Hey Guys!
It’s Mike from The Geek Pub!
So the first thing we need to do to make our lowrider skateboard is to cutout the holes
for the wheels.
And I think the easiest way to do that is going to be to mount the trucks on the bottom,
or on the top, upside down and then use that to gather our measurements for cutting out
the holes.
So we’re going to start with that.
So we just mounted the trucks upside down using the original hardware.
Just using two screws diagonal from each other.
Then we just used a section of scrap hardboard, perpendicular to the board deck and flat agains
the wheels to mark the cutouts, and this worked out pretty well.
A speed square might make this easier.
OK.
So now that we have the skateboard marked, we went back and did a little bit of figuring
and I believe we need to move these lines over about one eighth of an inch and that
is to keep the wheels from making contact with the board during movement.
And we’re going to do that with this straight edge.
In addition, we need to mark back somewhere between one and two inches and draw a line
for the inner cutout.
And so we’ll do that next.
[Connor] I just drew new lines one eighth of an inch to the outside of the old ones
using a metal rule, and I followed that up with the inside lines to complete the box.
I clamped the skateboard deck down to the top of my workbench and used a jigsaw to cut
out the wheel slots.
A bandsaw would definitely make this easier, but I wanted to use tools I thought would
be more commonly owned.
We got a little chip-out, so in hindsight, I would recommend using masking tape over
the board before cutting it to prevent that.
I think that turned out pretty nice!
OK.
So on Connor’s original slammed skateboard, which he did a pretty good job on, there is
one fatal flaw!
And that is that the mounting hardware makes contact with the hangers, and they also bend
as they go through the base plate.
So in order to solve that we have another set of base plates which have a second hole
in the front.
You could add another plate on top if you did’t have these.
So then what we’re going to do is use a larger set of screws, and we’re going to
use this tubing to actually make the lift kit.
And how long we cut this tubing will determine how high or how low the base plate is from
the skateboard deck.
And so the first thing we’re going to do is drill out the base plates and then we’re
going to cut the tubing.
Because the suspension kit becomes a giant lever at four times the length of the original
#10 hardware, we’re upping the screws to 1/4 inch versions.
This requires the base plates to have a slightly larger hole in them.
The end result will be a much more rigid system, but it is optional.
We setup the board on the bench with some temporary nuts, just to mock it up.
This allowed us to measure the perfect length for the spacers.
Over on my other workbench I put the half-inch tubing into the vice, and transferred the
measurement from the calipers to it.
I then used my angle grinder to cut out 8 identical sections of tubing.
Have I told you how much I love the angle grinder?
[Connor] Assemble the risers by first installing a quarter inch flat washer on the bottom.
This will prevent the tubing from sinking into the skateboard deck during use and tightening
of the hardware.
[Connor] I also put cap nuts on the tops of the screws.
They look nice, and will make things a little safer.
[Connor] It rolls good and its fully functional!
Now it’s time for a fantastic paint job!
In Geek Pub yellow of course!
OK.
So let’s talk about how our design is better than the one that you normally see on the
internet.
So the major flaw with the normal design of the lowrider skateboard is that the hangers
touch the deck which gives you no steering at all.
The way we fixed that is that we used steel risers to make the base plate one with the
deck which gives you turning just as if its a normal skateboard.
So lets try this thing out!