kraffft work

[kraffft]

Those scheme session notes are up here:
3/14/2010 Silverfish Flash Chat Scheme Session Notes (kraffft work)

The original transcript is here:
3/14/2010 Silverfish Flash Chat Scheme Session Transcript (kraffft work)

Decided to leave in ideas that were repeats from the first one, and continuing to include essentially every idea mentioned regardless of apparent merit.

A couple favorites:
-Hand held items that you hold against the ground to make noise. Like a cymbal.
(or louder/musical slide pucks)
-Make a suit that has all these pieces of a puzzle attached so when you tuck it becomes a full body aero shell.
-A wallet skate tool. Could make a great business card, similar to this (working lockpicks):

[kraffft]

They don't sell beverages in flat bottles, so I'm drinking listerine instead (500ml, 1.1lbs).



Five minutes of packing and I'm ready for a real road trip (3.5lbs).



Just need to velcro it somewhere.

YouTube - Listerine: It's all yours.

[Gxnator]

haha that is freakin awesome

[kraffft]

This guy was referred to me by a more reputable skate company. We met earlier today on the condition of non-secrecy to discuss an invention of his:





It's a rough prototype of a novelty item that he filed a patent for that he was trying to figure out what to do with.

My two suggestions, following recent themes I've been focusing on, were to use it as a luggage sidecar, or figure out a way to have kicking the vestigial board propel the rider faster than the limit of normal pushing.

It'd be pretty sweet to see him make something that people actually want to use. Though I did have fun for a sec trying to figure out some unique tricks to do with the prototype.

[luftywaffles]

that looks interesting fer sure

and don't go over a speedbump with the first board lol

[Delta]

nyc subway map condoms. very chic.

[kraffft]

Yeah, I don't actually recommend any of those products. Except maybe the industrial velcro.. if it weren't so expensive. The condoms were free, like all condoms should be.

Lappers could make pretty good storage spots.. Transport board projects may continue next week..

Wanted to make a new slide deck for the weekend..

The concept was 'ash tray' concave:


But this is what happened when I tried to make it:



The main idea is having ridges closer to the center of the board, for your foot to grab while doing slides.. the older designs tended to tip over too easily:

[speshlspeclsteak]

simmilar to the effect of small drop boards. where the drop is just part of the concave. but its mounted on the standing platform interesting concept

[kraffft]

Check out this thread if you haven't yet:

Anyone else think of extremely...weird longboard ideas?

and help keep it going!

[luftywaffles]

rad scheme session tonight

can we start it at 10 again?

going to bed at 1 and waking up at 6 for school = no bueno

[kraffft]

Next scheme session is in one week, Sunday 3/28 8pm EST.

[kraffft]

Wheelabrator was a great time.

Got to put a good amount of time on this double drop with the tire rubber bushings. It rides pretty decent.. Softer bushings make sense with the reduced leverage of low standing platforms, and it's much easier not to get wobbles.



Had been wanting to try maxing out bushing size as far as possible.. imagining a 3 inch sphere bushing enveloping the hanger, but realized yesterday that this would be a quick way to try it:



The originals were already on the large side- 1". To max it out I made some 1.5" to match the recess in the RII hanger, and some 2.5", limited by the clearance between the kingpin and the pivot cup.









Worked pretty well.. it didn't increase the resistance to leaning as much as I thought it would, still some increase though.

It limits the total lean a little bit, which is comforting because before metal on metal limited the lean- slightly less max turn now too.

It doesn't seem to give any more rebound either.. but that's more a property of the material than of the shape.. never had much rebound to begin with.

Another thing to try with this would be using larger washers to give larger bushings more backing, but the washers would need to be glued/welded/fixed to the baseplate and kingpin to prevent them from leaning.

[kraffft]

Been raining yesterday and today.. and cold rain usually keeps me inside.. but weather is never as bad as you think it's going to be, and if I can get a good approach to rain skating together, that'll basically double the number of days a year I can skate.

I already have a pretty good system for rain bearings.. but I wanted to try another one out of curiosity.

My usual method is to take a wheel with bearings installed and lubed with light oil, dab a tiny bit of grease onto the gap between the shield and the inner race, and work it in so there's a ring of grease floating there, but not much pressed into the bearing. This keeps the bearing rolling fast, keeps all water and dirt out of the bearing, and lasts a surprisingly long time.

The new idea is to take all the shields off the bearings so water/dirt/sand flow freely through them while riding. Then after riding wash them out and dry them with compressed air or a wet vac, without taking the wheels off.

Also wanted to try this tetanus grip style: Points of screws poking out of the surface of the deck. It pretty obviously grips better than any grip tape or concave, it's just a question of how easy it is to scratch yourself. Tried a minimal amount of screws for just the back foot to start.

YouTube - Rainboards: Sheildless Bearings and...

Front foot without the screws slipped off once, and had fairly little grip in general, the back foot was screwed in place. Even with my back foot on it's side during colemans, just a couple screw points touching rubber held it well. Wearing carharts is enough to never feel a screw point, but You have to be more careful about carrying the board to avoid little pokes.

Took a wheel apart to check it out. Everything that the compressed air touched was dry, but water had capillaried into the seams between the bearing seat and race, and the inner races and spacer. You can see some little beads in this pic:



That could be prevented by greasing those surfaces. The speedrings had actually been greased, and no water seeped in next to them.

The nylon cage, race surfaces, and ball bearings were dry and free of sand (though obviously sand damages them while riding).



One step that's not shown, was spraying the bearings with WD-40 before riding, and after cleaning (but before disassembling). Nobody ever normally uses WD-40 as bearing lube because it's too light and just evaporates, but especially after cleaning in this case, it's Water Displacement ability makes it appealing.

Another step is covering all the steel parts on the board with a thin coat of grease, I did this to the axle but not the bearings/axle nuts/spacers for this test.

Overall I like my previous method more still, as it requires no maintenance, but this one could be refined slightly to give better performance and bearing longevity as well as peace of mind. The next step would be to have easy to remove hubcaps over the wheels, like a rubber cover that presses onto the axle nut, or clips onto the core of the wheel, and a cover on the hanger side, that wouldn't need to be removable, but would let water and air out for cleaning, but only allow minimal water/dirt in while riding (basically shields that can be removed without taking the wheel off).

The biggest desire created by this little session was actually for waterproof slide gloves. Could be reinforced wetsuit gloves, or a material that doesn't hold water, or a handheld puck.

-
I never know if I'm going to get possessed and have to build something.. but for the next couple days I'm going to try to get some serious spring cleaning done.. both in the physical and mental space.

There's about a hundred times more mess than this to shuffle around:


And still a years worth of skate ideas to transcribe and/or organize:

[Mynusss]

Subscribed

[Pleinair]

Been raining yesterday and today.. and cold rain usually keeps me inside.. but weather is never as bad as you think it's going to be, and if I can get a good approach to rain skating together, that'll basically double the number of days a year I can skate.

I already have a pretty good system for rain bearings.. but I wanted to try another one out of curiosity.

My usual method is to take a wheel with bearings installed and lubed with light oil, dab a tiny bit of grease onto the gap between the shield and the inner race, and work it in so there's a ring of grease floating there, but not much pressed into the bearing. This keeps the bearing rolling fast, keeps all water and dirt out of the bearing, and lasts a surprisingly long time.

The new idea is to take all the shields off the bearings so water/dirt/sand flow freely through them while riding. Then after riding wash them out and dry them with compressed air or a wet vac, without taking the wheels off.

I've always wanted to try something like this, but it hardly ever rains in Southern California, and I don't really have a good method for drying other than a handheld blow drier, which probably wouldn't get everything.

Also, try sanding down the points of the nails a bit. Make them blunt enough that it'll be safer to hold, but not so blunt that you'll sacrifice too much grip.

[kraffft]

I've always wanted to try something like this, but it hardly ever rains in Southern California, and I don't really have a good method for drying other than a handheld blow drier, which probably wouldn't get everything.

Also, try sanding down the points of the nails a bit. Make them blunt enough that it'll be safer to hold, but not so blunt that you'll sacrifice too much grip.

Blow drier is actually a good idea.. spinning the wheel while air is going through it is enough to expose all the surfaces to air, and you don't need that much air pressure, and warm or maybe even hot air would work well.

A bicycle pump could also work, or a bellows!? but that's getting more inconvenient.

I was curious about the same line of thought of making things less pointy, and tried out some hardware bolts:



Works noticeably better with the red soled shoe, with the matching tread pattern, but even so, the bolts needed to stick out twice as far to get much grip, and still didn't grip that well (though still gripped a lot better than wet grip tape).

Either way seems similarly mildly unsafe (how often does your board really rub anyone's skin/clothes while riding/crashing?). The better mechanical grip you have, the better it's going to shred you in the worst case scenario.

For wet grip in general there's plenty of possibilities for trying new materials. Certain materials (with or without any texture) naturally grip a lot better when wet than others.. Different types of rubber, or things like surf wax for example.

[Pleinair]

Blow drier is actually a good idea.. spinning the wheel while air is going through it is enough to expose all the surfaces to air, and you don't need that much air pressure, and warm or maybe even hot air would work well.

A bicycle pump could also work, or a bellows!? but that's getting more inconvenient.

I was curious about the same line of thought of making things less pointy, and tried out some hardware bolts:



Works noticeably better with the red soled shoe, with the matching tread pattern, but even so, the bolts needed to stick out twice as far to get much grip, and still didn't grip that well (though still gripped a lot better than wet grip tape).

Either way seems similarly mildly unsafe (how often does your board really rub anyone's skin/clothes while riding/crashing?). The better mechanical grip you have, the better it's going to shred you in the worst case scenario.

For wet grip in general there's plenty of possibilities for trying new materials. Certain materials (with or without any texture) naturally grip a lot better when wet than others.. Different types of rubber, or things like surf wax for example.

How about you grip the top of a board with some tire rubber?
Actually, now that I think about it, have you ever seen artificial turf? I'm in football, and I know you grip in that stuff rain or shine. I've seen people break ankles in that stuff because it gripped when they were trying to cut really hard, and it's great stuff if you need an assload of grip.

[speshlspeclsteak]

a rubber doormat the kind with all the holes in it and then gripped over would probably do well at keeping grime out of the griptape. or just drill holes/rout out sections of the deck for max drainage

[streetlevel]

For rain grip, I think some skyhook-type bindings could be in order.

How did you connect the lapper on that cargo board? Was it glue or screws? I have the equipment to tap screw holes, but if glue works, it'd be a lot easier.

[kraffft]

Artificial turf.. that's an interesting one. Most of the very high wet grip materials I know of are spongy like that.. Softer and stickier than tire rubber even.

Check out 'wet grip' gloves, or the grip on noboards and snowskates:



It'd be fun to try inch thick foam rubber on a deck anyway.

The doormats, stair tread, and similar things often seem like they could learn more from skateboards than they have to offer..

I kind of like the skyhook idea too.. except redesigning them so they're not even good for doing jumps (and won't trip you up as bad), and better for more foot positions..

How did you connect the lapper on that cargo board? Was it glue or screws? I have the equipment to tap screw holes, but if glue works, it'd be a lot easier.

The lapper was just three drywall screws through the deck. No tapping necessary.. but predrilling might help. UHMW doesn't really glue, though if you shaped it right the industrial velcro could work. Other lapper designs make use of the truck hardware..

A little more info here:
Lapper (kraffft work)

I should do an experiment some time, drilling a hundred tiny holes in a deck to show how little they effect the structural integrity (I know it makes some people nervous).

Some notes on drywall screws.. I use them in almost all of my projects.. they're great. It used to be that they were drastically inferior to wood screws, the heads would pop off easily, or they'd shear easily under load. You can still get the lower quality ones, but the widely available grip-rite ones are really impressive, and the heads don't strip as easily as wood screws. Still not something I'd build a garage door header with, but when skillfully used are very reliable for skateboards.

Tips on how to screw.. You don't want a hole you're screwing to be too big.. A protective coating will keep ya from getting rusty. A little lubrication will help drive a deep screw. Ridges on the shaft near the tip of the screw help hold the screw in, the smooth shank under the head helps suck materials down. Don't screw too hard unless you like stripping. The quality of your tool and your technique are important.. Experience is the only way to learn.