OMG THIS BUILD. I finally finished it and i apologize for the lack of build posts during that but my god the drama.
First i’ll post some esk8 porn then i’ll go into how this particular build made me re-evaluate my entire business model.
To start off, i painted the box the wrong color. That was the first thing that sort of went wrong, but it gets better later on. This particular orange looks like an old basketball:
ITs terrible. So i found an orange at Lowe’s that matches the Fire Orange stain a lot better: Husqvarna Orange from Rustolium. Moving on.
So here is the deck while still in progress. First i got the wire channels done by @cmatson because this took place before i had my xcarve up and calibrated. I loaded up the channels with some orange stain and orange phase leads because orange.
I really like the way that the 105/207 looks but its very runny, so i came up with the idea of tape walls! Thay’re like walls, but tape! They keep the stuff from running everywhere which means a lot less waste. Also, its tape, so you don’t even really have to remove it before sanding, an orbital sander like i use will eat right through it along with the resin when levelling it with the wood.
After sanding down the resin and tape, i did the detail staining around the wire channels like i do with a little brush, then filled in the rest of the grip area with True Blue.
After that i filled in the rest of the orange along the edges with a 1/2 inch brush.
then i applied a new spar urethane I found that is not only water based which makes for super easy cleanup, but also UV resistant and rated for outdoor use and abuse and seems to be tough as shit. But most importantly, its glass clear. No subtle yellow tint. ITs still a Minwax product, a brand which i have grown to love, so you can get it locally. It loks in that SKYY Vodka glass very very well and its got a gloss to it that just sets that True Blue stain off like a jewel. I can’t describe how this looks in person, its like some kind of semi-irridescant metally/glassy/ sheen. its probably the most beautiful thing i’ve every created, despite being blue, and the sprinkles of blue glass over the orange channels just kind of drive the whole colored glass point home.
Before fully assembling for testing, i did that phase lead thing. I gave those motors blue leads to match the board’s wheels, grip, and bolts. The risers are more of a sky blue but i just couldn’t find a LUXE riser in that color, and i just really like LUXE risers for some reason. Maybe they speak to me somehow.
That’s not liquid on the bench next to the motors, that’s dried 105/207. The shit looks like bottled water just pooled on the bench. Hard to believe its seriously tough plastic sometimes.
So here’s the final portrait video on the bench:
Its absolutely gorgeous if i do say so myself and i’m really happy with how it turned out.
But fuck me if i’m not totally upside down on it. This board had literally everything that could go wrong with a build go wrong with it. So lets talk about that, shall we?
When the BMS and ebke charger arrived from battery supports, i opened up the charger box and plugged in the charger to make sure nothing funny was going on. I’m glad i did because it immediately caught on fire, so i had to replace it, and i’m still cludging my way through an RMA on that. But that’s just the beginning.
I got the whole box filled in with electronics and found that the vedder spark switch i ordered for this build was defective. So i got with the vendor and he said he found the whole batch to be defective and said he was going back to the old style spark switch and said he’d send me a new one of those. I said good, i need a couple more too, so i’ll go ahead and get those now. Three spark switches showed up. They all promptly failed into the ON position. I sent them back and have heard nothing from that vendor despitemy repeated attempts to see what’s up. I can see they were delivered.
But while i was sending those back, i decided to try a new BMS on BesTech’s site that popped up. A red 60 amp eswitch equipped BMS that would be absilutely perfect for my builds moving forward. here’s the guy right here:
Low profile, ideal length and width. Too bad the eswitch functionality didn’t work. They were all doa. All three of them would only power on while charging. At this point i was questioning my choices in life pretty hard. More RMA cludgery happening there as well.
Then i went back to my old BMS and was wiring it in hoping i could get a good spark switch somewhere eventually, and my nimble fingers dropped a wire in the wrong place and fried that one too because let me tell you, i’m not at all clumsey. So that one hit the bin as well. So what can i do besides steal the one out of the bin for my next customer and order some more along with all the chargers i need for those as well.
So then i finally found a spark switch that actually works in Miami. I got two of them and tested them both. They both not only power on, but they also power off as well. That’s a feature that i think is very important. The push buttons on them aren’t the greatest, i would advise replacing them with either a known good push button (you kind of have to feel the quality in those in your hand to know if its worth a damn and can take the vibrations) or a rocker.
The first box i made for this turned out complete crap also, so i had to do it over as well. Thank god somebody else is making my boxes now. I’m hoping to see the first batch this week.
So then the board was finally all together and my second in command and I took it and my own scarlet out on the street to test, me on this beast and him on my red scarlet. Immediately there were issues with the throttle. The whole arm over your head and losing signal thing, the whole delayed reaction to throttle and brake thing, it was a disaster of ridability. Turned out the receiver was total shit so i grabbed another one out of the box and paired the remote with it and viola: totally ridable board.
But wait, there’s more. I have six blue leds in those wire channels. They all tested out fine while building on the 5v power output for the slave VESC’s ppm port, then they all blew out when I finished the build. I couldn’t believe it. I let the customer know what was up and offered some options including drilling out the LEDs and replacing them, and ultimately we decided to just ship the board. So i stayed up late and packed that shit up.
Now I have three 100mm AT builds to finish on decks I haven’t completely ironed out yet and the absolute last build I’ll ever do on a third party deck, it’s an Arbor James Kelly Pro model build with otangs and a custom box.
I just ordered 200 cells from liionwholsale. I’m going to roll around in them when they get here.
I’m fuckin busy yall. And my prices are about to spike because after all this i’m broke. I really appreciate the support from the community during all this drama, and the advice i’ve received on pricing and warranties and all that form some of you. Some things are about to change here but what won’t change is the level of service and customizations i do for my peeps.