Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Making A Snowboard

By Ashley McAdams



ou basically can't believe how much work and effort goes into making a snowboard. You'd think that it is fairly straightforward right? Well, it isn't. A snowboard is a ton more than a piece of wood with wax and some fancy graphics. There's a lot of thought and engineering aspects that goes into the particular construction of the board.

There are layers upon layers of product that's bound together and tapered at the perimeters and then is finished with fancy graphics and all of the other fancy things that you see as the completed product. It does take a lot of thought to produce the right snowboard and a quality snowboard at that.

Before doing anything, you must decide what sort of snowboard you are need. The shape as an example, can be different between boards and the shape of the board has a great deal to do with the functionality of the board. You need the different shapes of the board so that you can do different things on the slope. The shape can be alpine, directional, twin tip or swallow tail.

Then you will need to pick the kind of flex and how you will get that flex into the board. The thickness affects the flex. The thinner the board, the more flex it will have. The thicker the board the less flex it will have. Now you can understand why you must consider what precisely it is that you want to build before even beginning on the project.

A snowboard is basically built like a sandwich. It has many different layers. At the bottom you have the base. Then next comes the lower strengthening material. Then you will have the center or the center of the board. Then you will have the upper strengthening material. And ultimately, it will all be topped off with what's called the top sheet.

The core of the snowboard will need to be protected from weather and elements so that it doesn't get ruined. It has to be completely enclosed. There are two different sorts of side wall systems that are used that will allow you to reach this critical step. First, we have what is called side wall construction. You actually will attach a little strip of plastic on the sides and let it bond to sides of the core. Or you may use what is called cap construction. This is largely where the top sheet and other materials are tapered to where they enclose the core material. http://snowboardingzone.org/

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