70's inspired Skateboard
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I had this idea to make a "series" around the 70s and my favourite bands of that era and I started with an electric guitar.
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Provided I was already doing a 60s skateborad, I took the opportunity to add to the series with a 70s skateboard. I just took a simple outline, did the artwork and it was pretty much it.
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The video below highlights the main building steps along with the pics of the finished product but if you're interested in the issues I faced (the whole point of this website) I detailed them at the bottom of this page.
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So, what went wrong on this one? not everything that could, but a few however:
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First of all, and it is quite obvious (I should have known), the thing cannot be ridden: it is too thin and since all pieces are just glued together, there's not enough contact surface to create a strong bond. In other words, it won't hold much weight. I tried to step on it and felt it cracking longitudinally under my feet. A nice display board to hang on the wall (my 6 year old daughter rode it without breaking though...)
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I messed up the round over of the sides: I did not set the router depth properly, hence I made a dent... I tried to rectify as best I could bu if you look from the top, you can guess where it was. My bad indeed: check, double check and check once more...
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Other issue with the router: I had a knot on the edge of the pine I used for the sides. I usually like that as it looks nice. However, it vas very close to the edge and when routed the sides, coming over it, it just sort of exploded... leaving just a cavity. It is OK, it is at the bottom, but lesson learned: be very careful when routing close to knot
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The acetone transfer did not work very well. The principle is simple: get a mirrored laser print of the image you want to use, lay it face down on the wood and saturate it from above with acetone while pushing it into the grain with a spatula, your fingers, whatever you need to apply pressure. The science behind is that the powder like pigments from the laser print (does not work with inkjet) is removed from th epaper and gets stuck on the wood. Sometime it works well (letter in black & White especially, or colors on the electric guitar.) but sometimes it does not. This was the case here. I don t know why, it wasn t as crisp and even as i hoped. I tried different paper quality, thickness, different printers... the only variable that seem to matter is luck... Although, I noticed that it works usually better with fresh prints.
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That being said I m quite happy with the result, especially the few details I added in:
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The kick tail, very smal, looks great I think and was very fun to assemble and shape
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The Reggae colored bolts look breat
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The cork pads under the trucks simply add a cool touch I think
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