Sunsurfer's Homebake UPM Plate Recipe.

[SunSurfer]

A detailed construction description of the final 2010 version, ridden for 7 full days in New Zealand's South Island is now available for anyone who doesn't feel able to afford a plate right now, when the technology is new and still being refined.

In time the price points may come down, the advantages and disadvantages will be better described, and the longevity of the different designs will be clear.

I have had an absolute ball thinking this design up, and creating it in my garage. It has happily filled a summer between snow seasons. More than that, my experience of riding a plate gave me an even bigger smile than I would normally get from snowboarding.

Along the way I have had particular encouragement and useful hints from fellow plate designers, Lowrider & Sean Martin. Thank you.

E-mail:

aj dot mckenzie at clear dot net dot nz

for the .pdf.

Have a great Northern Hemisphere winter 2010-11!

SunSurfer

[pow4ever]

Thank you so much for sharing!! It's so cool that

How handy does one need to be to follow the cook book?

Any special tools? drill press/BFH?

Thank you again for sharing this!!

--

David

[Corey]

If you want, you can host files on a site like www.adrive.com for free for a couple weeks.

[RideGuy]

You can post it in google docs and it's there forever. All you need is a gmail account. If you don't have one I can post it for you.

[SunSurfer]

Had a few requests already. Nice to know people are interested. Although I took some care writing it, I know from past experience that having someone else read your stuff is the best way to find the typo's and ambiguities. Direct e-mail means I can get feedback and do any final editing needed.

I have a G-mail account, but had wondered whether the best place for the .pdf might eventually be as a tech article here on Bomber. This is one of the places, in the English speaking world, where people are likely to come looking for information about alpine snowboarding.

Recipe includes a list of the beyond basic workshop tools you'll need to do a reasonable job. I bought a second hand drill press, something I'd always wanted to have anyway, to drill the holes with adequate accuracy. A hand held drill is just not accurate enough on getting the holes vertical.

See Fin's comments when drilling holes in a Sigi Grabner board in the thread about 4x4 to UPM conversion.

http://www.bomberonline.com/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=313201&postcount=8

Email me either via the site or at the address above.

Best wishes

SunSurfer

[boarderboy]

I'm going to read all the replies in the 'Plates for Free-Carving' thread to see what implications there might be re fabricating your design for a wider (22.5 cm) Burton E Deck ridden with Mondo 30.5 AT boots.

My (old board) choices that I'm not afraid to experiment with are the E-Deck or an M-6 with Tinkler's early Snow Stix (single rod fore and aft.)

With all the designers/craftsmen/tinkerers on here, I imagine several iterations of your plate will be in use during the 10/11 season.

Thanks again and hope your summer brings great (liquid) waves.

BB

[lowrider]

In the interest of all carvers and future carvers, board collectors and hoarders please don't trash alpine boards for your projects. Any board even those funny things curled up on both ends will work as a plate so have at it with those and pass on the alpine decks to the needy.You never know when or what old alpine board will be a collector.

[SunSurfer]

Looking to reduce wear on the sliding bearing UHMWPE surfaces by increasing the area in contact, much like the Donek plate has a plastic block around its' axle.

Thinking of using a connector nut, with its' thread drilled out to the axle diameter, to act in the same way. The steel will slide on the UHMWPE. This combination has a lower friction coeff. than plastic on plastic.

The height of the coupling nut will need to be taken into account in calculating the position of the bearing surfaces. But if you're up for following this recipe you should be able to work out how you'll do this in your version if you decide you want to use this idea.

I won't be trying it out till next year as I'm about to head off on an extended study trip overseas.

SunSurfer