Modifying PU Wheels for Special Purposes

ESK8 Innovations
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Just recently started modifying my wheels to gain some grip on extremely rough asphalt. I gave a set of wheels a few licks on the lathe and created deep under-cuts in the side walls, This made the lip much more pliable while retaining good rebound in the center section of the wheel. The result has been promising, better grip on acceleration and cornering on rough roads. Probably losing a little efficiency but the trade off is a good one for special conditions.

Customizing skate wheels is nothing new and is one of the ways many wheel companies test out ideas for new wheel molds. Would be interesting to hear some thoughts on this. Waste of time or one more area of fine tuning to get what we want from our boards?

undctwinrd

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Following cause I’m interested!

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looks great too :o

I wonder if this means more possible colorways for wheels :laughing:

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Rainbow wheels!? :joy:

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I saw this on your IG account; I think it is an awesome idea!

Could really help to smoothe out the ride on smaller wheels enabling the ability to run lighter setups while still maintaining a good road feel.

Maybe the solution isn’t bigger, maybe it is this!

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something like that, haha

maybe an outer color… then an inside stripe(different color) theeeen the core is the same color as the outer PU

I think that would look pretty snazzy

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Now I really want them :smile:. @chaka would that be possible? :joy:

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Anything is possible but it would be good to see how well they hold up with use before putting more wheels under the knife!

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did you freeze them before putting them on the lathe? Heard that in that state they are “easier” to shave

Im thinking of carving some water dispersion channels on some old kegels

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Nope, just cut them down with HSS tooling.

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I’d heard the same… I could only get them to -5 Celsius at work and that made no difference to cutting characteristics with clone abec on the lathe or cnc router.

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I think I remember seeing a YouTube video where some downhill/ free ride guys where using a lathe for this same thing. Here it is

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did you freeze them before putting them on the lathe? Heard that in that state they are “easier” to shave

Im thinking of carving some water dispersion channels on some old kegels

Check this out, looks like they freeze them if they need to shave them and leave a smooth shiny surface.

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