Protecting boards from warping

[Bugsytootsie]

Hey slap pals, there's boards in a specific size and shape that I'm trying to stock up on since I don't know it'll keep getting made over time. Any advice on the best storage ways to go about protecting boards for a few years from warping? Like ideal room temp, boxes, plastic, etc

[Alois Hitler Jr.]

Vacuum chamber

[imjusthereforthechips]

from my experience, if they arent warped by now, theyre not gonna get warped. unless you dunk em in water or whatever. ive had boards that were from the 90's as wall hangers and never did anything special with them as far as storage and they were fine. i have a van wastell board from 2008 that i cant for the life of me part with nor set up and its just as new. the only problem you might run into is the graphics may flake off if theyre heat transfer. i have a listen deck from 2006ish that im skating and its got a gnarly warp to it but if i let it sit outside(under an awning) in the winter time, the warp magically goes away. but when the summer comes around, the warp comes back and the board goes back into storage till winter.

[Mbrimson88]

Hey slap pals, there's boards in a specific size and shape that I'm trying to stock up on since I don't know it'll keep getting made over time. Any advice on the best storage ways to go about protecting boards for a few years from warping? Like ideal room temp, boxes, plastic, etc

I store all the currently unused boards in normal board boxes, flat on their belly (graphic down), just cardboard, which works fine.  Failing that, anything to insulate them like plastic or bubble wrap and in the bottom of your cupboard or under a bed is also a good way to keep them.

If they get too hot or dry out too much they become brittle.

If they are in high humidity or in weird cold conditions (like often on an aircraft when I used to travel for work) they get very soggy feeling and heavy.

For any boards in constant full sun (like a shop window) they often warp a lot faster, but you can always sit them at the bottom of a pile or with weights on top and something underneath to make the board warp the other way which straightens them out too - done this and it has worked before.

[Bugsytootsie]

Expand Quote

Hey slap pals, there's boards in a specific size and shape that I'm trying to stock up on since I don't know it'll keep getting made over time. Any advice on the best storage ways to go about protecting boards for a few years from warping? Like ideal room temp, boxes, plastic, etc

[close]

I store all the currently unused boards in normal board boxes, flat on their belly (graphic down), just cardboard, which works fine.  Failing that, anything to insulate them like plastic or bubble wrap and in the bottom of your cupboard or under a bed is also a good way to keep them.

If they get too hot or dry out too much they become brittle.

If they are in high humidity or in weird cold conditions (like often on an aircraft when I used to travel for work) they get very soggy feeling and heavy.

For any boards in constant full sun (like a shop window) they often warp a lot faster, but you can always sit them at the bottom of a pile or with weights on top and something underneath to make the board warp the other way which straightens them out too - done this and it has worked before.

Thank you so much for the info! Seriously appreciated 😁

[frankiesomethin]

Looks like you got a few good answers already but I'll throw in my two cents anyway. 

I'm a cabinetmaker and furniture finisher and I work with maple and birch a lot (the two most common materials skateboards are made of, though maple is most common). Maple is very dense but still moderately affected by humidity. When laminated, the pores of the maple are saturated with adhesive (usually a proprietary blend of something containing PVA glue or sometimes resins like epoxy) and before a board is complete, it's sealed, sometimes with a type of polyurethane (very water resistant) and sometimes with lacquer (less water resistant, dries faster). What I mean to say is that fresh off the line, boards are well prepared to resist the elements. 

As soon as you scrape a tail or wherever, you remove the protective coating and expose the wood to whatever's out there. If you have fresh decks and you keep them indoors in a somewhat well ventilated space between 60F-75F, they'll probably keep for a very long time. If shit goes wrong though, lemme know so I can delete this and save face. Best of luck.

[backagain420]

Don't stack them on top of each other. Don't keep them next to moisture. And don't hang them zumiez style. Follow those rules your boards will be the same as when you bought them.

[Mbrimson88]

Looks like you got a few good answers already but I'll throw in my two cents anyway.

I'm a cabinetmaker and furniture finisher and I work with maple and birch a lot (the two most common materials skateboards are made of, though maple is most common). Maple is very dense but still moderately affected by humidity. When laminated, the pores of the maple are saturated with adhesive (usually a proprietary blend of something containing PVA glue or sometimes resins like epoxy) and before a board is complete, it's sealed, sometimes with a type of polyurethane (very water resistant) and sometimes with lacquer (less water resistant, dries faster). What I mean to say is that fresh off the line, boards are well prepared to resist the elements.

As soon as you scrape a tail or wherever, you remove the protective coating and expose the wood to whatever's out there. If you have fresh decks and you keep them indoors in a somewhat well ventilated space between 60F-75F, they'll probably keep for a very long time. If shit goes wrong though, lemme know so I can delete this and save face. Best of luck.

That is so good from a technical perspective, and yes especially about the untouched sealed deck (also almost always in shrink wrap, which is why I get pissed when shops always remove boards from shrink wrap to put on the wall) vs the used old decks, raw and exposed to the elements.

[RichardBarkley]

Looks like you got a few good answers already but I'll throw in my two cents anyway.

I'm a cabinetmaker and furniture finisher and I work with maple and birch a lot (the two most common materials skateboards are made of, though maple is most common). Maple is very dense but still moderately affected by humidity. When laminated, the pores of the maple are saturated with adhesive (usually a proprietary blend of something containing PVA glue or sometimes resins like epoxy) and before a board is complete, it's sealed, sometimes with a type of polyurethane (very water resistant) and sometimes with lacquer (less water resistant, dries faster). What I mean to say is that fresh off the line, boards are well prepared to resist the elements.

As soon as you scrape a tail or wherever, you remove the protective coating and expose the wood to whatever's out there. If you have fresh decks and you keep them indoors in a somewhat well ventilated space between 60F-75F, they'll probably keep for a very long time. If shit goes wrong though, lemme know so I can delete this and save face. Best of luck.

Thanks mate

So no need to wrap them in anything?

Just stack in a well ventilated space ?

[BALARGUE]

you better store them on the side / edge rather than on top of each other

[Mbrimson88]

I just looked up the temperature difference, Celsius (Australian) and Fahrenheit (USA) and that is pretty chilly for here.

60F-75F equates to about 15-24C, but the average temp here is down to 0C in winter and upwards of 40C in summer, which is from 32F to 104F so my boards definitely need to be in boxes and well insulated.

[Frank]

you want to have them lay flat or in stacks of  5 boards max and put them somewhere with stable conditions in terms of temperature and humidity. no extremes. i would keep them aways from any warm spotlights. dry heat will make the board more brittle. high humidity can go through small cracks sog the board. when the water evaporates fast, warping occures.

in the shops i worked at the boards that warped fastest were those next to the windows or the ones that got heatblasted periodically by the ceiling lights. say you hang em up like many shops do they will warp where they are not fixated, so say you hang em up on some screws or nails at the front truck holes, the bottom part will warp even more.

shrink/seran wrapping won't do alot if the boards are brand new and still coated with a finisher. i would take em out of the shrink wrap to be honest since i wouldn't want any moisture to get trapped in there if i store em for longer.

i don't keep a lot of spare boards nowadays but i had good results with storing them under my bed.

basically keep them at a comfortable room climate and avoid them being exposed to changes of temperature and humidity.

the worst thing you could do to your boards is leave them in the trunk of your car in the winter, especially when you have a mid or rear engine. it will go from super cold to very warm and back all the time and this is what warps boards. generally cartrunks are the worst long term storage for decks unless that car doesn't get moved and the trunk is dry.

i can't back any of this up scientifically, this is all from observation and working in shops and distro warehouses throughout two decades of me skating.

EDIT: removed my second post to add it into this one

you better store them on the side / edge rather than on top of each other

i know i said the opposite(stacking 5 boards max) but i could see this working better if you have different shapes. if it's the same shape i'd still stack em but put some sort of buffer material between them.

[BALARGUE]

Expand Quote

you better store them on the side / edge rather than on top of each other

[close]

i know i said the opposite(stacking 5 boards max) but i could see this working better if you have different shapes. if it's the same shape i'd still stack em but put some sort of buffer material between them.

yes you're right and your whole post is on point.
if same shape (like OP), stacking 5 on a flat surface should be fine

But yeah i would recommend on the side for storing various shapes / sizes
Stacking them would be bad

[Frank]

That is so good from a technical perspective, and yes especially about the untouched sealed deck (also almost always in shrink wrap, which is why I get pissed when shops always remove boards from shrink wrap to put on the wall) vs the used old decks, raw and exposed to the elements.

chiming in once again about the shrink wrap, you don't need it if the board still has his finishing coating. i printed boards when i worked at a distro and blanks would be stored in stacks with a sheet of styrofoam buffer between each board. some still warped tho or sometimes a whole box of boards would arrive already warped.

one thing to note tho is that with heat transfer the edges of the graphic are usually cut and finished by hand using an exacto knife or razortype blade and it's possible that some lacquer gets stripped off in the process. this shouldn't be a problem if humidity isn't too high or the board doesn't get outright wet.

i take off the shrink wrap since it can trap condensed water vapor from outside in high humidity, which looks like the board is sweating in its wrap. 

[Frank and Fred]

Only boards I had warp were in my attic space during a hot summer. I keep my spares flat (not stacked ) on a Mexican rug in a temperature consistent room. In saying that I had a crooked that was hanging on the wall for years. Pulled it off one day and it was still perfect. Skated it and it was great.

[chrisskates808]

Heard that it can get warped if you leave your board for too long in a trunk especially summer. Never really experienced a warped board luckily.

[frankiesomethin]

I just looked up the temperature difference, Celsius (Australian) and Fahrenheit (USA) and that is pretty chilly for here.

60F-75F equates to about 15-24C, but the average temp here is down to 0C in winter and upwards of 40C in summer, which is from 32F to 104F so my boards definitely need to be in boxes and well insulated.

60F-75F would be an ideal storage temperature range, but I'm sure they'd fare well a little outside of that zone as long as humidity is low. I can't speak for how a shop owner or manufacturer should go about storing mass quantities of decks, long term, with temperatures fluctuating between freezing and +100F throughout the year, but if the OP just wants to store a few decks somewhere inside his home that'd be good since most folks keep their homes climate controlled somewhere between 60F and 75F.

shrink/seran wrapping won't do alot if the boards are brand new and still coated with a finisher. i would take em out of the shrink wrap to be honest since i wouldn't want any moisture to get trapped in there if i store em for longer.

I think this is good advice. Shrink wrap is a protective barrier against superficial damage before a deck hits the shelves. It's not doing anything to help keep the wood stable. Like you say, if moisture were to enter under shrink wrap somehow, having it sit there for an extended amount of time would be bad. I'm not sure what the moisture content of a deck is after pressing (before pressing, the plies are <10% MC), or the average amount of time a factory waits to allow decks to flash off finishing products and moisture from adhesives, but it probably is best to have decks unwrapped with a little space between them for airflow. Concave can help with that space separation and/or a sheet of newspaper or cardboard.

Like others have said, decks are pretty stable upon shipping time so just avoid moisture, direct sun, humidity, and extreme temperatures and they should keep for years.

[Mbrimson88]

Some of mine are 10+ years and no issues with them.

Good quality wood, stored well, still skate well.

[Genericwhitemale]

Paul Schmitt says to not open the box of decks immediately, but to let sit for an hour or so to allow the decks to absorb the new temperature. And for storage, decks should be in a thick plastic bag in a box and laid horizontally.

[lk130]

Get a Vx or impact deck

[lk130]

Or flight💀

[Eric Dolphy]

Looks like you got a few good answers already but I'll throw in my two cents anyway.

I'm a cabinetmaker and furniture finisher and I work with maple and birch a lot (the two most common materials skateboards are made of, though maple is most common). Maple is very dense but still moderately affected by humidity. When laminated, the pores of the maple are saturated with adhesive (usually a proprietary blend of something containing PVA glue or sometimes resins like epoxy) and before a board is complete, it's sealed, sometimes with a type of polyurethane (very water resistant) and sometimes with lacquer (less water resistant, dries faster). What I mean to say is that fresh off the line, boards are well prepared to resist the elements.

As soon as you scrape a tail or wherever, you remove the protective coating and expose the wood to whatever's out there. If you have fresh decks and you keep them indoors in a somewhat well ventilated space between 60F-75F, they'll probably keep for a very long time. If shit goes wrong though, lemme know so I can delete this and save face. Best of luck.

Are the mounting holes drilled before or after laminating tho? They're small but they're closer to the core of the board, do you think moisture getting into the wood through the holes is a concern?

[Mbrimson88]

Expand Quote

Looks like you got a few good answers already but I'll throw in my two cents anyway.

I'm a cabinetmaker and furniture finisher and I work with maple and birch a lot (the two most common materials skateboards are made of, though maple is most common). Maple is very dense but still moderately affected by humidity. When laminated, the pores of the maple are saturated with adhesive (usually a proprietary blend of something containing PVA glue or sometimes resins like epoxy) and before a board is complete, it's sealed, sometimes with a type of polyurethane (very water resistant) and sometimes with lacquer (less water resistant, dries faster). What I mean to say is that fresh off the line, boards are well prepared to resist the elements.

As soon as you scrape a tail or wherever, you remove the protective coating and expose the wood to whatever's out there. If you have fresh decks and you keep them indoors in a somewhat well ventilated space between 60F-75F, they'll probably keep for a very long time. If shit goes wrong though, lemme know so I can delete this and save face. Best of luck.

[close]

Are the mounting holes drilled before or after laminating tho? They're small but they're closer to the core of the board, do you think moisture getting into the wood through the holes is a concern?

Some of the older videos don't show the holes being drilled, but this clip shows them being drilled at the same time as the decks are cut, so pre lacquer finish (and he talked about the pre coat but didn't show that part).

About 24:00 but the whole video is probably the most comprehensive video I have seen from BBS with regard to making a skateboard, start to finish. 

[90sDamiano]

Don’t stack them on top of each other, I put them in a board box and stand it up vertically or just lean them up against the wall of my closet.

[Frank]

Don’t stack them on top of each other, I put them in a board box and stand it up vertically or just lean them up against the wall of my closet.

you can do that, but stacking horizontally is not bad! again, i worked at distros, i printed boards. the blanks, and it doesn't matter where we got them from, always come stacked horizontally. sometimes they come in boxes of 10 boards, sometimes its straight up a whole palette of blanks stacked up manhigh. it's not that bad for your board if it's the same shape. if it's not the same shape put some buffer between it and you're good.

what you see in the video above at bbs when they stack em vertically is just to sort them out and to mark the raw uncut blanks per shapes i guess. they are not stored like that.

temperature stability and humidity control are the biggest factors to keep a boards shape, how you stack them is not irrelevant, but surely further down the list.

[captaindoody]

The only way to stop this board from warping is if you go back in time and save Tracer

[stevedave]

the thing about saving boards these days is that they're all heat transfers, not screened.  eventually, they graphic will deteriorate and flake off (I'm talking YEARS). if you remove the shrink wrap, that process will speed up.  they just don't have the longevity of screened boards.

[Mbrimson88]

Expand Quote

Don’t stack them on top of each other, I put them in a board box and stand it up vertically or just lean them up against the wall of my closet.

[close]

you can do that, but stacking horizontally is not bad! again, i worked at distros, i printed boards. the blanks, and it doesn't matter where we got them from, always come stacked horizontally. sometimes they come in boxes of 10 boards, sometimes its straight up a whole palette of blanks stacked up manhigh. it's not that bad for your board if it's the same shape. if it's not the same shape put some buffer between it and you're good.

what you see in the video above at bbs when they stack em vertically is just to sort them out and to mark the raw uncut blanks per shapes i guess. they are not stored like that.

temperature stability and humidity control are the biggest factors to keep a boards shape, how you stack them is not irrelevant, but surely further down the list.

Yeah, funny that different people say how to stack or not to stack boards.

All of mine, flat in the board boxes, most mellow on the bottom, as I often have ten or more of the same boards, never had any issues with them.

Whatever hey?!? 

[Mbrimson88]