HOW TO ASSEMBLE A SKATEBOARD
Every gadget should come with a manual. But if yours did not, don’t panic. We have got you, this article will be your manual and guide. Skateboard assembling can be a herculean task, but this manual will guide you through and make your quest easier and less stressful. If you go through these steps judiciously, you are on the path to avoiding errors or mishaps with our guide.
Before we begin, be sure to order your skateboard or purchase its parts from the gadget store closest to you. You need to assemble the different parts of your board with some tools and a few accessories. So chill, it is not a difficult one.
PARTS OF A SKATEBOARD
- Skateboard deck, which comes in various sizes and if you must choose, choose based on your feet size and skating preference and its sizes are measured in breadth and should be approximately eight inches.
- Two board trucks and two bolts, each for a wheel.
- Four skateboard wheels which are in different sizes and hardness. Please choose what suits you.
- Right skateboard wheel bearing; this package comes in varieties such as Abec-3, Abec-5, and Abec-7. While Abec- 3 exists as slowest, Abec-7 highest.
- One band of grip tape that will be larger than the surface of your board’s deck
- The skateboard’s two riser pad
- Also, the right pieces of bolts and eight pieces of screws are both called hardware.
TOOLS
- Socket Wrench
- Screwdriver
OTHERS ACCESSORIES
- Needles
- Razor or knife
- Metal file
STEPS TO ASSEMBLE YOUR SKATEBOARD
- Keep all its parts arranged; when all your skateboard parts are acquired, arrange them and keep them in a place carefully. You may even need to keep them in a box until each is needed. Don’t lose any of these parts.
- Place your deck down on a leveled surface; To nicely apply your grip take on the deck, you need to have it lay straight on a leveled surface. This will help you apply your grip take evenly on your board’s deck from its nose to tail ends.
- Apply the grip tape; To do this, take these steps
- Firstly, take out the protective plastic sheet that comes in rectangular shape off from your band of grip tape just like a sticker.
- Secondly, lay the band grip tape over your board and place it thoroughly and make sure to have covered the deck. And while laying it, handle the adhesive parts of the grip tape carefully.
- Hold the ends of your grip tape slightly in between your fingers. And in yanking the ends of your tape, locate the boundaries of your deck with your forefinger and let the gripe tape fall smooth upon the deck. Before this, locate the nose and tail of your board, that is, the part that is a steeper incline and a narrow curve, respectively.
- Smoothen the grip tape with your palms; press the deck’s grip tape to rub the surface carefully. Press it hard to remove air bubbles. Begin from the center and propel outwards towards the nose and tail ends.
- Make sure you remove all visible air bubbles. This will help the grip tape stay longer on the skateboard deck and not allow small stones and rock to go in between the grip tape and deck, which may cause discomfort to you while riding. If, after all, you still find hidden air bumps in the grip tape, burst them with a pointed object-like needle and scrape them off though not noticed.
- Cut off the excess grip tape; first, use a screwdriver or a metal file and brush along the edge of the board to obtain an outline for easy trimming.
- Trim the edge with a sharp knife or razor blade, preferably. It’s simplest to start at the center of your deck rather than its edges.
- Angle your razor as you cut perpendicularly and peel off all excess grip tape and when done, use a file to smoothen its edges.
- Sand down or smoothen the edge surfaces; Pick out the excess grip tape and rub it on the edges of the deck like sandpaper. In doing this, you are smoothening out the rough edges or raised parts that could peel off.
- Poke out the bolt holes; Locate where to make holes on your grip tape. When seen, make eight bolt holes with a wrench or a screwdriver on your deck. Four upwards and four downwards.
- Align the riser pads with the bolted holes on your skateboard; to arrange this riser, clearly position the risers directly upon the holes already made on the board and your screws into the holes. This riser pad is meant to avoid cracks due to pressure, and these small cracks are seen around the skateboard truck and act as a shock absorber.
- The skateboard truck installation: To install the trucks, bring out the package of hardware containing the bolts and screws, and their different colors will help you differentiate which bolt or screw is for the nose or tail of the skateboard.
- Place the trucks one at a time and on each place in their respective screw based on colors on the skateboard’s nose or tail.
- Utilize your fingers to hold or put the hardware in place while you fix it in your flat square portion called the base plate, which adheres directly to the deck while the “T shaped” part of the truck faces down. Tighten the nuts over the truck using a socket wrench and screwdriver to fasten the heads of the screw.
- Ensure the kingpins on the two trucks, that is, the part of the truck with big nuts and latex brushing, face one another. If not, the skateboard riding will not be suitable.
- Put in bearing into the wheels; press on bearing into wheels, do the following, and if you don’t have a bearing press, then your thumbs or the trucks can help out.
- Insert the bearing firmly into the two sides of the board’s wheel
- Now, using your finger, insert the bearing into the wheels
- To secure and put the bearing into the wheel, or have them onto the truck and insert firmly. Be sure are completely inserted in all way.
- Do the same for all four wheels
- Install wheels on the trucks; to do this, follow these steps.
- First place put a part called a washer on the axle of each board’s truck
- Secondly, attach each wheel onto the trucks respectively and put in another set of washers again on the axle of the four wheels.
- Install nuts on the axles and use your hand to tighten the nuts into the axle.
Lastly, use a sized wrench that is appropriate to tighten the axle bolt into its truck. Make sure not to twist the bolt excessively.
Release a sufficient vacuum for your skateboard wheel to rotate and swirl freely. If the swirling of the wheel is being altered when riding, this shows that you have the bolt over tightened. And if so, loosen the nuts just a few turns to be suitably free. Also, make sure your wheels are leveled, and if they lie at an angle, your bearing is not well fixed.
DONE ASSEMBLING? LET’S EXAMINE IT
- Be sure screws and grip tape is evenly placed; the heads of the screw will be flushed with the excess grip tape, and if screw heads protrude, it will be hard to perform skating tricks and maneuvers.
- If the screws are not flush, tighten further but be careful not to break or crack the deck’s wood.
- Examine the trucks; check out carefully and make sure your trucks are secured firmly to the deck, and the base plate portion connected to the deck should not move at all.
- If trucks are not firmly put in place (loose), you will have a general issue riding your skateboard and, more dangerous, a newbie.
- If too tight, you will get disability in making turns with your board.
- Stand on your skateboard, ride backward and forward on your skateboard and skate around. In doing this, you are to test how tightened your truck is and how freely its wheels can swirl.
- If the board feels shaky, tighten the nut on kingpin clockwise on each truck.
- Are your trucks too tight? Turn the nut on your kingpin counter-clockwise to avoid trouble turning.
- Once you cannot coast for a long time or feel this friction when pushing, please loosen your wheel a bit further.
Conclusion
If you follow these steps carefully, I bet you will not have challenges being your skateboard’s mechanic and, without stress, fix your board properly. So what are you waiting for? Hey! Let’s go skating.