Hi guys,
This is my first Electric Skateboard build and I am excited to share what I have done so far and keep you updated as I complete the build (if that’s ever possible).
To begin my build, I purchased 2 of Hobbykings 6354, 260KV motors in their Black Friday sale, as well as LESS THAN IDEAL Hobbyking X-Car Beast CHEAP 150A, 6S ESC’s. ( I thought that they were cheap and would help me to get started before I go and buy some VESC’s.) I also bought a 6S, 5000 mAh Lipo battery pack, ill need another later on, and a programming card for the ESC’s.
I then went on Amazon and found the CHEAPEST Longboard I could find which was the Deuba Atlantic Rift Longboard for £37.75. (I know, I know, it’ll break)
This arrived and the bearings were as shit as I expected and the board would slow down on a hill… Also, the grip tape made it look very cheap so I ground it all off and varnished the board with 4 coats of water based floor varnish.
In the mean-time, I was waiting upon my Slick revolution Jumbo 110mm wheels to arrive and grip tape which I could apply temporarily to I don’t slip off when learning how to ride the thing.
!
I some belt sander paper to act as grip tape temporarily and bought some green 120 grit which I cut into hexagons to see how it would look but the colours didn’t match my wheels and frankly, it looked dumb… (trust me)
THEN MY WHEELS AND GRIP TAPE ARRIVED and TRANSFORMED the look of the board. ( even if I did cut it all wonky… ) I don’t have a great photo of this.
I left the edges of the board exposed so the varnished wood could show through and I think it looked quite good. I also taped on a bike light so I didn’t get killed when I went skating about with trusty old electrical tape.
I hadn’t mounted my motors yet because I didn’t have the money to order a mount set… (College Life) so started work on making an electronics holder for the bottom of the board.
I measured up all of my components and in college, made an MDF mould shape of what I wanted to vacuum form. I used the band saw and disk sander to add the desired angles to it and then vacuum formed it in 1.5mm PVC, giving me this:
Then, I marked a 30mm flange around each mould and cut it out, giving me an area where I can screw it down onto the board.
I thought that the best way to attach these to my board would be to use M8 Threaded Inserts and Wing Bolts so I purchased these.
I got these and marked out the points they would be placed on my board, ensuring there were correct distances away to reach the motors etc and drilled 10mm holes in the deck for the Threaded Inserts and 8mm holes in the same positions on my moulds for the Wing Bolts. However, my threaded inserts were 15mm long and my deck was about 11 so I cut them down on the college lathe.
(I had to rip off the grip tape again to do this, which wasn’t a problem as I want to add HEXAGON grip tape on later anyways)
I then added in the side Threaded Inserts and used a heat gun to mould the vacuum form around the shape of the bottom of the board, which worked…ish.
My motor mounts arrived from HobbyKing:
And I screwed them onto my trucks, did a test fit and thought about adding thread locker. ( I decided not too just in case I need to take them off when fitting my pulleys.
I then got my wheel pulleys from Slick revolution and just need to file down my truck hangers in order to fit the supplied bearing over then voila, when I get my belts and motor pulleys, ill be good to go.
So next steps
- Cut hexagon grip tape
- GRP mould my enclosures
- Paint my deck black
- Insert my LCD screen to monitor current and voltage
- Buy battery 2
- Anything else I think of.
Material List so far -