The wood arrived and I started the building process. I glued the 7 ply layers together. (Shout out to my minion Tyler for helping me frantically glue and place the layers together evenly before the glue set). I ordered the wood normal cut, normal cut, cross cut, core cut, cross cut, normal cut, normal cut. Normal cut is just the grain of the wood going down along the length of the deck of the board. Cross cut is the grain going perpendicular to the length. And a core cut is the core of the maple tree, so the grain of the wood is more circular. This combination will give me the most strength while still having flexibility. (The picture is of my deck layers clamped under even pressure of longer sturdy wooden boards to shape the my wood straight. (I did not realize how warped 1/16th of a an inch wood would be).

I also drew my artistic designs on adobe illustrator, in hope of being able to laser etch into the wood. I just realized I may have a problem, since each layer of wood is so thin. If the laser burns through to the glue between layers it will weaken the board, which will decrease functionality and may be dangerous to the rider. My minion, Sami will help me figure out if it is possible tomorrow.

For the art on the top of the deck I invented my own font to write out my friends name in. I will have clear grip tape over the top.

If all goes well, tomorrow I will have something that actually resembles the shape of a longboard.