{"id":1168,"date":"2018-04-23T16:31:15","date_gmt":"2018-04-23T15:31:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mark3d.com\/en\/?p=1168"},"modified":"2018-06-04T13:49:26","modified_gmt":"2018-06-04T12:49:26","slug":"3d-printed-kevlar-reinforced-skateboard-abrasion-protection","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mark3d.com\/en\/3d-printed-kevlar-reinforced-skateboard-abrasion-protection\/","title":{"rendered":"3D printed and Kevlar reinforced abrasion protection for Skateboards"},"content":{"rendered":"
Skateboarding is a rough sport, on both the rider and the board. Both longboards (a subset of longer skateboards) and street skateboards (the type you\u2019re probably used to seeing) suffer from edges splitting on impact as well as a phenomenon called \u201crazor tail.\u201d Razor tail happens because the kick tails (the two ends of the board) are slapped against the ground repeatedly and, being softer than pavement, they wear down to a sharp edge over time. On my longboard, the result looks something like this:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
One tail of the board with the carbon fibre worn away at the tip.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
What you see at the end there is the wood core and exposed carbon fibre edges. This happened pretty quickly, so I knew I needed a cover for kick tails to function as a skid plate. Commercial options are available but they\u2019re thick, heavy, and incompatible with my board shape, so I stayed away from that option. I made thin Delrin sheets to bolt to the bottom, but they soon wore down and broke off. What I really needed was something light-weight and abrasion resistant that could wrap around<\/i> my board\u2019s tails, so I decided to use the Mark Two to 3D print some Kevlar-infused guards, custom fit to my longboard. The workflow to get there was surprisingly easy, and could be used to create custom, durable covers for anything from boats to PPE\u2019s, so I thought I would share my process here.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The finished, abrasion resistant skid plate bolted to the board.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Step 1: Trace and Photocopy a Template
\nSince I had no digitised version of my longboard\u2019s tail shape, I traced it out on a piece of printer paper and scanned it so that I had a clean copy on my computer. Taking a picture may also work if the object is too hard to trace, but you risk dimensional inaccuracy because of the foreshortening of objects if you don\u2019t take the picture straight on.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n