Thought I'd share what I've been up to lately...
After doing some internet research I made a plywood kiteboard based off the Mako King (aprox dimensions) 165x45

Just rode it last night and had a ball with it...$40 worth of 1/2 inch "cabinet grade" or Birch ply, couple of stainless parts, couple fins, and some spar urethane for water proofing. Built a 2x4 rocker table to get a little bend in it but it's pretty flat! It edges like a Mako but has more "skatey/skimboard" feel when you flatten it out...super fun!

Tools used - Jig saw, belt and finish sander, and the trusty cordless drill.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/K1u6eRGVlfCfsc1aFcOYD7F42k...
Carved some "rail tuck" in the sides for good "bite" on edge...works great!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/j77Xo6ih0xagz6fSCOdFGdEH5l...
Rocker didn't hold very well with 2x2, next time I'll try a 2x4.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZO5nIjFM36xYPQDpfaevyysRU...
Sitting next to my LF Proof 161 board, feels just as big but a couple pounds lighter.

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/IsfodYKOjMgWSCzmsRTOuvE9Cp...
Weeee!!

It has a bit of flex, so I'm not sure how long it will hold with my 210lbs hammering on it...but hey...it's $40 worth of ply...making board #2 now with more rocker and doubled up foot pad area..."Tank/Lawn Mower"..
It should bust right through the chop...but probably try to rip me in two pieces when I try to jump with it...It's also 165x45 but less oval...just rounded the corners...
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Dr9z5YKrDuxEhBjFbcFzCRnuJG...

If you've ever considered building your own board, I'd say GO FOR IT!
Don't over-think it....pick a shape you like, and have some fun!
ROCK ON!!
Steve

Most impressive Steve! Reading the description and then seeing the pics were two totally different events for me. That turned out to be one beautiful board, and as you say, very reasonably priced. Good stuff. Want to make me some snow kiting skis next? Steve

Thanks Swesting!!
Dude...just hit your local home improvement store, grab your skill saw, or find someone who has a table saw and rip some skis out yourself!! It's so easy!!
Nothing to lose!! :P

I'll try attaching a link to the whole album additional pics (including messy garage):
https://goo.gl/photos/E4oDNRz7Hcxtus889

See if that works...

looking pretty good there man, bet you could go thinner!

a narrow beefy laminated center section will allow for thin ply.

very nice , keep dragging it out to your spot and have fun.

he's right, theres no better satisfaction like your own build! esp. when its banging out sessions

Steve, the link to the bigger picture set worked perfectly. It's cool to see V1 vs V2 in your design process. More rocker, second center piece for extra strength, etc. Seeing the pictures again of V1 had me thinking it looked too thin, but that could purely be a misplaced asthetic judgement on my part as I have not personally worked with that level of quality birch wood ply.

Years ago I built a nice pair of ash wood snowshoes. The issue there is in board selection (really straight pure grain with no imperfections). The board I ended up buying at around my 3rd lumber yard was about 10-12 feet long which I rip cut into about 2 x 2s before taking them through multiple small passes on a plane. You can imagine the kind of curvature you need to pull off the nose of a snowshoe and I had to build a steam chamber and build jigs to frame them in once I pulled the wood out of the steamer all warm, toasty, soggy, and flexible. Snowshoes have "rocker" in the tip too you know so the jigs were as hard to set up as any other part of the project. They turned out to work pretty well in terms of balance, weight, etc, but not as good as a commercial set. But as I know you would appreciate, they were sweet to trudge around in because I had made them.

I was just joking about the skis. I live in a ski town (Park City, UT) and folks will practically pay you to take old skis off their hands just to get their wives to stop #@%$#!ing about the garage clutter.

very nice...i would like to do this at some point myself....why two fins instead of four? does this give you a specific type ride your after? i assume fins let you set an edge easier and trac straighter....same as fin depth??

Fin is only really used when riding "flat"...most of the time while riding your using the rail...
I figured 4 fins wouldn't really help with with as much "round" as I gave this board (hard to get them all the way out to the tips).
Needless to say...it works great...I may carve a bigger set of fins for giggles out of some old cutting board material just to try...but I'm pretty happy for now.

Thanks again everyone for the kind words/comments!!

PLY-ON!!

Really nice Herb. If I had some water nearby, I would have already tried to make one.

so cool Herb

I'm envious

Those look really great! :cool2: