PocketBoard v2: Metal Edition

Unfortunately, PocketBoard's pretty oak deck did not last for very long.  Repeatedly getting wet and drying out expanded some cracks already present in the wood, and eventually the deck split down its entire length.  Because the board was so useful (it noticeably increased my free-food acquisition rate), I quickly made a new deck out of the most readily available material:  carbon fiber aluminum.

The top of the deck was cut out of the side panel of an old PowerMac G5 case on a bandsaw.  Originally, I planned to have the Apple logo on the top of the deck, but Julian pointed out that the disassembly guide on the opposite side of the panel was much more interesting.

The 1/8" thick deck proved to be too flexible to use on its own, so I made an under-frame out of some 1/4" plate.  The outside profile was cut again on the bandsaw, while the cutout in the middle was made by hand interpolating (think etch-a-sketch) the curves on a manual mill and filing them smooth.

PocketBoard Part 2: Now it Need Wheels

To clean up the rough surface left by the angle grinder, and to make the board flatter, I planed the both sides by hand.

The small block plane left the surface smooth enough that it barely needed sanding:

I jigsawed out the rough form of the deck, and cleaned up the edges with a plane and some coarse sandpaper.

I did not want the bolts that hold the trucks on to split the wood, so I added aluminum plates to the top of the deck, to spread the load from the screw's caps.  To make the plates level with the surface of the deck, I routed depressions for them.  The edges were finished by hand with some tiny chisels.

The plates were epoxied to the deck, and drilled for the bolts.

To prep the wood for finishing, I sanded the wood progressively to up to 1500 grit sandpaper, leaving the surface extremely smooth and almost polished.

Rather than applying some sort of varnish or polyurethane, I finished the sufrace of the wood with tung oil.  Tung oil gives the wood a lovely color, waterproofs the surface, and (in my opinion) looks and feels nicer than a clear coat that adds material to the sufrace of the wood.

Here's a comparison of the oiled vs unfinished wood:

And here it is with the trucks bolted on.  As usual, I used countersunk stainless steel socket cap screws.

Once I get some wheels, it will be ready to ride.

PocketBoard: The Tiny Oak Skateboard

While my scooter is great for medium to long distance trips (when it is working...), especially with a load of cargo, it is too large and heavy for short excursions.  In order to improve my response time on Free Food and Reuse posts, I needed a very small wheeled vehicle that I could easily stuff into my backpack once I reached my destination.  A couple weeks ago I snagged a pair of skateboard trucks from a reuse pile in CSAIL, which decided that this vehicle was going to be a miniature skateboard.  

I brought the trucks back to Atlanta with me, because it has been a long time since I made anything out of wood.

About 10 years ago, a large oak tree fell across our back yard.  This past year, my dad got a chainsaw so he could cut up and remove the massive trunk, so we have a number of oak trunk sections in our back yard.  Despite sitting outside for a decade, only the outer couple of inches of wood are rotten, so there is still plenty of good wood left, if you are willing to work for it.  My dad split off a 1.5" thick board for me from one of these stumps.

Here's the board.  I passed it through my granddad's planer a few times to get it flat on both sides.  I originally planned on thinning it down completely on the planer, but for some reason the wood was extremely hard to push through.

The board was thinned down to just over 1/2" thick using a 36 grit grinding wheel on an angle grinder. This method proved to remove material remarkably quickly: I removed a half inch of solid oak in 15 or 20 minutes.  The surface of the board will be planed by hand for a nicer finish.