Sanded the crap out of it to get under some rings that wouldn’t stick and used some epoxy primer paint. Cant read Lacroix anymore and that makes me happy. Was warned to let this dry and off gass for like 10 days in a warm dry place before i lay anymore epoxy on it.
Knocked out the sidequest cf repairs and they turned out passable
If i had to do it again id bring the enclosure to a sandblasting shop and have them clean it up. Might not be financially viable but idk - none of the maker spaces near me have a sandblasting booth ¯_(ツ)_/¯ another day to cure and ill slap that bad boy back together.
Nice build! I have some tips, first don’t use mtpa, it doesn’t really work with outrunners. Also you should update to 6.05 it is a lot better compared to 6.2 (According to Mxlemming). I will update this guide to be more esk8 specific when i find a dyno and try all these settings
That’s really cool! The best part of having the ennoid on the can bus was the megan integration. When charging it switches to a nice display showing cell voltage and temperature readings so no need to get on the phone apps.
I did run into an issue with the noisy data from ennoid causing nuisance faults without vesc logging any fault to track it down. Have you had any issues with the jbd doing anything similar?
My fix was to (as directed by ennoid) disable the bms current and temp limits in vesc which seemed like it kinda defeats the purpose but then again i run a bypassed bms anyway and just wanted the data available to the megan.
I think I should have added just a little bit more black to the top side or increase the scale of the drawing slightly as it is a little bit closer than I like. I wanted to have excess top bottom left and right, but I missed the mark slightly. I think it’s close enough that I’m gonna make an attempt anyway.
I started laying things out and reread This thread on the old Forum to kinda get the process into my head fresh and start prepping. First thing and biggest thing is I need to re-clean everything, I’m glad I ordered two copies because in flattening and moving the first one around I got some fucking grease on it. That kind of pissed me off because I know better than to just set this shit down. Live and learn.
I started getting everything cleaned up, but it’s gonna take me a minute. Hopefully, I’ll have it all ready to go for this Saturday. I think im going to try and make a little poly booth i can work in out of some 8mill sheeting so i dont have to worry about dust and spiders messing things up.
Used a squeegee to get the absolute maximum epoxy into the fabric and no more. The extra wipe away epoxy picked up a lot of air and was milky so after getting as much pushed in I scraped it clean.
Got three coats on the fabric and this last one makes it pretty candy coated looking. Going to let it get fully cured for a couple days
After this cures up for a few hours im going to trim the edges. Then the plan is to give it a little wet sand with some 600 then some 1500 and see if it needs another coat before i do frit.
I kinda feel like i need the smaller half of the medium frit and the larger half of the fine frit. Might buy some sifters and experiment in the meantime. What i want is the fine to only be as small a salt or sugar and the powder gone, then the largest pieces of the medium preemptively pulled out
Ok, just put another coat this morning and hit it again just now and i won’t ever brush it on again. I put a coat on this morning because there were a shit ton of tiny pin holes from a million bubbles that popped all over yesterday’s coats.
I wanted to do a super thin layer and just press some epoxy into them so i dont have to sand as deep to get a smooth surface. i used a big squeegee and spread it out then scraped it clean and it turned out way better and took half the time. No bubbles to pop and nice and glassy finish. Got a little fuzz in the first one and i just pulled it up and the squeegee smoothed it back out on the next layer like it was never there. Wish i had just taken the extra time to do the two brush layers this way as it would probably have been good enough not to sand at all. Live and learn. Going to do one more thin coat tonight and leave it at that.
Hmmmmmm, sifted the fine frit and about 3/4 went through the 1mm screen and left me with about 3oz of less fine frit and 9oz of amazingly fine powder frit that is useless to me.
The medium frit on close inspection is good as is, im not going to mess with sifting it. When putting fine frit on the cruiser the very fine particles seemed to make it less grippy the more dense I applied it. It kinda seemed like it was just acting like a filler for the epoxy
I think im gonna change tack a smidge, gonna wet sand it just for the major defects and get the edges cleaned up nice. Then im gonna do some chevrons of the med frit on the foot pads but fill in 100% of everything else with the sifted fine.
Something kinda like this if the blue is coarse frit but i think im going to 3/4” bands so i can get 6-8 stripes, cant make it too sharp though as i kneel down on my board a lot. Got a pair of hard shell knee pads to stop tearing holes in my left pant leg - should put a sparker on it and see what i can do with that
Welp, im sitting waiting for a little warmer weather. I’ve decided to use spar urethane to adhere the fit and it’s too dam cold. I don’t have enough ventilation to do it indoors and it’s been floating around freezing which i was warned the urithane wont cure up right. Really i just need the big flash off to happen outside then i have a little area that’s slightly negative pressure i can place it BUT then im moving it back and forth and around an i know my clumsy ass will trip or something.
Old friend i used to skate with has been asking leading questions about eskate and my pintail has been sitting for a year unloved. Getting it some needed love and a little polish and im gonna let him try it out. Old school long boarder so pintail is his style and it should get him a taste.
First thing get rid of the Phillips bolts and some cheap antisinks
Next is to get the enclosure a little better. It was my first attempt at vac forming abs and its not gonna last. Also the through bolts are proud and there are holes for straps from before i got the deck and never repaired
Kinda wish i had another set of loaded unlimited hubs but really i don’t want to put any money in this thing - just polish the turd a bit and reinforce here and there. Maybe some new bushings
Was finally warm enough that i could close up the harbor freight greenhouse and keep the daytime temps above 50 but i think im going back to the epoxy method and ill just have to try a clear gloss enamel to give it a bit of uv protection. I was hoping to adhere it and protect it at the same time and have a material interface between the “deck” and the “grip” but this looks poop
I think ill stick with the popsicle stick grid test for the frit and timing density though. Gonna let this tack up and trash it so i can set up another test
No longer restricted by the cold lets get this fucker done. LETS GO!
Soapy bath and rinse then iso bath to get all my fingerprints off it cause i can’t stop touching it. Im a freak whispering sweet nothings to it of warmer weather and smooth roads and freshly paved curves.
Hit it with some 400 grit just to scuff it up in two directions and realized i had to wash it up again lol. One more bath
Im gonna frit the whole deck except the nose and tail. I want that good grip from the transition from med frit to fine frit. The edges catch so good but i dont want to stand on lumps or anything - this baby gets miles and i need comfort too so balance of grip and feel.
Im using duct tape and vinyl tape to mask it up from my stencil making supplies. I tested the edges of both and they seemed to hold a good edge with the epoxy. Gonna hit the unmasked three pads on each side really thick with the frit mix that worked best with the popsicle stick tests: 2 parts medium frit 1part sifted fine frit.
Made a little cup shaker with clingwrap and masking tape. Laid the edges down really thick then filled it in and doubled back to catch any light spots. Some may not attach but im going for as much as will stick so if I lose a little in the next step it will still be consistent.
Now im letting it sit for 5-6hrs to get a little better than tacky and ill pull the white and brush on another coat on. Then I should have enough sifted fine to do the rest as thickly as i have materials available.
In testing i could get the frit pretty clear so the graphic pops through after the second coat on the medium and still had pretty aggressive grip. The sifted fine doesn’t do as well with a second coat and tends to smooth out too much for my taste.
Next coat will be the last epoxy coat. When that’s set up hard it will finish with a gloss enamel that did crap for holding frit in my test against the spar urethane but goes on so thin and shiny to get a little uv protection for the epoxy.
Did a triple batch of epoxy but it started to kick really hard by the time i got to the bottom third of the batch - should have poured it on the table to keep it cool - only one small area didn’t settle down nicely and i had to stop and let it tack up again to get all the frosty spots wetted out nicely.
Ran out of acid brushes so i grabbed a cheap low nap roller and cut it into 3” sections. It wasted a bunch of epoxy because i had to dab it on the use the roller to pull it back off. Pushing it on with the roller is not viable. Worked really well to pick ip the excess though, i think a combination of both would be best for next time.
Brush it on to wet it then use the roller to pull all the top layer epoxy off to expose the sharp frit without moving any of the loosely adhered frit around. Just dabbing with a microfiber cloth kinda works but was way slower - wrapping the cloth around it he roller helped keep from saturating it too quickly and the shape of the roller was nice.
Man i like the sifted fine frit, it turned out really consistent and way grippy. It feels as good or better than the original grip tape. It also registers the graphics through it really well and crisp. The final surface of it is really attractive too - consistent, grippy, clear, and feels good on the hand like fresh grip tape if a little sharp right now.
The medium frit is super aggressive and next time ill do smaller bands just on the parameter. It would be more than enough to stick you to the board. Just a nice inch border with a little feathering towards the center to keep from being too abrupt would be
Its really hard to get a picture to show the texture difference the med/fine stripes/pads. It feels nice but just not photogenic
Kinda shows up if i get the light just right in a video
