Project Obsidian Top Mount Board Renders

[skatardude10]

First of all, thanks to the grabcad folks who posted up the wheel, bearing, truck and motor designs freely to use in my renders as references! Links to sources/authors for those soon…

The meat and potatoes of this post will be the renders, but I have a few questions. First of all, this is my second mockup of an integrated deck, after first trying out a top-mount no drop deck, but upon suggestion by some members of my local ride group, I came to the conclusion that it would be too high so I went for a drop down. Before I get on with the questions here’s one pic to get you all started:

I am looking into pushing forward into turning this into something manufactureable. I know @onloop probably has experience with carbon fiber vacuum forming, which is what I have the most questions for myself on how to make this come to life. I have experience press forming my own maple longboard decks, but I want to take this one to the next level, and in my experience, 3 ply maple veneer sandwiching a foam core wrapped in CF equals a super lightweight board for the size and feels like riding on clouds.

Here are some of my thoughts so far:

• If anyone has a good name for this, feel free… I am not creative with names and I would end up calling it the integrated concept board and leave it at that.

• For manufacturing, I have had a couple ideas. This thread will be of some help in this process… thanks @Dornacht!:

1. Just form the top and bottom shapes out of 3d printed parts for precision, and make a jig for pressing all the layers together and having the wheel wells, battery / esc housing, etc CNC cut for precision. This would probably be the easiest of all, but also the heaviest.

2. press forming the top 3 layers out of a jig, like above, but just as the initial top layer veneer, and have the battery cutout laser cut or CNC routed. Then, CNC cut the foam core (in however many pieces) to layup ontop of and seal to the veneer in a vacuum bag. Thirdly, layup in a press the bottom 3 layers of maple veneer, have it cut. Finally, apply they bottom layer veneer to the bottom of the top veneer/foamcore layup and wrap it all in CF to vacuum seal it all together.

• Cable routing channels will be a challenge / are a challenge I haven’t come up with a solution for yet, but I am thinking something along the lines of having holes cut through from the battery compartment to just under the truck through the deck on the foam sections. During the CF final layup, instead of trying to fill the inside of those channels with CF (which I don’t think the inside of those channels will end up properly vacuum formed to the inside of the channels), is to design some sort of 3D printed (nylon maybe, epoxy sealed for air-tightness) capped (but easily removable caps) that I can insert into the final layup prior to CF vacuum forming, that I can rout out into the channels at the end to expose the insides of the channels to run the cables through. If anyone else has any better ideas, I am open to suggestions.

3. Other Misc: Another route I am considering but leaning away from is 3D printing a full size scale model of the outer dimensions of the deck, constructing a large silicone mold of the smoothed model, and injecting some compatible liquid expansion foam directly into the mold after placing pressed top / bottom veneers and enclosure structures in place, and letting the foam fill all the outer gaps, and finally wrapping and forming the CF around that. I’ve come up with a few other variations and combinations of the past two ideas other than this, that I won’t try to go into too much detail here… but if anyone with experience with this kind of stuff has any suggestions for improvements or ideas for another way to go about this, please let me know as I am about to get to the heavy youtube / tutorial stage and would like to start buying supplies at some point (not too soon though).

4. .5 I know I need to model in probably another 1.5mm gap between the top of the enclosure and the deck itself to account for probably a laser cut rubber or neoprene sheet to act as a seal between the enclosure cover and the deck.

5. .5 .5 I have also considered 3D printing a nylon enclosure shell (just the structure for the inside of the enclosure, maybe 3-5mm thick), or milling out of pressed maple just the shell, because I need to integrate m3 threaded inserts for the screws that hold the cover down into. No way can I just screw the lid into wood or worse yet foamcore- it probably won’t hold and I don’t want this janky.

6. For the enclosure lid, I’ll probably just press and planar cut the flat bottom portion out of maple and layer with CF on top, or maybe vacuum form CF on milled foamcore for that too with extra CF for the screw hole areas. not sure.

In summary… there are still a lot of unknowns here for me and I’d just like the get the communities input, thoughts, ideas, etc. Now, before the rest of the renders, i’ll just go into some of the basic specs this board was designed around:

• Accomodate 12S6P in a stacked configuration like ....*.
• Designed to fit dual focboxes
• Designed to fit 12S Bestech BMS (largest part (width wise), damn…)
• Additional space incorporated for thin foam padding, wiring, recievers, BT, etc. Batteries are top to bottom though, may add a couple mm before moving forward though
• Designed cutouts around 107mm (108 to be conservative) superflys. Cutouts go all the way both ways at a 20 degree truck lean though, so smaller or similar size wheels center set, side set wheels should also be compatible.
• Cutouts for 6374 motors, fully extended away from wheels on Torque Boards motor mounts
• Should use at least 1/4" riser pads for clearance, I plan on using soft risers for additional comfort.
• Drop deck obviously…
• Simple deep? tub concave that extends ~3/4 of the way up the contours that hold the trucks, with an edge to center to edge (center depth) of 7.5 - 8mm
• Designed around TB 218 truck geometry, but any standard 50 degree caliber should work too since wheel and motor cut outs assume caliber/TB truck height/dimensions and extend as far as cuts could be made inward and outwardly (so wheel separation distance shouldn’t be an issue. won’t be modeling other trucks to check compatibility with say randals or paris though.
• Shape partly inspired by the 2013 Landyachtz Wolfshark, also loosely resembling the Longboards USA Road Warrior.

To Do’s:

• Verify compatibility with up to 5 degree rear de-wedge
• Integrate cable channels from enclosure to rear truck (after determining best MFG technique)
• Model individual pieces for manufacturing (press, foam cutouts, etc, upon determining best MFG technique)
• Take feedback!

Finally… here are the rest of the renders. enclosure top clear to show insides. will be solid in the end. Enjoy!

Extra: shit shot of first iteration modeled after the loaded truncated tesseract

[Apolo]

I’m so jealous of those renderings. Keyshot?

[skatardude10]

Fusion 360

[LukePL]

Nice work! Didn’t know that Fusion can do that A dream deck for many but not sure it’s possible to make it in reasonable price. Hope you can do it!

[aigenic]

Ok…this is another level…I know some things about laminates but not that much I think you are over designing whole thing but it a nice way to go I think it would be easier to make custom deck with a bottom enclosure Bur its your choice Projects like this one are fun

As far as I know @whitepony and @MasterCho have a lot of experience with laminating and all the stuff around it They might help

Edit: Hummie might have some experience too he is making these wood and carbon deck ATM if i remember correctly

[Apolo]

Bro you need to teach me

[skatardude10]

It will probably end up as a one-off TBH, and if it was ever sold, it would likely be that one-off.

[Dornacht]

One good looking board

[onepunchboard]

Nice render. I’m pretty sure u know what u r doin, but the wheel base seems a bit long. as 42inch rider i got the hang of it but wish it was 38 board. a ted short.

[skatardude10]

Yeah, agreed. The wheelbase is a bit long… probably very long: 37.5"

Although, the overall length of the board is just a tad longer at 43" compared to 42" on a demonseed, which is my daily driver atm.

I want this to be a stable high speed cruising board, so the additional wheelbase while not doing any good for quick manuverability will help it be more stable at speed… hopefully without being too clunky.

Either way, you got me thinking. I am going to look into ways to reduce this wheelbase a bit, as the longest wheelbase that I could find on other longboards (other than those really large hamboards probably…) was 32.5"

SO!! I looked into it. The thick curve sections leading to the top parts of the boards on the ends is thick. leaving 10mm of space surrounding the enclosure, and maybe some clever support bars, it looks like I can shave off about 130mm from the wheelbase total, leaving the wheelbase right at 32.5". The deck length would stay the same, and the total length would come down to 38". This will be SEXY! I might even extend the length back out to 40" or so to give a bit more standing room… 26-28"" maybe.

Expect a rev 3 sometime soon.

Thanks for this inspiration!

[Jc06505n]

The clear lid actually looks dope ngl. If it’s all black why not name it something like Obsidian Black ?

[on second thought I might rename my build that.]

[skatardude10]

Total length: 43.5" Wheelbase: 32.5"

I still need to go back and add in the enclosure, clean up some edges, model in the concave again, etc etc. I want to come to an end on the shape though since the shape the original had doesn’t exactly fit well with such a short wheelbase with the drops where they are due to the standing platform length requirements…

I debated back and forth on adding the kicktail or not. I may go back and remove the kicktail, and re-shape the deck some because I feel like right now it kinda looks like a beaver of some sort… not exactly fast looking but maybe more functional. I might just rather it look sleek and short without the kicktail… 38" total length would be great!

But, honestly I am not totally digging the shape as it is, with the deck length how long it needs to be and how it meshes with the short drop platforms / kicktail. I could re-shape it to be more like a standard drop / drop-through deck, but I really wanted to do a drop board with a topmount style shape. Anyways… here are some working renders on the shorter one… far from stylish. Maybe the kicktail version would look better with straight edge lines, almost like a top-mount-speedboard-pintail hybrid, just with the pintail-esque-kicktail and drop, and maybe a pointier nose that doesn’t stop right at the front truck. Lots of testing to be had with this shorter wheelbase version to see what looks and feels right. Bed time now though, i’ll spend more time cleaning it up tomorrow, maybe removing the kicktail, try a straight lined, smooth curves kinda shape too, or maybe curves analogous to the drop so it all blends in nicely.

[skatardude10]

I like it! Project Obsidian…

[Apolo]

Bookmarking this thread because it’s fucking amazing

[Jc06505n]

Loving it, if you ever finalize the design ( and I’m feeling feeling the kick tail one, might I suggest handles as we def need more boards with handles out there)?please let me know as I would love to cop a Board + Enclosure bundle

[onepunchboard]

Nice Length, I do think shape is dull. At that size and weight, the tail is pretty much useless. I know because my board looks like that haha. I only use it as handle and turning while stopped by the lights. It helps a bit when accelerate but I can live without it.

[skatardude10]

I’m going back to a top mount. I just can’t get the deck length / wheelbase right with the drop deck. Also, no more fully integrated deck that opens from the top… I have to admit that making something like that is probably outside of my skill level.

This new board has a recessed bottom, 29.5" wheelbase, 36.8" length, 10" width, cutouts and clearance for 107mm flywheels with 1/4" risers, still fits the same dual focbox/bms/12S6P DS, will be pressed with (thinking) 2 plys of 1/16th bamboo, and 5 plys of 1/16th Canadian maple. CF will go on the bottom (after routing the recess) and top of the deck to stiffen it up and provide extra strength needed from routing out most of the bottom. I plan on routing the wiring through and over the top and back down under the trucks.

What’s nice about this setup, is that if I want to be cheap, I can order the materials to make the board, print parts to make the mold that will go into the vacuum bag, do the same for the enclosure, and drop in components that I already have before making the 12S6P battery to finish it all off.

Here’s a look. I might play with the shape of the deck a bit, but I like it so far.

[Jc06505n]

Any updates? Very Interested

[skatardude10]

None yet, just the idea in the back of my head still. If I ever get my hands on some hummie hubs or carvon v4s, I’ll want it to go on something special at that point.

[uigiroux]

Dude this is awesome! Looks so damn nice and high quality!