Router on Baltic Birch, will it splinter?

[Chubz]

Second deck just came out of clamps and I jigged the shape I wanted, but I noticed some very small areas where the plys of the BB lifted from its original sheet, leaving gouges (1/4" or so). Only comparison I can give is when you use a circular saw or jig saw on a sheet of plywood and it splinters and lifts from the sheet.

Looking to use a router on the edges to round them, but worried the sheet plys may splinter and leave those splintered gouges. Will it splinter when routing or is ther something I can put on deck to minimize potential?

Thanks

Greg

[Gecko]

you can always tape on the edge...it helps so does going slow and using a sharp router bit....going slow and not pushing into the grain is the best bet try to pull slowly away from the grain if you can

[xxguitarist]

so, the 20 year old says:

I'd use a block plane rather than a power tool rounding out the edges on the board, you've got more control over the shape, and you can angle the blade so that it shaves cleanly.

I use a couple planes on my boards, some sharp chisels, and for some of the work, i even put down my jigsaw.

final finishing work is split between a sanding block & a random orbital.

yeah, more the answer of someone 3x my age, i know.

for future reference, I've found that BB responds best to a finer tooth blade than is made for wood.

I can't remember for sure, but I think I'm using a laminate/metal blade.

[pebu]

I'd agree with Gecko. Spin up the RPMs of the tool so it's goin pretty quick. Sharp tools always help and a low feed rate is good. But one of the things you want to do is notice which way the tool is turning and adjust your feed direction accordingly. You don't want to have the blade coming from where you just cut and pulling the material towards the outside. That just causes more splintering. But if you have it so the cutter rotates into the workpiece and then ejects the shavings out from the cut side, that should reduce the splinter.

Don't take my word for it, I'm no wood-worker, this is just what I learned from my machine design course in school and it seems to make sense in other areas.

[Chubz]

I havent gotten to it yet, been working on building my sons rocket shaped deck. I finally got my shape cut though and I have begun to round the edges with a sander to lessen the material needed to be routed.

The block planer sounds good but may be a bit difficult for me as I think I have Carpal Tunnel in both wrists so manual wood working may be a challenge.

All in all, I cant get over how fun it is making these damn boards. After all the work I put in to making my first snowboard last year, the skateboards are more fun for me, because you can average one a day if you have the garage set up right. Its fun to see the board come out of the clamps the next morning. If I get bored, I cut another BB sheet and glue and press another blank.

My biggest challenges have been the finish and then I dont even know what to do for graphics if I decide to get away from natural wood finish. I read that one maker has a grippy finish, anyone know what it is?

Lastly, looking for an average set of wheels trucks and bearings for my 4 year old son. He is riding the board like a sled now but I will soon get him up on his feet. Cant see spending $$$ on high end stuff if not necessary.

Gotta run and thanks for the input.

Greg

[xxguitarist]

if you dont want to lose natural wood finish, but want something new.. pick up some veneer from rockler woodworking online, its something like $5 per sheet, and the sheets are maybe 10''x48''

I've used some, and its come out great.

To get the clear grip on the top of the board, lay down a somewhat heavy coat of polyurethane, then sprinkle in slica sand (used for sandblasting, its clear), and polyurethane over it once or twice.

[Chubz]

Been routing this past weekend and the BB does not splinter (only when jigging). Only pain is when the router decides to take off like is has a mind of its own. My boards have some concave and undulations for wheel well and toe and heel lift so when it gets to those areas it tends to take bigger bite. I guess just some practice and patience.

Finally finished my first real deck and have four other awaiting shaping, sanding and enamel.

Once I get them built, I will post.

I'm loving it.

Greg