Taking the Warp out of a Deck.

How many decks have you bought or made that over age become twisted. The deck may have been left in the sun too long or left beside a heat source. The results of this can ruin a board.

Uneven drying of veneers is something most of us have encountered.

Here is a quick fix.

TOOLS

2 light duty clamps.

set of strait edges like two 12″ metal rulers.

An industrial heat gun. Home Depot, Lowe’s have them.

24″ piece of 1 x 2

Take your board and clamp one end to a table using a light duty woodworkers clamp, top side up. Take two strait edges and position them as far away as possible. One on each set of truck mounts works great. Position them as shown in the picture. I ususlly put a couple of woodworking screws into the truck holes to lean the strait edges against.

From the front of the deck eye along the tops of the strait edges. This will clearly show you how much your deck is warped.

Comments

Carl On August 8, 2012 at 6:49 pm
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Where’s the picture?

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BUILDERS
DAILY BUILDERS TIP

Did you know that Sugar Maple, grown in northern Canada is the best skateboard building material available? It is 10% stronger than maple grown in the North Eastern States. It is all because of our longer, colder Canadian winters.

If it's snowing in your part of the country and you can't longboard ..... BUILD THEM!

Try out a cabinet scraper for taking glue and paint off of a deck.

Be prepared! When laminating any skateboard remember to have all your tools at hand. All glues have a wet time. Some are longer than others. Titebond III has one of the longest wet times, 9 minutes as opposed to 4 or 5 for regular water based woodworking glues. That extra 4 minutes makes a big difference when gluing up a deck.

For dancers that are longer than 48" you can offset 1/16" maple veneers as you laminate your deck. Butting them end to end works great. Make sure the offset of veneers is at least 16" apart.

Use a vacuum cleaner to evacuate most of the air from a TAP bag before using the manual pump.

Always use the same paint brand when painting your deck. Different paint brands are sometimes incompatible with one another.

After purchasing veneers by mail, let your veneers acclimatize to the moisture content of your shop for a couple of days before laminating them into a deck.

Keep unfinished decks out of anywhere there is a lot of heat. The outer layers are prone to cracking. Apply a sealer coat ASAP after sanding your deck.

After using your glue filled roller. Do not wash it out. Place it in a ziplok bag. It will last for weeks and be charged with glue for your next build.

Water based glue makes maple veneer more flexible. Applying water to tight bends on the top and bottom of the outer two layers will make it easier to achieve tighter bends.

Apply clear packing tape onto your foam mold to protect it from glue while pressing.

Ministry of Wood, Skateboard Builder Directory