Yeah maybe carbon fiber or fiberglass. Anything to bond the layers better.
However, looking at the way it cracked on yours, to me it seems like the culprit is inconsistent wall thickness, where that chamfer is around the edge did you chamfer the inner edge too to accommodate for the lost thickness? It doesn’t look like your print split along a layer line.
If the bottom was thicker or that edge was thicker I think it would have been fine. Additionally, I don’t recall if you did it or not, but acetone vapor sealing the outside might help too because it really bonds the layers. After it fully dries and gets a hard surface, sanding and painting is feasible
And yes, my prints are acetone vapour smoothed. Usually my experiments fail at the screw hole locations. Was surprised the bottom cracked this time. But then again, I’ve never slammed my board this hard as I did with this. Hence why I immediately inspected for any potential damage.
Yeah that makes sense. By the way you modeled it, it is not really weaker than the upper walls but I would probably make the wall thickness a bit heftier since it is holding the batteries. Mine are gargantuan but then have .25 thick walls
Have you concerned adding ribs around the battery for the extra support? If you already have all the electronics in hand then you should know the exact location of the wires so it should be easy to work around
Two things planned for now, either I reinforce the current enclosure with carbon fiber from the inside, or print this new enclosure design, that is attached to the deck via 8 standoffs and an aluminium bottom plate.
The new design is a bit boxy and not as nice looking as the original once. The solid 1mm aluminium plate adds quite a few restraints to the design - I’m no metal worker.
The current design (the one that broke) required me to insert the battery into it at a weird angle for it to even fit and its super crammed in there. Pretty much impossible to lay everything on the deck and then put the enclosure ontop.
Not sure if laying nylon straps underneath the battery to hoist it against the deck as I screw on the enclosure would work. A hammock of sorts - not sure if I can get it tight enough.
Bare in mind that the interior size of the enclosure is only 12cm at the widest part and 26cm long with a height of 4.5cm. That’s 1.4 Liters.
How about replace the aluminium bottom plate with a 3D printed plastic plate? Maybe make the whole thing out of Taulman Alloy 910, or the new design with just the bottom plate out of 910?
Any update on using the aluminium plate? I was thinking in doing something similar instead of just making the walls thicker, and it could double down as a heatsink for the electronics and battery cells
Afraid not. Build is on hold for now and I will continue it next year in the spring. Sk8 season ended a months ago here in Finland and can’t wait to ride again next year.
Got the aluminium plate and new 3D printed enclosure waiting for assembly, as well as the carbon fibre and epoxy resin - will test both solutions and report back in 2020.
This has taken me too long to finish and just has been sitting in my closet.
I’m now in “fuck it” mindset and kind of half assing it. My printer needs calibration and the ABS enclosure shell warped a bit during printing and even has a layer separation crack at one of the corners.
Skipped acetone smoothing this time and just globed the two shell halves together. Poured in some liquid ABS acetone slurry and formed a bottom layer that conforms the deck. Half assedly sanded it an painted it.
Cracking my first enclosure that I spent so much effort on really demotivated me with continuing the build, but now I was just sick of having the parts laying around collecting dust.
I just wanna ride it, sorry for the eyesore.
Here is the ‘finished’ 2020 update. Two of the bottom plate screws didn’t align with the holes I drilled for the previous enclosure due to abs warping. Oh well.
