Evaluation: Design Process

Evaluation:
Design Process: We made long boards in DTM this year. My board didn’t exactly turn out way I initially planned it to be, but in the end it still feels and looks great. In a way it’s even better than how I wanted it to be at the start. In the beginning of the ‘Making Long boards’ process in term 1, we started off in the computer labs looking at other longboards and skateboard designs so that we could get an idea of what’s to come in the year. We chose six pictures of longboards and wrote ‘pros and cons’ about each of them. We set up blogs sites in the computer labs so that we can post what we’re doing throughout the year and Terry can look over it in his spare time and mark it, and give us feed back on what we could do or change or what we’re doing right. In the classroom we started drawing up our own long board designs.
We also went down to chafers Skate Park for one of the periods. Our brief that Terry had for us was that we had to find a good location near the Skate Park and take a photo of it and then take a photo of our self there. When we finish our boards we have to take a picture of us skating in that same spot. I won’t be able to ride my board though because it’s too weak, but it makes an awesome piece of art. We then started researching materials that we would use for our long boards on the computers. We looked up research for fibreglass, epoxy resin, ply wood and flax. We had to post the research that we found onto our blog sites along with the photos and stuff of ourselves working.
When we finally started practical work in the class room we had to make “half scale mock-ups” of what our boards would look like and then measure them so that they were exactly half the size of what our real boards were going to be. We drew them on a piece of cardboard or something and then cut them out to make the shape of our board. Then we started making the stringers for our boards. Terry decided to use flax as our stringers. What we had to do was weave the flax together and then flatten them between two pieces of wood so that we can put it in between the ply wood that we’d be using. My flax went missing half way through the term so I had to start again. I caught up in time so I was right up to the same part as everyone else. We spent the whole term working on our flax stringers so that we could put them into our long boards and decided not to use them. We also were in the computer labs a lot. We worked on a program called FreeHand MX and we created our boards on it step by step and posted it onto our blogs. After we had almost finished our flax work we started designing the mould concepts for what the shape of our long boards would be. This was on the last week and then for our last lesson of Term 1 we just worked in the computer labs and finished off our blogs for the term.

At the start of Term 2 we were still continuing our flax work and mould concepts, and computer blogging stuff for the whole first week. We didn’t do much but I guess its all part of the process. We had taken a lot of pictures at this point and had posted them all onto our blogs. A lot of the design process revolved around the blogs actually. Next, on the second week, we had actually started making the moulds. Jack, Will and I had to go back down to chafers to take the pictures of where we were going to skate when we’re finished, so we were a little bit behind everyone else. We took the pictures last term from my phone but we weren’t able to put it onto the computers so we went back down to do it again. After we continued working on our moulds.
We also started working on another program called SolidWorks. We started off making speakers on the program so that we would get used to using it, and then we would make our own long boards on it. We first made normal shaped skateboards on it with the teacher’s guidance and then after we knew how to do it we got to make our own long boards by ourselves. My one ended up looking really cool.
Making the moulds after creating our boards on solidworks was pretty tricky. When we drew up the shape of our moulds onto pieces of wood, we had to cut them out with a scroll saw. It was a little tricky getting the hang of the scroll saw because you had to keep the board steady when cutting it otherwise you would screw everything up, and it wouldn’t be the right shape. After they had been cut out we filed them down so they’d be nice and smooth to lay down the ply wood on top of to make the curves. It took me ages to file mine because I was away for a couple days I think and I had to get it just right which took a long time. Then we got a plank of wood that we drilled our moulds onto. That way when we lay the ply wood all the moulds would be even and they’d all hold together steadily. When I finished my moulds and drilled them all into the plank of wood, I had to get rid of some of them because apparently the less you have the better the curve will be. By this point of the year Terry decided that we’d just be using the fibreglass alone for our stringers and ditching the whole flax thing.

At the start of Term 3 I was away because I had to go to Outdoor Ed camp. Sam, Will, Kody and Harry were at camp with me so we all missed out on the beginning of term 3.
Terry had gotten the ply wood now so we put the fibreglass between two bits of plywood and then clamped it down onto our moulds. We had to wait for about a week so I was just helping people around the class until my board had finally moulded. After that, we unclamped the wood from the moulds. This made the curves on the wood and all we had to do now was rule up the lines and the shape of our board onto it so that we had a skateboard. Then we cut out the shape of the board and this gave us the actual long board. After I drew my one up onto my board I had to use this giant scroll saw thing to cut it out, and then use the normal scroll saws to cut out the little bits off the sides of my board. It turned out great. The rest of the term was pretty basic and easy. We had to file down our boards so that they weren’t all jagged and rough around the edges, and I helped a lot of my friends with their boards too. We were still in the computer labs a lot but just updating blogs and catching up on the check-list that Terry handed out each term so that we knew what had to be done and what we should be up to by now. After filing around the board so it wasn’t jagged, we had to sand it down and make everything nice and smooth. When it is smooth enough and all the little holes and chipped off parts were filled with the filler, Terry showed us how to layer the boards with the primer. This protected our boards further and they wouldn’t get ruined as easily. Then we had exams so we didn’t do any DTM work that week. I was away the last week on that term and apparently Terry had cracked my board. He was testing how flexible it was and ended up cracking it straight through the middle.

In Term 4 we had practically finished because it was the last term of the year. I came back and saw that Terry had tried to fix the crack in my board with some special type of glue. It worked for a little bit but the crack came back. So we glued it again. We also chose the grip tape that we wanted for our boards and I chose a chequered one because it suited my original design of the artwork I was going to have on the bottom of my board. It was also going to be chequered with the original Cartoonnetwork logo on the bottom. But we ran out of time for me to do that so I had to do something else.
I had to sand down my board again after I primed it but then the crack reappeared and we had to glue it again and it took me twice as long to sand it down again. I had to come in after school just so I could sand it down. It took me a long time but it had to be done. So then after I sanded it all down I primed it a couple times. I waited for it to dry then primed it again so it would be good. Then I went into the back room so I could get the base coat sprayed onto it, but half way through spraying it they ran out of black so I had to wait a day or two to finish spraying it. I came in after school to do that. On our last DTM lesson I finally painted my board. I didn’t do the Cartoonnetwork logo because we ran out of time but I decided to try something different. So I splattered paint everywhere on my board. I splattered and stroked and dotted paint all over my board to look like a piece of art. Like a Jackson Pollock piece of artwork. The famous splatter painter or whatever. But my board was coming along great. All I had to do now was lacquer my board and then put the grip tape on it.
We had no more class time to work on our boards so I had to do it in my spare time. I went in to class after school so I could lacquer my board and then I had to wait a couple days for it to dry. So I came in on Thursday to finish it off because I don’t have school anymore. So then I put my grip tape on it and now I have a homemade long board (that I can’t ride). That concludes the Design Process.