Longboard Progress

I have to say that I wasn't quite sure what to expect from this project, but my uncertainty has certainly been proven wrong. N is taking woodworking over at the middle school and people rant and rave about this class so we thought it would be a good experience for him. So far I think it has been, but when he told the teacher about his idea to make a skateboard, the guy shot him down. I don't know the circumstances or how it was presented to him, but I do know that he told N he couldn't do it because it was too hard or logistically not possible. Kind of a bummer.

Well, I am also proud of N because it was not discouraged and decided instead to make it on his own. Again, I wasn't completely sure how feasible this would be, but wanted to support him any way. This meant giving him complete access to all my tools and obtaining the proper raw materials. He did the research, I got the stuff, and unleashed him into his work space. The only thing I helped him with was working the table saw to rip the boards (1/8 inch Baltic Birch thanks to Baker Lumber), to his specifications, of course.

Yesterday I was in the barn and saw his progress and was blown away - he'd actually glued the sheets together and had cut the form of the board, and it looked great. He glued together 4 sheets and believe me when I tell you it looks like a professional had done it. I think his grandad and his uncle The Amazing PR Man would approve. They might even be impressed, I know I was.

It's still in a bit of a rough state, but he did a great job cutting it and whatever the outcome, he's made fantastic progress up to this point. Plus, he has plenty of wood leftover to make another one, and we know where to get more wood. Who knows, maybe he'll even make one for me.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Yutaka Seki for the pic.