Search the Community

During this COVID lock down and losing employment because of it I decide I liked being home and it was time to start my own business. I bought a 3D printer to help with design projects- prototypes etc. It’s been fun trying stuff out, and I’m going to see if I can rebuild my old Revo truck board using printed parts. I’ve designed the main truck housing to use tradition skate truck hole setup as the original Revos have a specific setup which means drilling into your board. I’ve printed this first test setup with PETG, which it the same plastic used in plastic drink bottles. So I’m hoping they will be less prone to shatter and may have a little flex. I also printed the bushings using TPU filament, not an easy thing to get right, damn stuff just wants to keep clogging up the extruder. But I managed to get two pairs done and they are a perfect fit, if a little stiffer than I want at shore 30D. I’m no plastics expert, so I don’t know what to expect when I try them out. The wheels may break as soon as I start kiting, the truck housing could just shatter on my first turn- no idea. But I’ve got new tires and tubes, will re- laminate my favourite board, probably treat myself to some new bindings and see if I can make it work.

Following on from one of my previous threads on Buggies with Skiis, here are the links to the FoilMaker software to design your own twin skin foil kites or pick from tried and tested designs. Once the shape is dailled in it then gives you the option to print the flat pattern to paper ready to cut out and manufacture the kite. FoilMaker: Source: http://www.bicycle.eclipse.co.uk/fm/download.htm, Full installer: http://www.bicycle.eclipse.co.uk/fm/setup.exe Manual: http://www.bicycle.eclipse.co.uk/fm/manual.zip Samples: http://www.bicycle.eclipse.co.uk/fm/Profiles.zip VMRL viewer: http://www.bicycle.eclipse.co.uk/fm/cortvrml.exe To avoid the MFC71.dll not found error (this happened on my Win2000 system) go to http://www.dll-files.com/ http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?mfc71 Good place to get tried and tested designs (these also come with the software) a must look is: http://wingine.nl/ These guys are full on for buggies and kites. Have hints on the sewing aspects as well. And it's in english as well. The kite I will be making first will be one of the junkies. Here are some of the comments from the wingine site on this kite: "Plans for the Kitejunkie series. The S50 has been a very popular design since its release, being built by foilmakers all over the world, and with glowing reports. Make this foil if you want a cutting edge proven design for buggying." Also a good write up on this junkie kite at: http://kitelife.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=367&st=0 This a 2004 to 2005 write up, used it for snow boarding and could go upwind. First kite made was a 5 meter. Here are some screen shots of the software: If you want to see how the profiles work aerodynamically, try xfoil at: Source: http://raphael.mit.edu/xfoil/ This in turn linked from: http://www.aae.uiuc.edu/m-selig/ads.html For the junkie, using the xfoil software to look at the aerodynamics, if you wish, here is a sample of the pressure distribution. Note the region just under the nose where the pressure is inward, ie the ram effect can work here. Put it too far up and the air gets sucked out (ie vectors pointing inwards). The xfoil software is only two dimensional, that is does not examine span wise effects, but will give you a good idea of what the pressure distribution chord wise is going to look like. Well that's all for tonight. Enjoy,