Time for testing!!!

A while back I ask a buddie I once sold a board to if I could use it for an event. He was kind enough to shipped it to me by air mail and long story short, I totally chickened out and was too lazy to partake in the skate … To be even lamer I never got round to sending the board back but have finally found something a little nicer to say sorry with….

Wrapped it this afternoon and shipping it to you first thing in the morning, once again very sorry for taking far to long to get a board back to you!

Late, late, late night…. Early, early, early morning….

Worth every gram of sleep deprivation!

You can change wheel base with only 4 bolts and one hex key! More photos to come but now its time to skate!

This is the post second fill coat finish. still a bit lumpy so you need to now once again flatten it out. This was almost flat so I decided to take the gamble and not use any more epoxy.

I have my fingers crossed that I can flatten this ready for a clear coat with out any more epoxy. I didnt want to risk any burning so I went for a 400 grit wet and dry on a flat stiff (but not solid like wood) foam block.

I like to slowly rotate from strokes at 0,45,90,-45 patterns and sanding until the full surface texture is solidly all the current direction. This helps bring things done evenly

Keep sanding, wiping off then checking for low areas. The next spray coats don’t build much thickness so make sure things are as flat as you can, this board took around an hour and a half by hand.

First clear down, looking not to bad at all! I like to work quickly with well rattled can Don’t be tempted to hold the can close to the work as 3 distanced lighter passes is far better than one thick one with runs!

I misted a second coat down two hours later. Not sure if they will be hard enough to buff out tonight but fingers crossed…. Might have see if i can build a little heater box….

Finally now waiting for the second hot coat to gel and very excited indeed! After work last night I some how managed to get some thin light brown fabric to lap around a 10mm thick rail…

I like to trim my fabric to size and spend a bit of time working out how to make a single cut at each board rail change. Cut to many times and the ends fray out and can really spoil the finish or pattern.

Its important to time this right as you want to only give it a few hours between laying down the fabric but keeping so that the fabric is touching the core and not floating in resin

you may notice that the fabric is darker so wetted out but still has 70-50% of its texture. To fill in the rests without getting sanding dust specs in your finish you can try this cheeky trick…. Time a second epoxy fill coat after the fabric layer has gone only just stiff.

I like a cooler slower cure for my fill coats so I find it best in summer to lay the fabric down around midnight with a slow hardener and a clear setting epoxy. Then by around 4-5am it has fully tacked off (easily marked by finger nail) and I will brush on an other fill that will fill out around 98% of the remaining lows.

By not leaving it to much past the tack point you make sure the resin that is boning the board, fabric and fill coat will be chemically bonded and save any sanding bits getting trapped in a pocket and ending up in your finish. The above photo is one 13-14 hours after laying the first fabric down with the last few hours under hot sun to make sure its able to be sanded. I like to then hit things by hand with rasps and blocks make sure things come down quickly and evenly with a feel to if your hitting any air pockets or other trouble areas.

Mid way in and most of the taller highs and you can make note of the areas that you should be careful around so I will blast it for a while with a wide disk soft backed power sander to with a med grit. This is were it gets tricky. Most of highs are resin and knock down well and wont cause a blemis, go too deep, hit the fabric and your likely to always look at the board and notice that one small bright, ugly sander burn.

I like to slow the sander down as this lets me removed a more even overall thickness. I also always start any orbital type sander with it lightly held against the work the work, started with out the resistance of the sandpaper on the board they get up to a high rpm and then bite into the board as it first touches down! Try to take it easy, brush the work often as this will help you see the moment you start cutting into the fabric (and often causing  a colour change)

Keep sanding until your happy with your ratio of lows to high spots before going onto your next fill coat. Once your ready to stop sanding it fair if there are ANY shiny spots then hit all of them with a plastic scour pad and some warm water. Dry the board till 100% dry ( Girlfriend’s and flatmate’s hair dryer is often the best tool for this task!) and then lay the next fill coat. Repeat untill you get no shiny patches after then sand and let it cure a day or two before hitting with 1000+ grit and water.

This is where I ended up some time late this afternoon. Stoked I am!!! To get it to a full gloss I expect to lay maybe an other filler coat, spend more time sanding than I did building the structure of the board and also put in some hard yards behind a buffing pad.

I can’t say I was sure this board would be done in time but got the feeling this board is going to be something very special.

While he may be a little on the short side, deep rippling Carnie concave and 15mm plush mount drops makes this little guy perfect for aggressive freeriding.

Wheel base : 700mm

Length : 900mm

Width at the shoulders : 250mm

Under his tight red and black cotton suit hides a balsa core and mixture of glass and carbon skin and six separate internal torsion boxes.

A few sleek Kevlar and carbon pinlines assures this body building midget will out shine any competition.

While he may be short and hard his thick skins give succulent responsiveness to whomever is atop his deep W concave.

Small, nimble and looking rather slick…

I have floated the last clear tonight  so tomorrow morning before work I hope to have enough time to buff this board out as I cant wait to see the new logo that has a slight metal flake to lift the badge off the black and red silk finish.

This board is a shortened Little Mr bigwood with a 15mm plush mount, 700mm wheel base, 250mm wide and a deep W concave.

The next board from the labs has a central carbon shear web, glass skins , balsa core and wood rails in a corseted template with 15mm drops, deep double U concave and a feather print fabric bottom.

This board has a small amount of flex for carving and at 1.35kg un gripped it will be easy to lug back to the top of the hill.

The feather print looks fantastic and as I only have a few boards worth will make this a very unique board.

So just a quick teaser with far more info to come in a day or two…

Above is a 40mm solid cabron drop that morphs into a carbon skin and balsa cored footpan. I am sure in a few days the new owner max will post up a review!

Here you can see the carbon beans that support a slid cabon mounting plate and drop. This was taken before I had clear coated it in the hopes to show the very subtle curves extremely compact drop area.

Done and with ever so slighty wet paint I wrapped it in bubble wrap and shipped it down south.

Fingers crossed it arrives before the race!