I’m making some aluminum top mount plates (similar to the ones offered by torqueboards), but with better material and quality. I’m having them lasercut in 7075 aluminum, .190" thick, with only the new school mounting pattern, sized to fit inside of the area left inside of drop through carbon fiber decks when switching to top mounts, tighter tolerances, and without chamfered bolt holes to allow more bolt options. Was wondering if anyone wanted in on a few of them to save on part costs.
Full transparency here, these are just being made by sendcutsend, nothing special, I’m just trying to save a bit of money by ordering more than just 2. Price would probably be around $15-20 shipped for a set of two within the states. If there’s enough interest, i can also have them in a gloss black powdercoat for an extra buck or two.
Images below of the dimensions, and actual cost to me so you can see i’m not just ripping you off.
Also might be making a few other parts for my own Ownboard Zeus project, these top plates were just something i needed to switch from drop through mounting to top mounting for some BN adjustable baseplates. Currently considering making a new mounting plate for these B-One carry handles as the stock plates are pretty weak. Looks like it’ll be a bit pricier due to the size though, around $20/per shipped.
Another thing i’m considering making is these plates for people to protect the bottomside of drop through setups, but i’m still working on fine tuning that.
The cost difference is pretty negligible, and holding the 6061 torqueboards truck plates on my desk here, it scratches and marrs way too easily. If i could afford it, i’d be making these out of titanium as I like to go all out on my personal projects though haha (I’ve already spent way too much on titanium hardware).
You’re correct that in terms of purely strength, 6061 is more than adequate though. If there’s interest in dropping down to .187" 6061, i could probably do that for around $10-15/set?
This would be a bit tricky, i suppose you could use a threaded M5 rod and loctite it into a threaded plate, but i wouldn’t recommend that (and tapping services are pricey from sendcutsend). Outside of that, you’d have to either CNC the entire thing out of billet (very expensive and i can’t do it), or pressfit a splined bolt into a plate (again, tricky to do and i can’t make splined bolts like that). Closest I could offer would be tightening the mounting hole diameters to be a close pressfit, but that’s not a super viable approach as bolt sizing is never perfect, so everyone who bought a set would have to tolerance the holes to their setup.
Yep, can’t really blame them though as it’s probably a hassle to set up for tapping when the majority of their business is relatively simple lasercutting work which can be automated. One day, i’ll have a garage CNC and router setup, but until then i’ve got to outsource haha.
Actually, i just realized a potential solution - if i made a plate with a female thread, you could use a bolt from the bottom side to mount and remove your trucks with just a single tool from the bottom side. Would be pricey though, as tapping would cost like 15 bucks per plate.
Im not a fan of tapped holes on baseplates. To me there are more downsides than the one benifit of having a single tool to mount/dismount.
Aluminum threads are fine, but I don’t trust them unless the threaded depth is double the length of the fasteners thickness. Especially when it means keeping your truck mounted to the board
Sounds like trying to make a bolt through from the bottom isnt worthwhile, so im probably gonna pass on that idea and just keep it to a plain top plate. Hopefully i can get a couple people interested and bring the price down haha.
So incase anyone wanted an update, these have been completed and fit to my own personal board - ive found some issues with the edge finish when lasercutting thicker aluminum, its a bit rough and requires a lot of manual sanding to polish the edges up to a standard im okay with, which is annoying. For thinner parts, its not an issue though. Pictures below!
(This part is almost 10mm thick for reference, so i think if i keep the parts around 6mm or under it should be okay, its only really thick parts that need a lot of hand finishing).
If theres any interest still, i can definitely start making a bulk order of these!
If you need softer edges, you should consider a supplier that offers a wider range of finishing options.
For example xometry.com will provide tumbling on sheet metal parts for ~ a dollar more depending on qty, material, etc.
