I am getting closer with more research to being able to sell my decks to the community, but I need to do some market research right now, as I’ll need to rent out workspace to operate my cnc machine and the other saws and sanding tools I need to use.
So I need to determine what the profit I can expect so I can determine if a current option for a workspace is affordable to me. So the question is simple. What would you be willing to pay for a better version of this deck?
I’m currently using 4x vescs and a 12s4p, entirely inside of this deck, just so you have some idea of the size of the channels.
Just to give you an idea, the raw costs of materials is around $140 (wood, glue, inserts, screws, grip tape) without electricity and the cost of tools and tool maintenance. So $really, less than $200 is not an option. But if your not willing to pay $200 for a deck like this, your still giving me useful information.
Ultimately, the higher the price, the higher attention to detail and final quality there will be… The strength and build materials would be the same.
Benefits of a Canadian Maple deck:
Does not crack if it hits something (like a curb) at high speeds like carbon fiber does (i.e. more durable than carbon fiber)
Has a natural skateboard deck flex. Carbon fiber boards are stiff with little to no flex. Due to the flex, imperfections in the road are absorbed by the board very well.
Easier to modify as a builder as drilling power switch or charging port holes or whatever other mods you wish to make result in a clean looking final product
The curves of the deck are pretty aggressive. When you place your feet on the pockets (around where I marked this image above with VESC), they really lock in. I’ve recorded speeds of 38 mph with no issues of speed wobbles. This deck is very stable. 20 mph feels slow to me with this deck.
I’d be interested in the 200-300 range but would want the build quality to look really nice. It seems like to do this you gotta go to CNC (chaka’s builds look ahh mazing)
I’m in the process of testing a new build method which involves routing much of the deck with a very high end jig saw.
The recession for the trucks would be cnc milled, along with the truck holes.
I can still get a high quality board without cnc milling every little detail. My thoughts are of charge around $250 for an early bird price with a final price of $300, as the actual cost may be more like $170 per deck to me when you factor in electricity, rent, and tool maintenance costs. And each deck may take around 8 hours my time.
I think you need to find a way of making this cost less than $200, then you can be pretty sure you will have plenty of customers. There will always be some people that are willing to pay more, but you might never have the revenue to afford buying/maintaining your own machines.
Have you thought of having individual sheets lasercut such that you can sandwich it in a press(with a smart way of alligning everything, and just do the finishing on the edges? You’ll need a large lasercutting table (or a cheap local manufacturer) to cut the many sheets you need for one board, but it might cut down on the manhours.
I assume the wood is the main contributor to the material cost price as the other items are dirt cheap in quantity, is the canadian maple really that expensive? Is there a wood that would(no pun intended) offer 90% of the performance, at 50% of the cost? You could also offer two versions, one with lower quality wood, that might have less flex, but is affordable, and one with the Canadian maple. The production process will be all the same and that way you can get your revenues to a healthy level.
The deck in my opinion doesn’t look very high end for 200 to 300 dollars. Needs to look more refined and not be so obvious that it’s 2 inches thick. Just my opinion
Please bare in mind that this was my first go at it. I would never sell a board that looks this shitty IMO. It’s more proof of concept than final product.
I’ve learned that cutting them one by one is too time consuming and results in offsets. They need to all be cut at once.
Rounding the edges might help with the thickness look. It’s also about 1.3 inches thick, not 2 inches.
The biggest cost in all of this is the wood. About $75 per deck in wood. This is because it’s basically 3 boards in one… I might be able to bring this down if I can find another dealer of wood. Due to the hollowness of the deck, I would rather stick to high quality Canadian Maple. It needs to be strong (and this deck right now is very strong).
I will crunch numbers and see what I can do. I would love to be able to crack the market open with prices in the $150-$200 range. I would need to keep the costs of materials under $80 per board though to have any chance of doing that.
I can’t speak about everyone, but I don’t care about the flexibility in a board with inbuilt battery(also flex might be bad). I choose to take care of the vibration using bigger wheels.
If you just build it like traditional boards(except way thicker) and then routing out the channels, I can’t see why would it be still expensive. That way you don’t have to laser cut anything. You still have to build a press though and that will take some effort.
The amount of flex in these decks is not anything like boosted for example. A normal long board has some amount of flex to it. I would say it’s similar to a normal longboard. You won’t have any issues with your batteries bending or anything like that due to the flex. It’s a weird feeling to me when you hit a pothole or an imperfection and your board doesn’t bend a bit. It’s because the board bends a bit that you can power through it. Think of it kinda like a slight suspension. You don’t really notice it’s there until you hit something in the road that jerks the board. Instead of getting stuck and going down, you float over it.
If you very aggressively taper toward the edge could really thin out the look - for example the incredible silver sunrise build by @glenn.
Someone mentioned it before about CSN’s board (sorry I forget who), but the way Ollin paints the underside of board so the black bleeds to the edge gives an illusion of thinness too.
I’m looking forward to what you come up with. You seem to have demanding personal standards which should translate to a high quality finished product.
I would agree that I have high standards. I have high demands for what I expect from my board.
My plan is a 2 part press.
17 layers pressed. And battery cutouts made.
Press 3 bottom layers and 3 top layers for the lid
Then you cut out the final shape with a jig saw. And sand down with a drum sander.
I starting to press a new deck off of my old deck today. I have been told I will be getting a vesc-x sometime around early-mid November for beta testing, and I need a board to test it with. So I’m making a shorty board for it, and I will be trying this new method I’ve described above.
Great feedback IMO. Need tough skin but worth it, good idea for you to reach out and engage demand. Yes the Olin paint tricks the eye cleverly, as @whitepony pointed out in another thread, which I also remember and respect (both doing it and noticing it lol)! Lots to learn from other community efforts and observations, all in the soup.
Some great feedback from the group here. It’s impressive to see your desire to offer what the community wants, and dedication to building a unique offering. And without being sensitive if folks are critical of what you are showing today!
I also feel that a price in the 150-200 range would be reasonable. Fit/finish should improve, but you’ve stated multiple times this is a POC, not the product to be supplied - so that seems reasonable to me.
Again - some taper on the edges to appear thinner may help. I’d also want to see the option to not drop through mount for those of us who don’t expect to use hub motors.
for weight and cost savings - it might be good to look at some lighter wood in teh center, but keep the maple top and bottom? Bamboo or other sustainable woods are always a good idea as long as it doesn’t impact your strength and design limitations.
Thank you everyone for your feedback. I have lots to do. I have a lot of things to still figure out, but I’m getting a step closer.
I’m order some more tools. I hope to have an update within a few weeks. I want to eventually make multiple shapes/styles also.
Included in the deck will be add on options. such as battery meter cutout on the lid, button cutout on the side, charging port cutout on the side, ect. One of those options will also be for the drop through and recession. It’s quite a bit more work to do the drop though, and I would cut off a bit from the price with out the drop through.
