FAQFAQ   SearchSearch   MemberlistMemberlist   StatisticsStats   FavoritesFavorites   RegisterRegister   ProfileProfile   Log in to check your private messagesLog in to check your private messages  Log inLog in 

Making A Wakeskate

 
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Wakeskating.com Forum Index -> General Wakeskating
View previous topic :: View next topic  
Author Message
CBFryman
Faceplant
Faceplant


Joined: 10 Sep 2005
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Sep 10, 2005 7:32 pm    Post subject: Making A Wakeskate Reply with quote

1st post...
Ive never wakeskated before in my life, but i figured, what the hell. So ive decided on making one since i dont have even $99 to drop on a a cheap one.
So here is what i am thinking, i dont need something with any good pop or anything, i just want something to screw around with at the river or OWC when i get tired of wakeaboarding or when we take out my friends jetski instead of the boat.
I was thinking of droping by lowes and getting some 1/th inch 1ply plywood, and doing 3 layres, bending all three layres togather (after being rouh cut with a band saw) at the same time in a frame/bender made from scrap 2x4's, not really worriedabout rocker, basically a frame with a 2x4 running across, giving me say 2" of rocker, id glue them togather with an epoxy or liquid nails or similar.
Then, while its in the bender thing, id do a few layres of 6oz cloth on the bottom, sand it down nice and smooth, and giving it a nice wax so it will slide well on PVC, and then after that is done and everything is dry glassing the top and the rails with 6oz cloth, 2-3 layres except where the 2x4 is, then taking it out and glassing the space where the 2x4 was. sanding it all down and throwing some cheap grip tape that i can get for like 6 bucks a roll, 2 rolls should do it (since the board will be just a tad longer than a skate baord and twice as wide or so)
like i said i dont care about perfomance i just want something to chickity china the chinese chicken around with on some rails/kickers, all of that may cost me $50 and i enjoy fiberglassing, anyone here know much about glassing or board construction togive me and idea if its worth trying or should i just bit the bullet and but some POS for another $40-$50
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
el
Backside 180
Backside 180


Joined: 07 Oct 2003
Posts: 1739
City: The Sea

PostPosted: Sep 10, 2005 7:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The whole effort of putting a board together is going to cost about as much as a POS. I've made a board, so I would know Cool. I suggest checking ebay for deals...
_________________
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address
Schimkat
Frontside 180
Frontside 180


Joined: 31 May 2005
Posts: 492
City: Dunedin/Orlando

PostPosted: Sep 10, 2005 9:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

If you'd enjoy making it, I'd say go for it. You'll have a feeling of pride knowing that you made it. They don't always turn out like you would want, but who knows... maybe you'll make the perfect board...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
integrity640
Kickflip
Kickflip


Joined: 30 Oct 2004
Posts: 2866
City: Ocala

PostPosted: Sep 10, 2005 9:20 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

yah, if you use the search button,someone wrote a big article on how to build them, that was a while back. But seriously dude, check ebay,i just got an 05 hype wakeboard, never used for 180 bucks. Ebay has THE best deals out there. just be patient. But yah go for building one, usse canadian 9 ply maple if you can. Then coat the shiat out of it with the best marine grade epoxy. Have fun dude, post pics when your finished
_________________
They call me Dr. Jones

AnchorsAwayWake <======check it
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Send e-mail AIM Address MSN Messenger
BillyOLDS
Kickflip
Kickflip


Joined: 19 Sep 2003
Posts: 3698
City: orlando/winterpark

PostPosted: Sep 10, 2005 10:08 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

YEAH it wpuld be fun building one but it will be as much as buying a used one or a good deal on a new one
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
mike.h
Frontside 180
Frontside 180


Joined: 18 Jul 2004
Posts: 444
City: San Diego County

PostPosted: Sep 10, 2005 10:32 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

this is something Zoso gave me to help me make a skate...
Quote:
Materials:
- 2x 1/4" 2'/4' sheets of pine (local hardware store)
- Waterproof glue (local hardware store) Don't know the exact name of the glue, but you want to find glue that is 100% waterproof, or use epoxy. From what I've seen, most people use epoxy to glue the sections of their boards together...but I found the water proof glue works just fine.
- Marine Varnish (local hardware store)
- Paint (any kind really, I used spray paint on my first board and acrylic on my second board.)
- 2 sheets of skateboard griptape (local skate shop)
- 2 fins+hardware (local wakeboard/wakeskate shop/online store)

Tools:
- pencil/ruler
- circular saw/jigsaw
- clamps (you only need two, but more always helps)
- electric sander/sandpaper
- Drill

My first skate was based off a 04 hyperlite scape 112...except I made it 105 I believe. So I printed off a picture of it, got the exact tip/tail and midsection measurements (you can find these @ wakeworld.com under the wakeskate section...just choose the type of board and at the top it'll have the msrp, dimensions of board, skill level, etc.) Then, on 1 of the sheets of plywood, mark out the tip/tail and midsection points of the board. Now, to get the curve (rails) might be a little tricky. On my first board, I used my wakeboard (03 hyperlite fluid) and sort of traced one side of the board onto the plywood from the midsection marking to one of the tip markings. Then I traced that line onto a piece of cardboard, which I then cut out and used to trace the other 3 sides of the board. On my second board, which was based off am 04 byerly skate, I used my 04 catalyst 112 to trace the sides...which lead to very accurate rails. As long as you find something curved, or just freehand it and get what you like it's totally alright. Making your own board gives you the freedom to make it however you want for a very low cost.

Anyways, once you have your board traced out on 1 sheet of plywood you can either cut it out roughly with a circular saw, then sand it down later (which I did), or use a jigsaw and cut it out exactly (this takes A LOT of time, and if you screw up just a little bit, by accdentally cutting too close to the line or into the board it could mess up the whole board.) When you're done cutting out the first sheet, trace it onto the second sheet, then cut that sheet out. Make sure you cut just outside of the lines, because the two sheets of plywood will shift when you put it in a jig, and you can just sand it down later.

Now, before you can glue the two halves together, you have to make a jig. A jig is what will hold the board in it's shape to achieve the rocker and make sure it holds it's rocker. Fortionatly, we have a lot of wood lying around at our cabin and I was able to come across 2 4 2x10 pieces of lumber nailed together (see the picture with the jig). I then just put a couple of 2x4's with a length of 1x1 on top. It's kind of hard to describe, but you'll see the picture of it below. Basically, what you want is something very heavy and sturdy, with something on each end that you can lay the board across. Now, to get your rocker, you want o have the pieces of wood on either side of the jig just the right height to get the rocker. On my first board, the approximate height of the end pieces was about 2 1/2 inches, with a 2x4 and a piece of 1x1 further back, so the board would curve over both pieces. Except when I pulled the board out of the jig, it kind of lost a bit of rocker, and I only ended up with like a 1.5" rocker...which was alright, but not what I wanted. On my second board, I moved the 1x1 forward, so that the board only sat on the 1x1, and not across it and the 2x4. This gave a total height of 3" on the end piece, and when I took the board out, the rocker receeded to 2.1", which is exactly what I wanted. So make the end pieces about an inch taller than you want your rocker to be, and make sure that they are about as far apart as the board is long, so you clan place the board on the jig, and only the ends of the board will touch the top of the end pieces.

Before you can put your board in the rocker, you have to glue the two sheets of plywood together. To do this, you spread the glue out on one sheet of plywood on one side...spread the glue evenly, but make sure there's enough on the edges because that's what you'll want to stay together. Next, place the second piece of plywood on top of the other sheet. Make sure that when you put the two sheets together, that the grain in the wood is going the opposite way, this will make the board stronger and help keep it's rocker once it's set. Then, once you have the pieces together, get a piece of 2x4 thats about as long as the board is wide and two heavy duty clamps ready. Make sure your clamps are very strong (ei not those plastic ones...I'm talking heavy duty steel clamps that have about a 5" opening). Next, place your board on top of the two end pieces then place the 2x4 in the exact middle of the board. Now, get either someone really strong or really heavy to stand on top of, or push down on the 2x4 so that the board flexes and your are able to put 1 clamp on either side of the 2x4 that is over the board and clamp it to the jig. Don't be afraid of breaking the board doing this, I've done it twice, and I've never had it snap on me. Once the board is in the jig (note, make sure the botton of the board in the middle, where the 2x4 is, is clamped right down to the top of the jig) you have to leave it in there for about 2 weeks. You can probably leave it in for less than that, but I like to do it for 2 weeks just to be safe. Warning, the two sheets might shift while you're clamping them down, this is alright because you've left a little bit of room on the outside while you were cutting it out. Don't worry about it shifting too much, you can just sand it down later.

After the 2 weeks is over, you can take the board out of the jig. Hopefully you'll get the rocker you wanted. Now that you've got your board in it's relative shape and in it's rocker, you can now start sanding down the rough edges and getting the exact shape you want. To start sanding, use a low grit sandpaper (like 10 or so), then once you've got it shaped to how you want it, use 100 grit sandpaper to finnish it off. You'll want to sand the rails so they curve up just slightly, so you don't catch an edge. I think the more you sand the rails down and curve them, the more the board will sit deeper in the water and be a little more mellower on turns. The sharper the rail is, the more grip it will have on turns and the higher it will sit in the water. Check the Intergrity website, it has a good explanation of how to shape rails.

Once you have shaped the rails and sanded everything down, you can now paint your board. I used 1 coat of spray paint on my first board...mainly because I didn't care how it looked, I just wanted something to ride. My second board, which I'm making for a friend (he's paying me for it ) I've put on 3 coats of acrylic paint so far. The paint job is totally up to you, and again it doesn't really matter what kind of paint you use because the marine varnish is gonna seal it up anyways. I've even considered making decals on sticker paper then printing them out, sticking them to the bottom of my board and putting the varnish over them. I've never tried it, but you can if you want...I have no idea how it would work, but it would be cool if it did.

Once you've painted your board, and it's dried, you can start putting on the marine varnish. Warning, you'll want to find clear marine varnish if you've used any colour other than black on your board, because regular marine varnish will tint it yellow, as you can see on my first board I made (I had originally painted it white, and it turned a nice yellow after the varnish). You'll want to put on atleast 3 coats of the varnish to completely seal the board and make it durable. Before reapplying coats, you have to make sure the coat before it is 100% dry, otherwise it won't seal properly. I've found it takes about 4 days or so for each coat to dry individually... so this process takes about 2 weeks. While I was putting the varnish on my board, I made use of the jig by putting 4 nails on the two end pieces, so I could varnish the entire board and just place it on top of the nails so that I wouldn't have to varnish each side individually.

As soon as the 3 coats have dried, you can now attach your fins. Now, getting fins might be a little tricky. On my first board, my friend just gave me a fin from his old wakeboard (a really small .8" fin that I put at the back of my board). For my second board, I went to my local wakeboard shop and just bought a couple of fins. If you don't have a local wakeboard shop, or friends with extra fins, I think you can order them online through online boardshops. So, to install the fins, just drill and countersink a hole for the screws on either end of the board (try to line them up with each other) and just simply screw in the fins.

Now you can apply the griptape. On both my boards I just gripped the entire top surface of the board using 2 sheets of grip placed laterally along the board...nothing fancy. However, if you want you can make designs with the grip...there's been a couple of cool gripjobs shown on this site by people who've regripped their boards...look around if you want some ideas.

Once you've got the grip on, trim it up with an exacto knife and take a pencil and go around the edges and press them down. You might want to let the grip adhere to the board before putting it in water, but it only needs a couple minutes OUT of the sun for it to adhere.

Once you're done that, you're finnished and you have a new, unique skate to shred with. Hope this was helpful...if you have anymore questions, PM me back and we can clear up whats ever on your mind.

Pictures:

http://www.wakeskating.com/media/showgallery.php?cat=500&ppuser=1389

Click on that link to check out my homemade skates and jig decriptions.

_________________
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
CBFryman
Faceplant
Faceplant


Joined: 10 Sep 2005
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Sep 11, 2005 4:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I searched for "Bulding a Wakeskate" or similar (i dont remember the exact words) and some things poped up but not the above article (it mat have but there where like 74 pages of results and i went though the first 10 or so)
anyway, thanks for the info, so you think its better to just make it out of 2 1/2" sheets instead of of thinner and lighter with fiberglass and 2 1/8" sheets? i was thinking of using balsa if i could find it because of its superior weight to strength ratio's but if no i would have gone with heavier oak...because i know the local lowes has 1ply or 2 ply 1/8" oak...
i would think hitting rails would be alot closer to a wakebaord if at least the bottom where fiberglass, but ya, i just figured paited would woulg give that first "stick" and id end up with no front teeth.
like i said ive NEVER ridden a wakeskate before but i see guys at OWC just messing around on them all the time, where as people on wakeabords are the ones pushing it, trying to impress people, and eating a lot of shizzle (and also doing some sick shizzle). i figured id give it a try.
Thanks for all the help.
BTW, for the curvature of the rails, with a little bit of geometry work you could find the exact radius of a circle in which would give the sweep of the rails which you desire. stake a string to the ground, get the radis on the string, atach pencil in proper place, and draw away...
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
senorbueno
Backside 180
Backside 180


Joined: 28 Sep 2004
Posts: 1593

PostPosted: Sep 11, 2005 5:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CBFryman, just a heads up... keep your terms more exact but at the same time make it simple... make sure you click the item to check for all terms not just if it has the any terms b/c you put wakeskate in your search, and you will bring up every single thread every created on this site.

For example, if you wanted to search for build your own wakeskate i would try the following phrases...

make own wakeskate

build own wakeskate

homemade wakeskate

home made wakeskate
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
BillyOLDS
Kickflip
Kickflip


Joined: 19 Sep 2003
Posts: 3698
City: orlando/winterpark

PostPosted: Sep 11, 2005 9:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

CBFryman wrote:
where as people on wakeabords are the ones pushing it, trying to impress people, and eating a lot of shizzle (and also doing some sick shizzle). i figured id give it a try.
.



honestly u might want to clear that up.... cause if its the way it sounds u putting wakeskating below wakeboarding on a wakeskating only sight.
if u want to be a tard go to wakeworld or something or think about what u say b4 u say it
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message AIM Address
CBFryman
Faceplant
Faceplant


Joined: 10 Sep 2005
Posts: 10

PostPosted: Sep 15, 2005 1:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Rolling Eyes
ehhhh, i think you take things out of context.
no i dont think i know.
i SAID wakeskaters are the ones having fun and just pucking around. neither sport should be all about pushing it all the time, its no fun, its how you get hurt, and its how you no longer get to do the sport any more. so unless you have the skill and are getting paid, there is no point and eating shizzle all day long to pull some insane move. unless that is the only way you can get girls, being a mediocure wakborder is a plus, not how i pick up chicks...
on top of that, that comment was bassed on my experence at one particular place...
and your comment had NOTHING to do with the topic of the thread, which was me wanting to try something new and do something i like (building things from scratch and maybe saving some cash) at the same time.
now please, calm the hot headed "im da shizzle boarder, dont dis mah shiz mang"
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
TXnewb
Faceplant
Faceplant


Joined: 16 Sep 2005
Posts: 1
City: Pasadena

PostPosted: Sep 16, 2005 1:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

if you have $56.98 you can get a 2003 Cassette Linear Perspective 40" shipped from buywake.com. this is what i did. im brand new to the sport. tried a friends, liked it, bought one. it should be interesting. ive never skateboarded or anything like that. im mostly into kneebaording now but it wears out my knees too fast. this should help get me more relaxed
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message
Jesse
Backside 180
Backside 180


Joined: 08 Sep 2005
Posts: 2008
City: Groveland

PostPosted: Sep 16, 2005 1:59 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You can also get super sweet deals on bartswatersports.com, but building your own is rad too. I say build it brah.
_________________
TWG wrote:
fresh out the box with doo doo stains?
Back to top
View user's profile Send private message Visit poster's website AIM Address
Display posts from previous:   
Post new topic   Reply to topic    Wakeskating.com Forum Index -> General Wakeskating All times are GMT - 5 Hours
Page 1 of 1

Add To Favorites

Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum



Wakeboards - Wakeskate Videos - Wakeboarding - Wakepics - Complete Longboards
             

Copyright © 2002-2010 - Wakeskating.com - All Right Reserved
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2002 phpBB Group