Decal for bottom of board designed in illustrator.
Bottom of the deck designed in illustrator.
Shape of the board designed in illustrator and inventor.
Grip tape designed in illustrator.
Bottom and top molds designed in inventor then exported into fusion.
Machine Work
Vinyl cutting my design out.
Design weeded and put on transfer tape.
Top of my mold being cut out on the router.
Bottom of my mold being routed on the router.
Both molds finished
Grip tape being cut out on the laser.
Placing and gluing each layer in my mold so it gets that nice tail curve.
Printing out my skateboard design so I can cut it out on the band saw.
Board fully cut out on the band saw.
Sanding down and smoothing out the edges.
Laser engraving my design on the bottom of my board.
All of the components ready to be put together.
Finding and drilling the holes for the trucks and wheels.
Trimming the grip tape.
Putting the wheels and trucks on the board.
Putting my decal on, the final touch of my project.
Project finally complete!
Summary
Last year in IDEA we looked at other students projects and someone made a skateboard. I was inspired and realized that I wanted to take this course and make my own. Id been sitting on ideas for over a year and was very excited to get started when school began this year. I learned a lot about myself and about working during this process of making a skateboard. I thought it would be much harder than it was and I didn't know if I could do it. I realized that if I put my mind to something I can accomplish it, and with enough planning and research you can build what ever you want. Time management was also a key factor that I learned throughout this process and the whole semester. If you wait until the last month to start making your project it wont be as nice as you want it to be and you'll become very stressed in the process. I loved making this project and will probably make another improved one in the future. If I could go back and change things on this project of course I would change a lot. I would probably make it look a little cleaner and dye the wood a different color, maybe make a more intricate design for the laser to engrave. I would have definitely used less glue when gluing the wood together because it cause bubbles that were tricky to get out and didn't come out all the way. There is not much I would improve upon on the actual board besides cleaning up the cuts and edges. In the end I am super happy with the way it turned out, and am proud of myself for what I accomplished this semester.