Photos Of Finished Board

Term 4 Week 5

This week I am finishing up for the year both with longboard and my blog. On Monday I put my griptape on my board. It had a lot of air bubbles in the griptape so I got a roller and spent the rest of the lesson rolling my griptape to get the bubbles out. On Wednesday (today) I am updating my blog and calender. I am posting reflections and pictures to finish off my checklist. Today is the last day of school so I will soon have my exams and then the holidays after that. On Thursday I came into school to finish my board. I trimmed the griptape to fit my board.

Term 4 Week 4

This week I have been doing a lot painting. On Monday I continued to paint on my board artwork. I masked down a few more shapes then painted. I then pulled off the tape and left my board to dry. The tape tore up the paint slightly so I used a small brush to touch up the artwork. On Wednesday I had 3 periods of Dtm. This is because I was able to leave PE and Graphics to go finish my paint job. I spent two of these periods finishing off my artwork. I used the same method of masking, painting and then touching up. With the third period I was in the computer labs updating my blog and calender. I did things like posted the board engineering drawing i created and posted new pictures. I have been working hard to complete the checklist of all the things we must post to gain our credits. I believe I should be finished if we have a little more time in the computer labs. On Thursday I painted a clear coat of lacquer onto the underside of my board. A lacquer coat will make my board stronger and will hopefully make it look better as it will be quite glossy when it has dried. The lacquer got some dust and small hairs stuck in it so I believe it will make the coat slightly rough. Next week I am hoping to have all my checklist finished so I can get the credits. I am also hoping to finish my board. I still have to put on the griptape and drill the holes for the trucks.

PHOTOS OF GRIPTAPE

Term 4 Week 3

This week has involved a lot of painting and also computer work. On Monday it was Labor Day so I did not have DTM. Instead on Monday I was snowboarding at Turoa ski field with Sam and Anand. On Wednesday I was in the computer labs updating my blog and working to complete my checklist. I posted new photos of my longboard progress. I made a solidworks engineering drawing to post on my blog. I updated my calender and added a weeks reflections. On Thursday I started to paint my longboard artwork. Before painting on the different colours onto my board I first had to draw out my design in pencil and then had to use masking tape to mask out my design. Using masking tape will hopefully make the edges of my artwork very crisp and clean. Laying down the masking tape took quite a long time so I only got about a 1/5 of my artwork done which is not what I was hoping to accomplish. Next week I am really hoping to get my artwork done and also paint on a clear coat of lacquer to harden and protect my board. I am also hoping to have completed my checklist, including my evaluation for this project.

EVALUATION - PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED

Over the year during this project of making a longboard I have encountered many problems. In 11DTM my design project was based on designing and creating a longboard. The brief given to me was 'Post a picture of you and your final design (skateboard) in a location in Wellington that is perfect for skating in/around'. The first problem I encountered during the project was the fact that I had decided to have two curves in my board. The two curves I wanted contradicted each other. I had to make a slightly different mould for my board. It took me a little long to work out the dimensions and shapes for each of my mould pieces. The next problem was that the board ,once out of its mould, did not get the strong curves I wanted. To get the curves I wanted I should of exaggerated some of the curves in my mould to get stronger curves in the board. Researching the materials for my board was tricky. This is because the materials were quite uncommon so did not have much information on the internet to gain research from. A large problem encountered was working with flax. Initially Terry had thought to use flax as the stringer for the longboards so we collected flax from around the school grounds and started to strip it down. After a few weeks of stripping flax down to thin pieces we started to realize that using flax would take too long. To use flax we would have to strip the flax down to extremely fine strands to make it work. Also the flax started to mould just from being store away for a few days. Mould on flax would of made the stringer weak so it would be more likely to break. To make the flax work we would have to work much faster and strip down the flax finely then immediately get it into our boards before it moulds. Clamping the board to my mould was reasonably hard as we only were able to use 4 clamps each. The board materials would slide around as you were clamping them down but I got 3 others to help me so I got it done. Next time I could use more clamps to fix the materials down better to make it easier and also to gain stronger curves in my board. The base coat paint didn't work out as planned. The spray gun made a very bumpy coat of black on board. The rough coat did turn out with a interesting effect but it made all the sanding I had been doing to made my board really smooth before painting. I should of just used spray paint cans instead to make the coat very smooth and consistent. The artwork painting also did not turn out as expected. I had to mask down tape to stencil out my artwork which took a while. This meant I did not have enough time to spray down each colour for my artwork, instead I had to just paint it down with a paint brush. Using a brush made the artwork roughly textured. I should of made more time so I would be able to spray each colour to give my board a really smooth look. When I had to pull off the masking tape after painting the artwork some paint ripped and it made a bumpy edge to a lot of my artwork. To fix it I just used a small brush and touched up the edges by hand. This made the edges better but not as good as i was expecting. Next time I should use proper paint masking tape that would give a crisper edge. The lacquer came out quite good except for some dust and hairs that had fallen in and dried. I could of put my board in a dust free room to dry, that would leave my board with a smooth clear coat. Overall I am happy with how my board turned out but will probably not actually use it as I believe it will not be strong enough. I will probably use it as some wall art instead. Using more layers of ply would of probably made it stronger and more usable.

EVALUATION - BOARD PROCESS

EVALUATION

This year in 11DTM my design project was based on designing and creating a longboard. The brief given to me was 'Post a picture of you and your final design (skateboard) in a location in Wellington that is perfect for skating in/around'. After given the brief, I researched some pre-existing longboards and found the pros and cons of each one. I then made some concepts for my own longboard keeping in mind each of the pros and cons from my research. I initially decided to make a simple oval shaped longboard with the length of 800 mm. I then decided to change my shape to a more abnormal type of oval but still very symmetrical. Once I had my board shape decided I worked out what curvature i wanted in my board. I decided to have two curves going through my board. One making the board bouncy when stood on and one to give the board control and handibility. Once I had an idea of what i wanted my board to look like I then researched the materials. I originally was going to use plywood, epoxy resin and flax. I started with the flax by stripping it down to thin pieces. The flax was going to be used as the stringer for my board to make it flexible and strong. After working on my flax stringer for four weeks my teacher realized that it would just take too long to make a reasonable flax stringer so we decided to just use fiberglass instead. I then had to make my mould for my longboard. I used 7 pieces of 18 mm MDF. 1 piece to hold the mould together and the other 6 to form the shape and curves i wanted. I first drew out the shapes of each piece, then cut out each piece, then sanded down each piece. To put the pieces together I used several screws and an electric screwdriver. My mould was then ready to have my board laid onto it. Once I had collected 2 pieces of ply, r180 epoxy resin and a fiberglass sheet I laid my board down. Firstly I got 3 others to help me as it takes quite a few hands. Next I lay one sheet of plywood onto my mould. Then I spread a layer of epoxy resin onto the topside of the plywood. Then put down the fiberglass sheet onto the resin. Then spread the remaining epoxy resin on the fiberglass before putting the second plywood piece on top. Lastly I clamped down my board to my mould with 6 clamps. This made sure my intended curves would be moulded into my board. I then left my bard clamped for 2 full days then took out my board. At this stage my board was a rectangular shape so I then drew out my abnormal oval shape onto my board, ready to be cut. Then I used the bandsaw to cut out the shape of my longboard. Once cut I then sanded down my board in a sequence using coarse sand paper to very fine sand paper. This made my board smooth. I got my teacher to bog up some small holes in my board to simply make it look better. I then went on to priming my board. I used a white undercoat primer. I did one layer of primer then let it dry before sanding it down. I then painted on a second layer of primer and sanded it too. Next I got the teacher to spray down the base coat onto my board. I chose a black base coat to contrast with my bright artwork. Once the base coat had dried I was ready to paint on my artwork. I had previously designed a rasta type of design which I decided to go through with. We bought test-pots of paint for our artwork from Resene. I got a red, green and a yellow. I drew out my artwork onto the underside of my board using pencil. Then I masked down one part of my artwork using making tape. Using masking tape makes the edges of the artwork more crisp than just using a paint brush. I used a paint brush and painted each coloured within the tape. I used a small paint brush to do some slight touch ups on the paint later on. Once i had finished my artwork I painted on a layer of lacquer to harden and protect my board. I then put on my clear griptape to finish my board. I laid it down, rolled it down and then trimmed the excess griptape from the board.

SOLIDWORKS ENGINEERING DRAWING

Term 4 Week 2

Week 2 has been a mixture of practical and computer work. On Monday Terry painted my black base coat onto my board. At first the spray paint was very splotchy and made the coat quite thick. The splotchy paint gave my board a interesting texture. On Wednesday I was in the computer labs and updated my blog and calender. I also posted new photos of my board being painted. On Thursday I drew out my vinyl design for the bottom of my board. This took a while as my design is quite random and it is a lot of lines to draw out. Once I had drawn the design I masked the first shape with masking tape. Using masking tape will hopefully make the paint edges crisp and clear. I am still deciding if I am going to to spray my vinyl designs on or if I will just paint them on using a brush. Next week I am hoping to finish painting my board which includes both the vinyls and clear coat. If I do not finish painting next week I may not finish my board. I am also hoping to get through a lot of my checklist for our computer work.

Term 4 Week 1

This week has mainly been focused on painting preparation for the final coats of the longboards. On Monday I painted on my last coat of primer paint. I used a thick layer of primer because I would still need to sand down the primer which would take away some of its volume. On Wednesday I was on the computer updating my blog and checklist. I added my reflections for end of term 3 and also holidays, I updated my calender through google calenders and also researched on epoxy resin r180 and fibreglass chop strand double bias roving. I believe I am reasonably up to date with my blog checklist photos and calender. I believe I can finish all required computer work for DTM by the due date. On Thursday I finished my primer paint preparation by sanding down the primer coats on my board. I started with a coarse sand paper (120) and then moved on to a finer sand paper (400). Going from coarse to fine like this is the best and most efficient way to smooth down my longboard. I spent the whole lesson sanding my board to try and get it as smooth as possible for the next coats of paint which will be sprayed on. Next week I am expecting and hoping to be spraying on my black base coat onto my board and may even mask out my vinyl designs onto my board using tape.

Final Griptape Choice

I was not able to get the rasta lion griptape as it was out of stock so now I am getting this Flik Clear Griptape.

End of term 3/Holidays

On the last day of dtm for term 3 the class went down to Resene and chose testpots of paint for our longboards. I chose three colours which were Japanese Laural (green), Havoc (red), Broom (yellow). I am going to use these colours to spray on a tribal rasta design using stencils. I also painted on the primer onto my board. In the holidays I went snowboarding up a turoa ski field. It was heaps of fun. I also stayed on Wellington for a while just hanging with friends. Now that we are back at school I am almost ready to paint on my final layers of paint. This last term I am hoping to finish off at least the deck of my longboard.

Griptape Choice - Fallen Rasta Lion by MOB

I may need two sheets of griptape as one may not cover my board top.

Painting Board

Term 3 Week 10

Last week on Thursday I painted the first layer of primer onto the bottom side of my board. I then came back to DTM after school to paint the first layer on the top side of my board. This meant I would be ready to sand down the primer on the following Monday. On Monday Terry bogged up any holes in my board. After priming all the existing holes were clearly visible so this made it easier. Once the bog dried I used some 400 sand paper to sand down the bog and primer. This only took a few minutes so I still had time to start on my second layer of primer. I painted on a thicker layer than the first onto the bottom of my board. I then left it to dry. On Wednesday I updated my calender, posted reflections and photos. I also worked on completing my blog checklist. On Thursday (today) I did not finish my primer painting as I was hoping. I have been on the computer choosing my griptape for my board. We are getting the griptape sent from California as it is cheaper than getting it locally from Wellington. I have chosen a rasta lion griptape which I am hoping will go well with the vinyl design for the bottom of my board. The griptape should arrive by the end of the holidays so will be at school when I need it. In term 4 I will have to finish painting my board before laying the griptape. I don't think I will have enough time to fully finish my longboard before the end of the year.

Term 3 Week 9

On Monday I used a very fine sand paper (1200) to smooth down my board. I found it very easy to use this sand paper so I finished sanding my board with time to spare. My board was now so smooth and also ready for some primer. Terry sent Sam, Anand and I down to the Resene shop on Cambridge Terrace to get primer and paint brushes. We walked down and collected a 10L Primer bucket and also 6 100mm Paint Brushes. When we brought the paint and brushes back to Terry he was not happy with how expensive the brushes were. Then Terry sent us back to the Resene shop to get cheaper brushes. After walkig down to the shop we were told that the brushes, we initially bought, were the cheapest. So we then walked back to school realising that the second trip to the shop a waste of time. Today I am on the computer updating my blog and calender. I have written two reflections and also posted new photos. Tomorrow (Thursday) I am hoping to paint on the primer for my board. I am going to use water based paints because it is just easier since I need quite a few different colours. Next week I hope I will be finally creating my vinyls for my board, I have not made them already as I have been busy with sanding my board.

Term 3 Week 8

On Thursday last week I sanded down the bog on my board with a 120 sand paper. This made sure all the holes in the edges of my board were smooth and inline with the rest of my board.
During week 8 we had mock exams so I did not have DTM.

Term 3 Week 7

Last Thursday I didn't quite manage to finish sanding my board as I only just started sanding with fine sand paper (220 wet/dry sandpaper). On Monday I continued sanding with the fine sandpaper and managed to finish sanding my whole board. I then got Terry to bog up all the holes on the edges of my board. I should have bogged up the holes before fully sanding down my board as I am now going to sand down the bog next lesson. This is not a big issue as I am not behind in my work and it will take just a couple of minutes. On Wednesday (today) I am on the computer. I have updated my calender and reflections. I will post all my new photos to the blog and will work on completing the checklist we have been givin. On Thursday (tomorrow) I am expecting to be doing practical work. I am going to sand down the dried bog which will hopefully only take a few minutes. Then I will be ready to start creating my artwork on the computer. I am planning to make vinyls on the computer as I think that way best suits my design. I will need to make a couple of vinyls as I have more than one colour which needs to be sprayed on my board.

Term 3 Week 6

Last week on Thursday I was sanding down my board. I had already smoothed down the edges of my board so I started curving the edges. I curved the edges by firstly using a file and then some 120 sand paper. On Monday I had double practical so continued sanding down my board. I not only was curving the edges but was also smoothing down the front and back of my board. I need to do this so the paint work which will go on later will look good. Today (Wednesday) I am on the computer. I have updated my reflections and my calender. I am also am going to post up some more pictures of my progress sanding. Tomorrow (Thursday) I am hoping to get some fine sand paper and finish smoothing my board by giving it a general sand down. Sanding my board has taken longer than expected which is unfortunate because we are running out of time to finish this longboard project. Next week I am expecting to finally start making my artwork vinyls. Whether I will do this on the computer or by hand I do not know yet.

Term 3 Week 5

This week is going to be a mixture of practical and computer work. On Monday (today) I have updated two weeks of reflections, posted two sets of photos and updated my calender. Today I will also try and complete as much of my checklist as possible. On Wednesday and Thursday I will be doing practical work so I will continue sanding the edges of my board. At the rate I am currently working at I should be finished sanding my board by the end of this week. If I do so I can start creating my final artwork for my board. I don't exactly how I am going to get my artwork onto my board but will probably make layers of vinyl to get the shapes I want. Right now I am thinking to have a matte black board with some sort of abstract rasta design. Hopefully I will get to this stage by next week.

Photos Of Sanding