Guys I am trying to make a stiff lid for my skateboard and I am really struggling here. The lid is about the same size as Troqueboards CF deck below.
I want to keep the lid not thicker than 3-4mm.
In my deck there are no compartments under the lid because I have a big battery.
What materials should I look for ? Some sort of super stiff aluminum ? or steel ?? and what ALLOYS ?? Carbon fiber LID is not an option for me as it is super expensive to make 4mm plate like I want and it cuts the signal.
There are different grades of aluminum sheet. Some are malleable and some take an insane amount of force to get them to bend. Both have their merits, if you do not need to do any machining or bending operations you will want something like a 5052 alloy to bridge that span.
The CF lid is slightly flexible, but once its fastened to the deck it has very little give even with me on top of it. I Ive never had signal reception issues with it but maybe it because their is a hole in it, not sure.
If you’re worried about CF blocking the signal, any metal will do the same. If you want something stiff and transparent to RF, I’d suggest G10/FR4, which is basically fiberglass. It’ll still be expensive compared to aluminum, but should be cheaper than CF.
