Paul Schmitt's Skateboard Deck Factory, PS Stix Article at Skatepark of Tampa

Paul Schmitt's Skateboard Deck Factory, PS Stix

Posted on Monday, June 4, 2007 by Ryan

Paul Schmitt's Skateboard Deck Factory, PS Stix
Photos and Captions by Ryan Clements
The tour began in the graphics room. This is a heat transfer graphic that Prof. Schmitt is holding up. Ironically it was a Selego graphic that they were working on, so I had to start right there with the photos
You know the plies of your skateboard deck? Well, this machine is a press that glues the separate plies together. They do five boards at a time, so that's why sometimes you get the same exact board with a little more or little less concave
This is a climate controlled room that stores all of the decks before they are cut into specific shapes
The pieces of wood on the racks in the background behind Prof. Schmitt are the molds that are used to cut shapes
That's a serious drill press, huh? This thing is operated by a computer so it knows exactly how big of a wheel base to make for each deck
It was difficult to catch this saw in action because the doors close over the front of it when it's operating, but it cut the boards from rectangles to their shapes while being guided by the molds that you saw a couple pictures back
This guy is using the router - it takes the square edges and makes them round. Each board takes about 12 seconds to route
The fellas at the sanding station make the edges smooth
Looks like we got a batch of Elements in the works by the look of the laser seal on that deck
At first Prof. Schmitt told me that I wasn't permitted to shoot a photo of this machine, but then he said, "Go ahead, I think my competitors have seen this technology anyway." This is yet another sander that gets the decks ready for veneer and graphics
I didn't get a good pic of the guys spraying the veneer on the decks, but this is one that was freshly done and still wet
Anyone need a Black Label deck? Looks like we caught up with a fine batch of Childress models
I think that we need one of those shrink wrapping machines for our Shop!
Boom. The shrink wrap gets heated and shrinks and the decks are stacked into cartons and shipped off to your favorite company
I would like to take this time to say thanks to Prof. Schmitt for taking the time out of his day for a proper-ass tour. I earned my tape measure
Neal Hendrix picked me up from PS Stix and we talked some business over brunch. Neal used to skate for New Deal back-in-the-day and Prof. Schmitt was an owner in that venture
SoCal is a trip. So Neal and I are eating lunch and I was like, "Wow. There's Omar Salazar." Those guys were grabbing lunch on our way out. The Quik to Analog coup L to R - Stefan Janoski, Mark Oblow, sorry Homie - I forgot your name, Dylan Rieder, Omar Salazar
The fruits of your labor can sometimes be really juicy. This is me getting a scratcher in Prof. Schmitt's private bowl in his backyard. Life is good

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