14 year old's first build Custom Deck | 6354 190kv | Custom Mount | Custom ABS Enclosure | 8s 5000mah LiPo | 90mm Flywheel Clones

Well my build has been finished for a few weeks now but I have been too lazy to make a build log so I’m finally getting around to it when I should be doing homework :wink:. Warning: I took a ton of pictures during this build so be prepared. Also I took this pictures with my school laptop so sorry for bad quality and/or angles You have been warned.

This is my first build (as said in the title) and it originally started as the cheapest possible Esk8 I could build. Then as I kept reading I said well ok maybe I should buy a quality motor, then ok, I should buy a VESC, then ok I should go with 8s instead of 6s. As you can imagine, this raised the price quite a bit but the benefits outweigh the cost. Getting the funds for this board was tricky as well as high school freshman doesn’t have very much money, I funded many of the parts myself but also got some of them for christmas (thanks mom and dad :joy:).

Here goes, enjoy:

It all started with a 12mm pulley shipment from enertion.

Then lengthening one of the axels with a Dremel.

Then filing the truck down to a square shape for the clamp part of the mount.

I designed some 3d models (no real scale just a guess but it turned out ok, I used them as visuals) in a program called tinkercad and printed them off at my school.

The design was modeled after the Enertion mount, (the green peice was the same dimensions but the blue pieces were not.) you can see the green piece is on the wrong side here but this si just a mock up.

Then I got a block of aluminum and drew up the clamp part, I changed the design a little as you can see.

Then I used a hacksaw, files, and a drill to cut and shape the aluminum.

For the motor plate I used a thin sheet of 2 inch aluminum which my dad happened to have and it fit the dimensions of the motor plate perfectly. The aluminum sheet was 6 feet long which was very lucky as you will see later :wink:.

Then, exciting day! Got my motor from @JLabs! I would have gotten the 6374 but I couldn’t shell out the extra $12 or whatever it is :joy:.

Key was too long so filed it down a bit.

First motor plate designs, decided to go with something like this for belt tensioning instead of the enertion method.

And we have belt tensioning!

Now to some paper models to get the right angle on the motor plate.

Switched to a design like this for more strength. And the collection of motor plate versions starts… (you will see later)

Now to practice tapping some holes and finding the right drill bit and tap for the clamp to motor plate connection.

Success!

And now the hard part, aligning and drilling the clamping holes for the clamping part of the motor mount. Thanks dad for your help :joy:.

My attempt at an artsy picture with a laptop.

Broken tap, whoops! Was a pain to remove as it broke and half of it stayed in the hole. Vice grips to the rescue!

New tap.

Cool glare.

Using a small piece of wood I shaped to align the clamping parts so the holes will line up.

A little better :joy:.

Now comes some more engineering parts, the 3 bolts that hold the motor plate to the clamping part I designed them to be in a circle so that If I needed to change the angle it would be easier and I would just have to drill new holes along the circle instead of 3 new holes in random spots.

First version of the motor plate, not enough angle.

First mockup with motor and pulleys and belt.

Then I made a paper model of my deck and sketched out where I though I was going to put everything with measurements for parts.

Second design, little more angle.

This has a good angle but not enough belt tension even at full tightness.

You can see the last and final version on the far left with the right angle and right tension. I made the angle so that even at full wheel bite, the motor would be just above hitting the deck so there is no way that the motor should ever hit the deck when carving.

“Countersunk” the bolt holes with a file so they wouldn’t stick out and hit the wheel pulley.

Then the GT2B mod which you can see my full build log on that here.

Then the start of the electronics, the anti spark loop and some other basic stuff. This is what I thought my final digram would be… boy was I wrong. :slight_smile:.

Then I designed my final diagram, which you can see here. The balance port and charge ports were carter connected to the MEB simple charging port for 4s. The mass of XT60 connectors in that diagram is just a parallel splitter like the one I made pictured below.

And my voltage meter and anti-spark setup.

XT60 connectors that were going to be my charge port.

My first enclosure out of a plastic case that happened to be the right size, I just duct taped it to the deck.

First mockup of my wiring. I haven’t received my VESC at this point so I was just waiting on that.

Everything in the case. You can see the balance and charge ports sticking out as I didn’t have my MEB adaptors yet.

Got my VESC!

Now time to build a vacuum forming setup to make my enclosure.

Got my adaptors!

Redid my anti spark key to make it a bit smaller.

So long story short I couldn’t get my plastic hot enough with the setup in the first picture. (Heat gun + Hairdryer= not hot enough). I used my stove and didn’t get it quite heated even enough so when I went to form it, only the top was able to form around the buck before it cooled. So my dad and I used a heat gun and went by hand to form the enclosure. My mom got nervous about the fumes so we ended up breathing off of a scuba air tank forming an ABS enclosure with a heat gun and our hands in the middle of the kitchen! Ahhh good times, good times :joy:. Anyways, that’s why the enclosure turned out sub par :joy:.

Got some foam tape stuff I am going to use as a gasket as well as makeshift gasket made out of a yoga mat.

And some carriage bolts to mount the enclosure.

Drilled the holes.

This was the duct taped enclosure btw.

For the final enclosure I decided to velcro everything to the deck so there wasn’t anything actually on the enclosure.

Drilled the holes in the deck

Got everything secured down.

You can see the foam tape in this one. You can also see the MEB ports.

And there is the final product! Some free advertising for @torqueboards :joy:, as well as a scuba sticker because my dad and I dive. The scuba sticker later came off when I went through some water though, pretty ironic :slight_smile:.

The charging port. Ordered some rubber covers for this and they should be here soon.

The grip tape design on my custom deck.

And there it is! Finished my very first Esk8 and It is awesome! If you made it down here you are a trooper! Anyways hoped you enjoyed this build log and if you have any questions reply to this post!

-Sam

29 Likes

Sam, u r a hero to high school kids everywhere. Rock on my friend :grinning:

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That means a lot coming from you, thanks! :grinning:.

Awesome build

No worries, you did good work.

I would keep an eye on the motor plate, it might be a bit thin and could bend. It’s hard to tell from.pics. Assuming it’s 6011 aluminum it should be at least 5mm.

I like the vacuum forming rig, that’s tougher than people think.

1 Like

So far the motor plate has worked fine but I will definitely keep an eye out, yeah the enclosure is much better than that duct taped thing I had on there for a while.

Thanks!

10 char

@Smorto this is an incredible build thread! It seems that you solved nearly every problem folks here on the forum struggle with. Awesome work. The smell of hot abs plastic has no solution sadly!

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The motor mount will break soon, because aluminium threads are soft and would break fast caused of vibrations. its better to use stainless steel threaded sleeve and glue it in your mount.

but nice build

This is truly more DIY than most builds on here including my own, keep it up!

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Awesome work buddy. Very inspiring stuff.

Good job on the mount. I love seeing handy work like this!

Thanks everyone for your kind words, It really does mean a lot that you guys appreciate my work!

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Yeh wanted to say the same - some real patience you got there to work through all the parts like that!

And in result pretty nice, very custom made board that you got there in the end after all this work involved making it!

Do u ride just till the school or around the town/city, too?

So yeh wish u nice riding and just look out for vibrations induced failures, like a few people mention here :slight_smile:

Thanks! I ride it around my complex and have gone into my town a couple times to ride around since my town is pretty flat. I can’t ride it to school since there is an enormous hill between my house and the school. Also using it as transportation would not be very practical since in Maine the weather changes about every hour :slight_smile:.

Ah okay i get it, so u mainly use it more for fun or after school stuff.

Ive just seen some ppl mentioning on the forum that they go to school and then put the board.in the locker, always thought that’s pretty nice way to store the board.and of course getting to school in general

Yeah just use it as a fun hobby and a way to get weird looks from strangers :joy:.

2 Likes

Man, I’m 15 years old and I know the pain of building a board with your Dad money (Maybe is not you case). But I want to tell you that you have a great Esk8, yeah, It is awesome but needs a name :grin::grin: People on school call me crazy just because I don’t want to push the skateboards! They are crazy, not me

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Ha glad to see another young builder one here! It was mostly funded by me but the most expensive parts came from Christmas :joy:. And yeah so far most everyone thinks the board is awesome, it does need a name though, any ideas?

For the name, I really don’t know. I named mine Lucio (Overwatch) because it have Green Wheels and I’m Brazilian