Do you need a CNC machine?
There are a lot of people who see CNC machines and figure that with one they’ll be able to do something faster, or more accurately, or have it do something they can’t do by hand. These are...
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CNC Machines: build or buy?
People frequently ask me if they should build their own CNC machine like the one I’ve built or just buy one. I don’t necessarily want to discourage anyone, but it really comes down to how much...
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Site updates today
Today I moved all of the snowboard construction content from the main Happy Monkey site over to posts in this blog. This will make it more convenient for me to organize and add to it. None of the...
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Snowboard construction overview
The purpose of the Making a Monkey posts on this site is to provide information on exactly how I built snowboards at Happy Monkey Snowboards, Inc., so that others may learn from it. This will not be...
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Monkey Press Construction
This is a detailed overview of my press, complete with part numbers where applicable. All part numbers are for McMaster-Carr unless otherwise specified. Steel The press is designed to handle boards...
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Construction Checklist
There are a lot of steps to building a Monkey. There’s lots of things to do to prepare the materials, and lots of stuff to get ready for lamination. I keep track of exactly where I am in a build...
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Press heat control and thermocouples
The press is heated with two custom silicon heat blankets from MEI, each one 14” x 85”, 2,083 watts running on 240v. They heat very quickly and evenly, are flexible, and they can take the...
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Router Bits
So much of core construction involves the trusty router. The primary router I use on my CNC machine is a Porter Cable model 890 2 1/4hp router motor. The part number is 8902. For trimming sidewalls I...
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Overview of cleanup and finishing
After the board comes out of the press we still have a lot of cleanup work to be done before it really starts looking like a snowboard. More pictures of this process will be added later. I was...
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The Monkey Press
I press Monkeys in my custom built pneumatic snowboard press. The press heats both the top and bottom of the laminate to 175F with two 2,083 watt heat blankets that provide direct, even, controlled...
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