longboard

22 Articles

Unconventional Longboard Built From Single Slice Of Tree

October 20, 2022 by 21 Comments

Typically, skateboards and longboards are made out of many laminated layers of wood. This gives them a pleasing flex that produces a comfortable ride. However, it’s not the only way to do things. [DesignCo] went for an unconventional design, using a large slice out of a tree instead.

The benefit of using a section of tree trunk for a board is that it has a very attractive look with all the rings visible. To turn it into a board, it was first roughly cut to shape, before being planed down to a uniform thickness. Further shaping was then achieved with the use of a flap wheel on an angle grinder. The wood was finished with several coats of tung oil before being given a final seal with matte lacquer. A solid steel tail was then prepared to match, shaped with an nice curve and with two bolts screwed in. These bolts were then epoxied into the board, joining the two, and trucks installed underneath.

The final build looks stunning, and is ride-able too. It’s likely a little slipperier than a board with grip tape, and it probably wouldn’t handle bumps as well as a traditional design. Long boards are rarely about performance anyway, though, and this board looks like great fun to get around on.

We’ve seen non-traditional longboards before, too. Video after the break.

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Cardboard Longboard Uses Quarter-Isogrid Structure

November 12, 2019 by 19 Comments

Skateboards are most typically crafted by hand, carved out of wood layered by care. However, many makers have sought to explore alternative techniques. [Technovation] decided to combine alternative materials and digital fabrication techniques to produce this attractive cardboard longboard.

The structure of the board was designed in Fusion 360, featuring a quarter isogrid design. The structure consists of stringers connected by ribs, all made of cardboard, with interlocking slots to hold everything together. 1/4″ plywood is then used to reinforce the truck mounts, and a top and bottom baseplate of 4mm acrylic is installed to protect the cardboard from damage.

The parts for the board are all laser cut, making production and assembly a snap. No glue is used, either – the structure is able to hold itself together perfectly well with its slotted construction. The team note that having a rider on the board does create some significant flex, but it hasn’t caused a failure in practice.

Skateboards are a popular maker project, and we’ve seen all kinds over the years. Modern manufacturing techniques are often brought to bear, or designs are created to solve tricky travel problems. Video after the break.

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Vacuum Molding With Kitchen Materials

December 26, 2017 by 14 Comments

Vacuum pumps are powerful tools because the atmospheric pressure on our planet’s surface is strong. That pressure is enough to crush evacuated vessels with impressive implosive force. At less extreme pressure differences, [hopsenrobsen] shows us how to cleverly use kitchen materials for vacuum molding fiberglass parts in a video can be seen after the break. The same technique will also work for carbon fiber molding.

We’ve seen these techniques used with commercially available vacuum bags and a wet/dry vac but in the video, we see how to make an ordinary trash bag into a container capable of forming a professional looking longboard battery cover. If the garbage bag isn’t enough of a hack, a ball of steel wool is used to keep the bag from interfering with the air hose. Some of us keep these common kitchen materials in the same cabinet so gathering them should ’t be a problem.

Epoxy should be mixed according to the directions and even though it wasn’t shown in the video, some epoxies necessitate a respirator. If you’re not sure, wear one. Lungs are important.

Fiberglass parts are not just functional, they can be beautiful. If plastic is your jam, vacuums form those parts as well. If you came simply for vacuums, how about MATLAB on a Roomba?

Thank you [Jim] who gave us this tip in the comments section about an electric longboard.

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Printed Parts Make DIY Electric Longboard Possible

November 4, 2017 by 13 Comments

Appalled by expensive electric longboards, [Conor Patrick] still wanted one, and wanted it now. So — naturally — he converted an existing board into a sprightly electric version at a fraction of the cost.

[Patrick] is using a capable 380KV Propdrive motor, capable of pushing him up to 30mp/h! A waterproof 120A speed controller and 6000mAh, 22.2V LiPo battery slim enough to fit under the board give the motor the needed juice. He ended up buying the cheapest RF receiver and remote combo to control the board, but it fit the all-important “want electric long board now” criterion.

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This Electric Longboard Collapses For Air Travel

September 8, 2017 by 26 Comments

How do you manage to get an electric off-road longboard past TSA and onto an international flight? Simple — make it a collapsible longboard that fits into a carry-on bag.

The mechanical and electrical feats accomplished by [transistor-man] may not be the most impressive parts of this hack. We’re pretty impressed by the build, starting as it did with the big knobby tires and front truck from an unused mountain board and the hub motor from a hoverboard, turning this into a trike. The incredible shrinking chassis comes courtesy of a couple of stout drawer slides and cam locks to keep it locked in place; collapsed, the board fits in a carry on bag. Expanded, it runs like a dream, as the video below shows.

But we think the really interesting part of this hack is the social engineering [transistor-man] did to ensure that the authorities wouldn’t ground his creation for electrical reasons. It seems current rules limit how big a battery can be and how many of them can be brought on a flight, so there was a lot of battery finagling before his creation could fly.

Electric longboards look like a real kick, whether they be all-aluminum or all-plastic, or even all-LEGO. This one, which went from concept to complete a week and a half before the flight, really raises the bar.

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Hackaday Prize Entry: An Electric Longboard

April 8, 2017 by 15 Comments

The Hackaday Prize is in full swing, and that means we’re starting to see all the builds a few select people have been saving up for the past few months. [yowhwui] has been working on a 3D printed electric longboard for a while now, and this build is really solid. He already has over 150km on the odometer, and the 3D printed parts are still holding up.

The power for this motor comes from a 6374 brushless motor running at 192 kV. This, plus two 4S 30C 5000mAh LiPo batteries propel this longboard to speeds up to 42 km/h (2.18 Saxon leagues per quarter hour), all while weighing about 8kg.

Since [yowhwui] is using the motor for power and braking (electric motors are neat), this longboard needs to be designed with belt skipping in mind. To that end, he’s designed a drive system with an idler, and nearly every single part is 3D printed. The first revision of the hardware was printed in PETG. While PETG was more than strong enough, it was also too brittle. This led to a few cracks. After printing the parts out again in ABS, [yowhwui] put a few more kilometers on this longboard, and there are no immediate signs of wear.

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Another Electric Longboard Goes The Distance

January 4, 2017 by 11 Comments

Looks like electric longboards are becoming a thing, with increasingly complex electronics going into them to squeeze as much performance as possible out of them. When an electric longboard lasts for 35 miles, can longboard hypermiling be far behind?

If endurance longboarding sounds familiar, it’s because we just covered a 25-mile electric that outlasted its rider. To get the extra 10 miles, [Andrew] cheated a little, with a backpack full of extra batteries powering his modified Boosted Board, a commercially available electric longboard. But the backpack battery was only a prototype, and now [Andrew] is well on his way to moving those batteries to a custom underslung enclosure on his new “Voyager” board. Eschewing balancing and monitoring circuitry in favor of getting as many batteries on board as possible, [Andrew] managed sixty 18650s in a 10S6P configuration for 37 volts at 21 Ah. He didn’t scrimp on tools, though – a commercial terminal welder connects all the battery contacts. We really like the overall fit and finish and the attention to detail; an O-ring seal on the 3D-printed enclosure is a smart choice.

Voyager isn’t quite roadworthy yet, so we hope we’ll get an update and perhaps a video when [Andrew] goes for another record.