I’ve got about 100 miles on the the 3D printed bindings right now and all is well.
Here’s what’s going on with that project right now. I’m talking with an injection molding company about having these manufactured using Fiberglass filled nylon, the same stuff used to make Rockstar II hubs. We’ve gone through the process of optimizing the design for injection molding and have done simulated load testing to ensure that the end-product can handle the types of force generated by riders.
Before I get molds made I would like to do further testing with 3D printed prototypes. I have to go back and reconfigure the models for 3D printing, but after that I’d be down to share stl. files with some testers and send out hardware kits. Just give me a few days to get my act together. I’m going to do the testing here on this forum. So if you’d like to get involved, just keep an eye on the thread.
Alright guys, I got my shit together with regards to the ratcheting toe-hooks. I made some adjustments to the design to help optimize them for 3D printing and made a private repository on github. If you’d like to get involved with some testing shoot me a message on the side so I can invite you to collaborate on the project and send you a parts kit. I might need help with shipping if you are outside of the States.
I printed mine from ABS at 20% infill and they have worked well, but I might make some that are more solid. I don’t think it will hurt. If you test these out be careful. This design is intended ultimately for an injection molded product. 3d printed models are functional and fun but they have their drawbacks. So just be careful and inspect them regularly.
Here’s some stuff that I’ve been playing with out in the sk8-shed. I’ve been working on deck + enclosure designs. I started with one of my short boards for simplicity sake. The deck is 6 layers of bamboo thick, 4 long-cut + 2 cross-cut. The bottom side of the deck has a 6 oz fiber-glass lay-up. The top-side has glass frit. There are two different truck positions to help optimize for TKP or RKP. The kick-tail is luxuriously sized. The deck is 10 inches at its widest point.
The enclosure is a little crude but it’s the first one. I designed it in cad and formed it to the deck. Then I generated molds and imported them into my CAM software. After that the CNC table-router handled the rest. This prototype enclosure is made from ABS. I have some kydex coming in this week to test out. This design was small enough to make with my kitchen oven. My thermoforming oven is in the mail, so I should be able to make much larger enclosures by the end of the week. I’m going to design a sexier 21700 SS and DS for this one.
Speaking of larger enclosures. This is a mountain board design that I’ve been working on. It’s based off of the same mold as another board that I’ve been making and testing for a while, but this one is wider, 10.6 inches, and it has another truck-mounting position. This one is 7 layers of bamboo thick, 5 long-cut + 2 cross cut. It has a 6 oz fiber glass lay-up across the top and 8 oz along the bottom. I’m working on an enclosure for it right now.
Thanks man. I can do a lot of flex customization on this deck. I can fit it to riders from 150-250 lbs and make it from rubbery to stiff depending on the riders preference.
Have you incorporated a draft angle or done any calculations on that to maintain wall thickness? I have some experience in mold design and vacuum thermoforming, would be happy to share knowledge and assist. It’s overall a simple process, which I’m sure you’ve realized having been able to do it in an oven once now. On the larger scale ones I would recommend scallops or some other geometry to add rigidity to the large flat surfaces. Flex joints along it to make them smaller sections would be good for that as well and are not too hard to implement either.
I think I have more than a couple enclosures/molds I’d already designed, but never been able to get produced.
On V2 I included draft angles and scallops. On the big designs I included flex joints. I’ll post some CAD pics soon.
If you have an enclosure design that you want to make more than one of, I could probably help you out. It would be a little pricey to make a mold for just one.
