Things You'll Need
Birch plywood
Jigsaw
Fiberglass
Fiberglass resin
Heat gun
Press
Hard base wax
Making a homemade snowboard requires a little woodworking skill but can be accomplished with a few simple tools. Snowboards are made with sophisticated presses, saws and high-quality woods, but you can make one using birch, pine or other woods and fiberglass you can buy at a hardware store. Creating effective edges is a chore, but to keep it simple, you can leave this out. This requires using small pieces of metal edging and setting them into the board. You also have to have very precise cutting tools to create the groove.
Step 1
Trace the design of your board onto a piece of poster board and cut it out precisely to create your template.
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Step 2
Trace the design onto several sheets of thin birch, pine or maple plywood. Stack them and secure with a C-clamp.
Step 3
Cut out your snowboard design using a jigsaw, being careful not to cut beyond the line you drew.
Step 4
Use a sander to smooth the edges of your template to the exact shape you want.
Step 5
Slice the template into vertical sections 2 to 3 inches thick.
Step 6
Soak the nose ends of the pieces of the snowboard in water for several hours, then set them up on a vice in the shape of your board, aligning them as they will be aligned when they are glued.
Step 7
Apply heat to the area of the nose you want to bend and bend the pieces using either a press with a pipe used to curl the wood or a series of clamps (see Resources).
Step 8
Glue the strips of wood together with a strong wood epoxy that is light and waterproof.
Step 9
Layer your snowboard with fiberglass strips and epoxy or another plastic laminate. Coat the entire board with the laminate or strips of the fiberglass, and paint the fiberglass resin over them. Let dry.
Step 10
Apply a thick layer of hard base wax to the board by melting the wax and applying it to the bottom of the board.
Step 11
Drill holes in the dry fiberglass and insert the seats for the binding screws. Drill the holes smaller than the seat bolts and install them with a strong metal adhesive.
Tip
There are techniques to bend metal edges you make from scratch, or you can buy them from a snowboard supplier.
Build your snowboard with the lightest materials available. The fiberglass laminate and wax will add some weight to your board. If you want more complex flexibility, cut your strips of wood into different shapes and use varying types of wood with different hardness and flexibility.
Warning
Building your own snowboard can be difficult, so the first one you build may not be the best.
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