Many Thanks & Many Appologies

I know that there are so many people who helped contribute to this project as well as those who were inconvenienced by it. So, here is a shout out to all of those good people!

Thank you Laura Rigg, Bob Stoughton, Kim Knoll and Randall for generously loaning me your tools!

Thank you Jason from the Pro Skateboard shop for your expertise and guidance!

Thank you to all of my friends who helped me conceptualize, photograph and build this board!

Thank you Annexers for letting me infiltrate your lounge to cook and stain!

I am extremely sorry to everyone who was impacted by the malodorous scent that infiltrated the residence with the fiberglass incident. Lesson seriously learned.

I am also extremely sorry to everyone who I may have bothered with the sound of power tools outside your windows but I thank you for your patience.

I truly appreciate all of the support!

15. Finally Putting It All Together

Finally it was time to start putting some pieces together! I found this tutorial on Youtube on how to assemble the parts and pieces of the trucks and wheels (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UtfTTBtGsfw). Because I didn’t have the proper wrenches, I made my way back to the Pro Skateboards shop where the staff once again were extremely helpful and let me borrow their tools to put it all together.

To install each wheel, I started by sliding on a washer. Then I put one bearing in each side of the wheel, the plastic black side facing inwards and the metal side facing outwards. I know that this contradicts what the video above says but the fellow at the board shop told me to do it this way and I trust his judgment. I then slide the wheels on making sure to have the curved edge pointing out. I added the other washer, the bolt and then tightened. I made them tight enough that everything was held securely but loose enough to allow the wheel to spin smoothly.

Ah… the satisfaction of having all the parts and pieces of a project come together!

-Here it is all assembled- 

14. Preparing The Grip Tape

One of my favorite parts of this project was getting to design the grip tape. After tracing out the board onto the paper side of the tape and finding the center I began drawing and then cutting out my sketch with an Exacto knife. To apply the art to the board, I peeled the paper off the back of the grip tape to expose the glue and carefully aligned it over the board and smoothed it out.

My knife wasn’t as sharp as it should have been, hence the rough edges but now I know for next time.

-This is what I ended up choosing for the design-

13. Aligning The Trucks

The next step was to measure out where the trucks needed to go on the board. It is crucial that they are perfectly aligned otherwise the board will not roll straight. I used a board from the local board shop as a reference and found that the trucks should sit about 22 inches from one another and the front truck should be about 2 inches form the tip of the board. With the help of a kind engineer on my floor and many many rules we were able to get it as close as possible. Then I went ahead and drilled some pilot holes for the bolts. (If the bolt don’t align exactly with the trucks don’t be afraid to widen the pilot holes ever so slightly)

-This is as good as it gets-

12. Making My All Natural Wood Sealant

Following the disastrous attempt at fiberglass I found a recipe for an all natural wood polish and sealant. This site gives step-by-step directions on how to make it (http://themoderndiylife.blogspot.ca/2012/12/diy-beeswax-wood-polish-and-sealant.html). I followed it and made my own!

I chopped up the beeswax that I bout at my local farmers market into small pieces and put them into a mason jar that I set in a pot of water. I warmed the water not letting it quite boil but just enough to melt the beeswax. Once melted I removed the mason jar from the water (using heat protectant mitts) and added the olive oil that I received form my generous neighbour at a ratio of 3 to 1. (In all I made about a cup of sealant = ¼ cup beeswax, ¾ cup olive oil) I then put the full mason jar back into the water and let it all melt together. After a few minutes the mixture became homogeneous and it was ready for use.

I then applied a thin layer of the sealant to my board just using my fingers. I took an old cloth and wiped away the excess and it was ready to go. As a bonus it smelt lovely and served as a moisturizer for my hands too! I really only used about half of the sealant that I made so would recommend adjusting your ratios to fit your job to avoid making too much extra.

-This was way easier than fibreglass-

-Toned down and nicely sealed-

11. Second Time Is A Charm

In the end it was too difficult to scrape off all of the resin and salvage the board. After having given up on using the fiberglass, I opted to use my demo board as my final board. So again I sanded it down and pulled out the beets and vanilla!

I did everything the same except this time I used the clear Scotch tape while staining, which gave me much more defined lines.

-It seems to get easier and easier-

-Here it is all nicely stained-