Snowboard Construction :: How To Make a Snowboard page 2
by Monson Snowboards

Laying up the Board

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Once the resin is mixed, all of the materials are placed in an aluminum tooling, in a specific order, while consistently applying resin on each piece and on all sides of the materials. This guarantees proper adhesion. Kind of like making a club sandwich that consists of many layers.

The materials and tooling now goes into a press. That's right the aluminum tooling with all the materials we just laid together, is placed in a pressing machine. While under extreme pressure, the temperature is also important for the resin to cure properly and in a timely manner (approximately 15 minutes). This process is what presses all of the materials together and forming the tips and tail as well as the camber in the snowboard. It also evenly disburses the resin equally throughout the board.

Once the pressing is complete, the tooling is removed and goes through a cooling process. Once cooled, the board is removed from the tooling and all the excess hardened resin and fiberglass is cut off. It continues to go through a finishing process. This finishing process includes edge grinding, base grinding, drilling out the inserts and stone finishing.

Edge grinding
We run the snowboard along a water cooled edging machine which removes all excess materials as well as creating the angle or pitch that the edge is intended to be. The angle is often 90º. The smaller the angle, the more aggressive the performance of the snowboard. The base side edge is usually prepared in a slightly inclined way (0.5º to 1º inverted) to improve the ease of turning of the board. The side edges are relief-ground up to 86º
depending on the style of riding.) Now that the edges are clean, we are ready to grind the base.

The base material, during the pressing process, accumulates resin that has now hardened on the base and needs to be removed. The board is run through the grinding machine (a large water cooled sanding machine using a 14" wide sanding belt.) Each pass a new belt with a softer grit is used. This begins to polish the base. The board is passed through until it is determined the base is free from resin and any rough spots.

Texturing the base with our stone grinder. There are two types of structure: linear structure / crossed structure. The base surface of snowboards should be structured during production in the factory. Specialist sports shops also transfer a structure onto the surface during stone file tuning.

Why structure?
Structure reduces the friction between the snow and the running surface. The surface should not be completely flat because this would cause a vacuum effect that would impair gliding characteristics. An extremely fine, almost smooth structure is recommended for dry, crystalline snow, while a coarser structure should be selected for amorphous wet snow.

Because lasting structures can only be formed using a special grinding machine, this should be carried out in a specialist shop. There are, of course, also universal structures that are suitable for all snow types. These are used for many bases because most of us do not know what the slopes are going to be like the next time we go riding and we do not want to change our base structure too often.

WAXING THE BOARD
Ready to wax! WAXING THE BOARD (Our factory uses Toko wax)
Why do we need to wax in the first place? A wide-spread opinion states that waxing is no longer necessary with today's high-tech board bases - this is, however, incorrect.

Whoever waxes correctly and regularly, glides better, thus making the board easier to control. Swinging becomes more harmonious and the boarder tires less quickly. The risk of an accident is reduced and both the pleasure and enjoyment of the sport can be easily increased.

Waxed bases are also more resistant, i.e. the useful life of the equipment is prolonged and the risk of minor damage to the base that disturbs the riding performance is reduced. Even boards that are not used are subject to oxidation through UV radiation, oxygen and environmental influences. You can use wax to protect your equipment from this - also during transport, in particular, or the summer break. (Information provided by TOKO, a leader in wax.)

After a final inspection is made, its now time to mount the bindings and head for the mountain!

Pure Enjoyment!

Research
In the Research and Development Department at Monson Snowboards, experiments are constantly underway to develop new or improved products. All materials are carefully inspected by quality control specialists and we test all machines before processing to make sure that every group of snowboards passes our inspections. Each Monson snowboard is designed and manufactured by hand for pure enjoyment. In addition, each group of snowboards are tested during the processing operation to ensure the finest quality.
Monson Snowboards are manufactured in our factory in Montclair, CA in a controlled environment, air-controlled rooms and are closely monitored to meet the company's high standards of quality.

Monson can make your next snowboard ! check out Monsonboards.com >>

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