3d printed wheels?

I’ve been thinking of printing out some custom threaded wheels for better traction over gravel, grass and such. Maybe 100mm or bigger, with a nice grippy thread.

I have TPU filament which I believe is 90A and is also urethane, like regular longboard wheels.

I was wondering if anyone else has had some experience with this?

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If you do it with 100% fill it would probably(???) be ok.

Yeah I saw this video too. By the looks of it it’s printed with a PLA (very brittle) not TPU and with probably <25% infill.

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Thinking about it, what might be better, is to 3d print a mold (or use a 3d print of a wheel to make a mold) and then use it to cast urethane wheels.

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Too much risk for zero gain.

I wouldn’t say zero gain, you could test out different tread patterns, wheel sizes, wheel widths, etc.

And no more risk than normal (falling on your ass :stuck_out_tongue:).

BTW, @turdstomp if you are gonna do this, you should try to copy some car tire treads, see if it helps at all. Maybe make some wheels that work good even when it’s raining out (assuming the rest of your board is water proof/resistant)

Here’s my latest madness. Testing it today, originally inspired to try making an airless tire wheel with nylon, but I figured it’d be more material efficient to make a solid hub, then the airless component in an easily swapable tread. All pieces are 50% infill but are very solid, that riser is over a year old and is 50% too.

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Holy frickin bat crap batman! How tall is that riser? Are you working on roofs or something :slight_smile:

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68 milimeters, mostly to accommodate the battery.

Now I wan’ to see your battery. Is it a car battery? :smile:

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now its a skateboard battery lol

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It’s this battery.

I did a test, it held up pretty good for a short 4 mile ride, should know more as I ride more. I’ll bring my gopro stick next time.

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It looks slippery

May i ask, what’s your printer/extruder? I didn’t have great success sith tpu so far. Any tips apreciated.

It’s a delta with the extruder modified so the bowden tude is really short, works pretty good once the kinks are worked out.

Here’s a sprint of the wheels in action. Tweaks are still needed, there’s a weird harmonic vibration that feels like a foot massager hooked up to a turboshaft engine.

https://youtu.be/HJpE6aa8MRY

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Those risers :joy: Damn son really the most unexpected built I’ve seen.

Maybe with multi extrusion one could do a solid hub out of polycarbonate or something and tpu on the outside. I like the idea as a whole.