17:45:12 GMT -5
I started building an 8 foot mini-longboard about two months back and thought I'd post a few thoughts and photos here. I have a bit of carpentry experience but almost no true woodworking experience and not many woodworking tools. The wood came mostly from Home Depot. I had the plywood framing already so that was part of the incentive to start the build because I could start for basically nothing but the cost of the plans. I'll list a few thoughts as bullet-points then post a few photos:
* I printed the plans on my home inkjet printer and taped them together. Worked fine. Be sure to line up diagonal lines AND the horizontal line.
* I used 1/8" (roughly) marine plywood for the ribs and laminated two strips of 1/8" ply for the "spine" (the piece running from nose to tail).
* I didn't have a table saw but managed to create one by attaching a handheld circular saw to a scrap piece of 7/8" particle board (there are youtubes on this)
* I cut rails by building a 45 degree "ramp" for use on my homemade table saw. Worked pretty well.
* The rails were cut from a 1 x 6 x 8' piece of cedar. I soaked the strips overnight in a PVC tube then bent them to shape and glued with Gorilla glue (per plans).
* The decks were made from 1/4" shiplap. I had to cut the edges off because they were tongue-and-groove and had a bevel. This was a pain but worked.
* I used two $20 packs of the shiplap which just barely covered the board - minus the nose and tail. I had to use a little scrap for the edges.
* I wouldn't recommend the shiplap. I used it out of convenience and to save time. If I build another board I'll find some milled decking wood.
* I ended up buying three of the small gorilla glue bottles. I recommend planning ahead and buying a big bottle. I also used one big bottle of wood glue.
* I gorilla glued the bottom deck but wood glued the top to give me more working time.
* I made the nose and tail out of laminated pieces of wood (spruce 2x4 for the nose and cedar 1x6 for the tail). This turned out to be harder than I expected.
* If you do the above make sure the nose and tail ribs are square. I had to do some trimming to square them up.
* I didn't have enough clamps or the proper kind so got very creative. You can see some of the results in the photos.
* Shaping the rails with the hand planer was much easier than I expected.
Here's a list of tools, etc. that I used (I'm sure I left something off)
* Circular saw with a fine-tooth blade
* Jigsaw
* A handful of C-clamps and spring clamps
* A GOOD hand planer (borrowed from my dad). The $13 planer I bought at Harbor Freight was useless garbage. You can't skimp here.
* A simple bench built from 2x4s and decking screws (all of which I could reuse for other projects)
* 3 small bottles of Gorilla glue, 1 large bottle of wood glue, and 1 can of spray glue (to stick the plans to the plywood)
* Jitterbug sander (Amazon has good deals on sanding pads)
* A ratcheting strap
* Barbell plates, lead diving weights and any other heavy thing I could find
What I would do differently:
* Find good decking boards (no shiplap!)
* Buy a large container of Gorilla glue
* Make the nose and tail blocks smaller or don't make them if possible
* Possibly buy a table saw
* Splurge on more clamps
* I printed the plans on my home inkjet printer and taped them together. Worked fine. Be sure to line up diagonal lines AND the horizontal line.
* I used 1/8" (roughly) marine plywood for the ribs and laminated two strips of 1/8" ply for the "spine" (the piece running from nose to tail).
* I didn't have a table saw but managed to create one by attaching a handheld circular saw to a scrap piece of 7/8" particle board (there are youtubes on this)
* I cut rails by building a 45 degree "ramp" for use on my homemade table saw. Worked pretty well.
* The rails were cut from a 1 x 6 x 8' piece of cedar. I soaked the strips overnight in a PVC tube then bent them to shape and glued with Gorilla glue (per plans).
* The decks were made from 1/4" shiplap. I had to cut the edges off because they were tongue-and-groove and had a bevel. This was a pain but worked.
* I used two $20 packs of the shiplap which just barely covered the board - minus the nose and tail. I had to use a little scrap for the edges.
* I wouldn't recommend the shiplap. I used it out of convenience and to save time. If I build another board I'll find some milled decking wood.
* I ended up buying three of the small gorilla glue bottles. I recommend planning ahead and buying a big bottle. I also used one big bottle of wood glue.
* I gorilla glued the bottom deck but wood glued the top to give me more working time.
* I made the nose and tail out of laminated pieces of wood (spruce 2x4 for the nose and cedar 1x6 for the tail). This turned out to be harder than I expected.
* If you do the above make sure the nose and tail ribs are square. I had to do some trimming to square them up.
* I didn't have enough clamps or the proper kind so got very creative. You can see some of the results in the photos.
* Shaping the rails with the hand planer was much easier than I expected.
Here's a list of tools, etc. that I used (I'm sure I left something off)
* Circular saw with a fine-tooth blade
* Jigsaw
* A handful of C-clamps and spring clamps
* A GOOD hand planer (borrowed from my dad). The $13 planer I bought at Harbor Freight was useless garbage. You can't skimp here.
* A simple bench built from 2x4s and decking screws (all of which I could reuse for other projects)
* 3 small bottles of Gorilla glue, 1 large bottle of wood glue, and 1 can of spray glue (to stick the plans to the plywood)
* Jitterbug sander (Amazon has good deals on sanding pads)
* A ratcheting strap
* Barbell plates, lead diving weights and any other heavy thing I could find
What I would do differently:
* Find good decking boards (no shiplap!)
* Buy a large container of Gorilla glue
* Make the nose and tail blocks smaller or don't make them if possible
* Possibly buy a table saw
* Splurge on more clamps