New guy looking to build Carving Snowboards.

[JaysinSpaceman]

Hi there everyone,

I am very new to the forum but I have been reading and reading and there is just so much great info shared that I had to register just to say thanx if nothing else.

I am an avid Alpine Snowboard rider and have found that carving boards are getting harder to find and much more expensive to buy, hence my interest in building my own boards. I know that there isn't much alpine board specific information here but I figure that a lot of the construction crosses over within the various planks.

I am a welder/fabricator by trade and own my own business and have a real passion for building things, whether metal, wood, fiberglass or whatever material. One just has to ask my wife how much time I spend out in the shop to figure out that building is in my blood. I also teach a class called "Principles of fabrication" in the welding department at Sierra Community College.

As a fabricator I really can't wait to build a board press, core shaping table and maybe even a base grinder. I grew up doing wood work and my father still does a lot and has a ton of woodworking equipment so the core blanks shouldn't be much of a problem (although my father looked at me like I had three heads when I said I wanted to start building snowboards, but he's always up for a challenge).

I am sure for the first little while I will be taking more info from the forum then I am giving, but I will be sure to give back as I figure out what the hell I got myself into. I have designed and built a fair amount of industrial process equipment and so I have a good Idea about how to construct the tools needed and I will be sure to post equipment designs as I get things sorted out.

Anyway, enough yakking. I am looking forward to having fun and being mentally rewarded by getting to ride something I build on the mountain.

Thanx,
Jaysin

[gozaimaas]

Wood, its so nice and soft to cut ;-)

[JaysinSpaceman]

Much softer than the materials that I normally work with.

goz, your boards are a big part of the reason I wanted to sign up here. Your veneer decks are incredible. I started looking into building boards because I thought wood topped carving boards would be really killer and in on of my searches I ran across your diary on the Austrailian ski forum. I didn't even realize that you posted here. I most definately have questions for you but I'll read through your posts first to see if you already answered some of them.

I've been really busy reading up on presses as I think that's going to be the equipment that takes the most time to build. The press that is used be Kingswood looks like a great design, reasonably liht and a good use of materials but with a side opening so it is easy to load. I will likely copy his router bridge table for profiling cores to, simple, adjustable, and seems to make quick work of shaping cores with the big end cutter he uses to.

Anywho, I'm going to keep reading and learning. Like my sig says, everyday is a school day.

Thanx again,
Jaysin