You may have seen a homemade longboard skateboard and thought to yourself, “I bet I could make one of those. They look easy to build”, and you’d be exactly right. Designing and constructing your own longboard is one of the easiest and most rewarding projects out there for the athletic do-it-yourselfer.
There are really only three steps to the entire process: Design, Construction, and Cosmetics, with the third step being optional. There are a number of minute sub-steps that fall under each of the aforementioned categories, but it’s all really quite simple.
To start the design process, head on over to www.silverfishlongboarding.com At the top of the page, you’ll find the link to the “Gear” section. Follow that link through to the “Longboard Reviews” page, and from there head over to the “Loaded” longboard page. For this guide, we’ll use the Pintail design.
Save the image of the Pintail to your computer and open it up with your preferred image editor. I use Gimp myself. It’s like Photoshop, but free. You can get it at www.gimp.org
Once you’ve saved and loaded the picture, we’re going to need to change the colors so that it’s easier to use as a template for our board.
The first step is to crop out all the other pictures of the board that we’re not going to use.
After we’ve done this, we need to use the eraser brush and get rid of wheels and excess axle. Remember, the point of all this is to get a usable template.
After we’ve removed the wheels and axles, use the magic wand tool and select any of the white area outside the board. Next, right click, and select the “Invert”. This will select the inverse of the selection we just made.
Now select your paint brush, choose the color of your choice (black is the easiest) and paint the board. By selecting the inverse earlier, we don’t have to worry about coloring outside the edges.
Once you’ve done that, you should have something that looks like this:
Next, select “Image”, and then select “Zealous Crop”. This will remove any unused space around the image. This will greatly help with the scaling in just a minute. Now select “Image”, then select “Scale Image…” A window will open allowing you to choose the size of your board. I’ve made mine 4 feet long. Since the height and width are linked, whatever size you choose for height (or width) will automatically change the other, keep the board proportional. From experience, I can tell you that a four foot board will be just fine in about every circumstance.
After you’ve scaled the image, all that’s left now is to print it out. The template will print over multiple pages, so once it’s done printing, you’ll have to cut it out and tape it together.
Congratulations, you’ve just made your first longboard template!
Now it’s time for construction.
When it comes to choosing a wood for your board, more often than not price is going to be your limiting factor. I’ve found that for your first few attempts at longboard design, a simple 5 ply, ½” to ¾” sheet of plywood from Home Depot or Lowes will give more than enough support for even the heaviest of riders.
Stay away from poplar in the beginning. While it’s extremely cheap, it’s extremely weak. I’ve had more than one poplar board break.
One sheet of plywood will give you enough material to make 3-4 boards depending on the size and shape of each board.
While you’re at Home Depot, be sure to pick up a few hand tools if you don’t already have them or if you don’t have someone to borrow them from: a jigsaw, palm sander, router, and a drill. You’ll also need: a roundover bit for the router (half the size of plywood. ex: 1/2″ plywood needs a 1/4″ bit), sand paper for the palm sander (40-60 grit), saw blades for the Jigsaw (wood), and at least a 3/8″ drill bit (for truck screws).
You may also want to buy some cosmetic supplies for your board: polyurethane, wood stain, paint, painters tape, and resin.
If nothing else, get some polyurethane to protect the board. Two coats will keep the board looking new and relatively scratch free . While the board will function just fine without any of these, it’ll look a whole lot better under your feet with just a touch of stain, paint, and polyurethane.
Now that you have everything needed to actually build your board, the first step is taping your template to the sheet of plywood. Scotch tape works just fine. Just make sure the paper won’t move while you trace the outline onto the wood.
Once you’ve taped it down, use a pencil or marker to draw the outline onto the plywood. From experience, pencils are better in the long run than using ink. Markers and pens take a lot of sanding to get off after you’ve made your cut.
After you have the outline drawn on the plywood, take you’re jigsaw and cut our your board. Remember, always err on the side of caution. Cut slowly and on the outside of the line you drew. You can always go back and sand bumps and excess away.
Once this is done you should be left with your very first longboard skateboard. It’s not pretty at this point, but it works!
To touch up the board, use your router and roundover bit on the edges of the board. This will give a nice smooth edge all the way around. Next, take your hand sander and buff out any bumps you find. Sand the entire surface of the board. This will help with any stain or paint you may use.
Now sanded, the board is ready of it’s final cosmetic touches. You’re choices here are unlimited. A simple stain and seal is always nice, as is a nice racing stripe. Get creative, use the board as a canvas. Don’t forget that you can always use grip tape to cover up any flaws.
The only part left in the process is drilling the holes for your trucks and bolting them on. Depending on the shape of the board, you may need to implement risers to get yourself enough clearance so you don’t have wheel bite.
That’s it, you’ve done it! You made your first longboard skateboard and saved yourself a ton of money. You should have enough wood left to make a few more boards and practice your skills.
I’ve included some pictures of a board I did recently. The board has been cut, routed, sanded, stained, drilled, and has it’s first coat of polyurethane.
