A Cute Little 3D Printed Skateboard

[Julian] has been wanting a tiny little skateboard for a while now, and decided to make something useful on his 3D printer. A little more than twenty hours later a tiny and cute printed skateboard popped out.

[Julian] got the files for his 3D printed skateboard from Thingiverse and printed them off on a MakerGear M2. The parts printed easily, each part taking about six hours to print. The parts are bolted together with five threaded rods, the trucks were screwed on, and the wheels popped into place.

While a normal skateboard probably wouldn’t stand up to the 3D printed parts and threaded rod construction, this Pennyboard is tiny, and most of [Julian]’s weight is right over the trucks at all times. This is also not a board that’s going to see a lot of tricks; it’s basically a micro longboard for moving from one place to another, not something you’ll need to find an abandoned in-ground pool to use properly.

You can check out the video below.

23 thoughts on “A Cute Little 3D Printed Skateboard

      1. The next episodes of “Ridiculousness” is going to be a lot more interesting after this. Or it might just be that the X-Games take extreme to its highest level via pay-per-view.

    1. Yeah, so, Julian downloaded a file, printed it on his commercially available 3d printer, then assembled the pieces like something I would buy from Ikea, and sprayed on some paint.

      I wouldn’t classify that as a hack, but kudos for him for doing this if it’s outside of his normal experience.

      Julian, now try *making* something instead of *assembling*. It’s a lot more satisfying, and it’s the next step for you, especially given your general aspirations as indicated on your blog.

      1. There’s only so many new ‘hacks’ on the net. I enjoy Brian’s articles and most of the others here and it saves me spending the hours it would take to comb the net looking for them.

        If you find better ‘hacks’ then please clue us all in as well.

        1. I send in enough. But I think their stuff is broken over there, as none of it ever comes through.
          Usually end up grinding my teeth when it pops up months later and someone else taking the cake for it.

          I should quit coming here.

          1. Don’t quit coming, how else will you see all the cool things people have downloaded from Thingiverse and printed on their Makerbot? If you are lucky they might even feature a Yoda!

            I jest. It’s ok HaD, i know that taking an fdm print to the streets is a step further than we ordinarily see from these machines, so It’s cool with me.

        2. I’m sorry. I certainly don’t want to come across as snide, I enjoy a “quick hack” as much as the next guy. And I too enjoy Brian’s articles. And I most certainly want to stay positive in my criticism, there’s already too much hate out there.

          It is, of course, ultimately the decision of the authors and they actually need to come up with content even on a slow day. That being said, there should be *some* threshold of what actually qualifies as “hack”. I feel it dilutes Hackaday to report “non-hacks” like these. This is literally just one 3D printer above “guy downloads file from web”. Not a big thing this once, but I’d hate it if Hackaday become just another website to publish articles for the sake of publishing articles.

    1. Couldn’t agree more. But I’m sure that is too easy to get featured on someplace like HaD.

      In all seriousness however, it’s a nice thing to read something so light once in a while, but at least reach out to the original designer for some documentation on the design process.

    1. agreed, when i worked with (commercial!) FDM and SLS printers about 8 years ago, you had to be really thoughtful about the orientation of your part when it was going to be subjected to significant stresses. judging from the orientation of the layers in these parts, you will get cracks along the layers eventually due to flexing (the metal rods will support the weight but i think they will flex)
      a 45deg angle would probably have been better iirc, though not as fancy looking due to required support structures

  1. Julian’s build is nice, and I appreciate him taking the trouble to make a slick video. It adds a lot over just a CAD render.

    However, if true that this is Ken’s design (biggiesmallsville on Thingiverse) — where is the shout out for Ken? I didn’t notice one on the blog, or in the video. No one would think it was ok for me to brag on my clone of someone else’s breakout board without giving some credit to the original designer. Or a fork of someone else’s project. Or a remix of someone else’s blog post.

    Obviously the point of Thingiverse is for people to build things. Hopefully Ken is pleased to have a cool video of someone making his design. But still, credit where credit is due.

  2. Actually its kind of exciting! The fact that he was able to do anything near what he is doing now “even if the act itself isn’t a hack” is a perfect tribute to the people that have been hacking for years on
    designing printers
    making them better and cheap enough for the masses
    and have the files easy and available to the masses
    Its a testament to years of hacks!

  3. If I had the choice, I would probably print these elements either flat or laying on the side so that plastic threads are aligned in the axial direction of the skate. Even if his printer is decent, these additive 3d printed parts tend to be quite bad at standing tension stress.

    1. That would be an interesting experiment. We saw recently some guys making wooden bearings. Is it feasible to make 3d-printed bearings that can handle a person’s weight? Perhaps we can’t make a skateboard but we can probably do something.. like a child’s plastic motorbike or who knows.

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