I made these decks for my freeline skates from a bamboo cutting board I found at TJ Maxx for $5!
I used the laser to engrave the patterns, centers for the bolt holes, and score the outline. Then I drilled pilot small pilot holes for the eventual bolt holes, flipped them over, and used those pilot holes to align the engrave for the graphics on the other side. I designed those graphics to have a big bleed under the grip tape cutouts so it wasn’t critical to get exact alignment.
Once both sides were engraved, I aligned both decks on the pilot holes, stuck them together, and cut the outline on my band saw following the laser score mark. Cleaned up on the sander and then rounded over with a router.
Even if you don’t do the final cutting with the laser, it’s so handy to be able to score all your layout marks with perfect precision on your piece!
I finished them with a homemade danish oil, and they look and ride great!
I did not cut the grip tape with the glowforge, I did that with a razor. I would have liked to laser a similar pattern in the griptape as the bottom, but various forum posts seemed to speculate that there is pvc in the griptape. If anyone has cut griptape in the forge please let me know!
