Skateboard Hacks

Wood Trucks

2010-12-08T22:51:00.000-08:00

Wood trucks. What else can I say?

Made some new trucks. (the fish)

Laser Cut Grip Tape

2010-11-19T08:25:00.000-08:00

I look forward to the day when laser cutters are as common as scissors.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/narwhalbot/2249767874/in/set-72157603867360310/

8 wheelers

2010-11-03T00:33:00.000-07:00

No, I am not talking about the Lonnie Toft 8 wheelers (two sets of side-by-side trucks), but they certainly come up when I am googling for 8 wheelers. I am talking about two trucks front, two trucks back. It is more common to see 6 wheelers (see the Strangelove 42) which are used for slalom (they have been banned in official slalom competitions, why?), and occasionally for downhill. But a full 8-wheeler has for some reason appealed to me like Hummers appeal to truck loving Americans (obligatory link). I have a number of pics trawled from the web, but wanted to make an effort to collect some of the links to these pics with some explanation on the builds. And yes, I direly want to build one, however it costs about as much as two skateboards (and for something that will be, perhaps, unrideable...). About the only style of riding it might be called uncommon (instead of rare) would be in luge boarding.

8 wheeler mini monster!!??

Rise of the 8 wheeled monster

Octavia, 8-wheeled mid-size

Double baseplate Fyre trucks!

One-Off Custom Printed Skateboard Decks

2010-09-19T05:45:00.001-07:00

Need a custom printed board for your project? There are a few places now that will make you a one-off board. Seems like most of these are heat transfer graphics, which I have heard some bad opinions about.. but unless you are going to get into silkscreening (or paint by hand) this is the way to go when you just want one deck printed up.

Sk8factory (AKA CSP) (AKA CSD) etc..

Board Pusher

Skateboards on Zazzle

Infectious (formerly Popdeck?)

2010-09-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

Chopping down an older board is a fun way to give a deck new life. This thread on the fish is more than enough inspiration to get you going on modding an older board.

Show me yo chopped down decks!

Dyeing for fun a profit

2010-08-31T12:14:00.001-07:00

Back when I was into customizing action figures (many many years ago, really), I was accustomed to using Rit Dye to change the colors of pieces. The only drawback being you can only get darker colors. Overall it was a great way to vary what you had available to you for building. I already knew it was done for wheels, but had not thought of the idea of striping that dye into layers.

How To Dye Your Wheels (yep, the fish.)

That post leads to an admittedly silly, but illustrative video.

Ground Effects Lighting

2010-08-31T08:35:00.000-07:00

Lighting for night riding is both practical, and... awesome. Clearance might be affected a little bit with this, but it is pretty well done, and looks great.

LED Underglow mod (Via the fish, natch.)

Mountain board wheels

2010-08-16T11:21:00.001-07:00

I have had a secret longing to put some gigantic wheels on a longboard for a while now. Either mountain board wheels, or perhaps some of the really large inline skate wheels. Inline wheels have been used for push boards (check out the Shuttle 46) they have very little grip. I am more interested in carving, so this does not seem too useful. Searching on the 'fish I found this post. Not only using mountainboard wheels, and not only mounting the trucks on the top of the deck, but routing out holes for a ... drop-up-through? ... Dig.

Inverted trucks with mountainboard wheels?

World's Largest Skateboard

2010-08-12T19:35:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I would call it a hack, but it is certainly a feat of engineering. I don't want to know how much it cost to build it.

LED persistence of vision (POV) display

2010-08-12T08:24:00.000-07:00

Although it could technically be used for any rolling transportation, it was intended for a skateboard, and mounted to one. And it is rad. I need to skate at night more often.

Skate POV

(via the Make blog)

Making rain grooves in wheels

2010-04-12T22:04:00.000-07:00

Found this post on making rain grooves over at the 'fish, and couldn't help but feel it was postworthy. Dremels can be had very cheap these days (Black & Decker FTW ), so this is about as affordable as you can get. Practice on some cheap wheels though, because this method is pretty much freehand!

(Youtube video in the post.)

Schlongboard de Vader

2010-04-12T21:46:00.000-07:00

I have yet to put together a schlongboard, but it is on my to-do list! The concept is simple. Drill new truck holes in the kicks of a regular popsicle style deck, and throw on some trucks with some wedged risers. You get a longer wheelbase but still short board for $45US or so. You are still stuck with a 7-ply deck which may be a bit too flexy.

This video although in spanish is a great example. The graphics and style are nice, and he also shows it mounted with Gullwing Sidewinders which are a neat truck (but admittedly opinions vary).

2010-04-06T08:03:00.000-07:00

Wheels like the the Orangatang In Heat Have me very interested in wheel shape. I intend on trying the In Heats for a carving setup at some point. Further, there seems to be a lot of interest among skaters of obtaining a lathe for saving their flat-spotted wheels.

Over on the 'fish folks are working towards a low cost reproducible lathe out of available parts. Because casting wheels is fairly expensive, it seems like eventually there could be a market for 'uncut' wheels. Imagine something like a Nersh wheel, in 80mm, with completely flat sides, only a core bored out for the bearings. This would allow people to experiment with just about any lip shape they wanted. But I know the down side.. wheels are already expensive, and there are not enough people interested in cutting wheel lips for personal use. And people more interested in experimenting in wheels are lathing molds and mixing 'thane.

Loop Skateboard

2010-04-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

Some things have no goal, no purpose but to exist. I salute you, brave wanderers, and thank you, for this act.

[ via Gizmodo ]

Skateboard Deck Presses

2010-04-01T20:32:00.001-07:00

There is a lot of great information on the pages of a mister "Toothless is my middle name", but this page about building a skateboard press is the one that has me excited. I am really not sure why I turn to this instead of the "Dimm" press. I am sure both can turn out some nice boards.

If you are going for mass production you can go all the way to a concrete mold method. Seems like you could get into a decent amount of trouble with that.

For my own baltic birch aspirations, I may just be going for another flat board, and whatever heavy objects I can find around the house.

Howdy

2010-03-31T21:28:00.000-07:00

I am surprised that there is not already some skateboard-hack dedicated site already. Wacky Boards is very close, but seems to concentrate on companies with products, vaporware or not. I suspect a lot of my topics will be coming from the 'Fish, and the first is no exception. If you have not already seen any of Kraffft's work, you are in for a treat. He is certainly pushing the boundaries of practicality (this is good), and puts all of his work to the test. Check the video..