So regarding dipped boards, if I sand down til I reach the plys, am I in danger of the board delaminating over time faster than it might naturally occur? I'm about to set up a cruiser on a dipped board and am tempted to just sand it down from the jump. Is this a bad idea? Is there something I can apply with a brush or from a can that will fix that?
Any lacquer or clear coat will do just fine, same as any paint to seal the wood. Sanding will almost always remove both the sprayed paint colour as well as the initial clear coat they put on the decks to seal them when first done, so if nothing else, just a light layer of clear coat should do it.
Every dipped board I've ever skated I have a weird madness/fear of slipping out on slides, despite never experiencing that myself. anyone else? Do dipped boards really even provide that much more "slide" than a regularly printed board?
I know some people think the more paint, the more slippery a board will be, but with some paints, it is actually the opposite and the thicker layers of paint make it not slide half as much. No telling between which boards though, but all up any paint could be slippery to start with, but then a whole lot less once you have skated the board a bit.
The most annoying thing I found, as did many others, is with dipped boards, they almost always used the cheaper ply in the construction (usually natural ply layers) which then didn't hold up half as well as other better ply layers that were stained, but that was from a fair while ago and things might have changed now.
More recently, the last BBS board that was fully painted / dipped was all natural and didn't last half as long as the others for a guy I skate with, from one brand I am not going to name, but other brands like FA / Hockey seem to still be on the same wood, stained layers under the dipped colours.
Older PS Stix and NHS boards were very soft wood for their dipped boards, of which I have a lot of broken boards from other people in those options, as well as some not broken but very soggy flexed out decks that are best on the board walls, than under someone's feet.
Curious to know which boards anyone else has had that are dipped and if they are on pricepoint / natural wood or pro stained wood.