Howdy gents-
I’ve been putting in miles on the VBC and today I finally had the dreaded first break down. Lucky for me it was about a block from a hardware store. Nearly all the holes around the screws on my space cell have cracked and I was dragging this momma jamma on the ground for a minute before I noticed. I was wearing head phones.
Anyhow. Anyone have this problem? Ideas? Kinda sucks that this happened already.
I’ve had similar issues, not with the space cell specifically but with plastic enclosures.
Loctite can weaken/corrode plastic which can cause it to crack so you have to be careful loctite doesn’t come in contact with the enclosure when securing it to the board. I use loctite tape. I also noticed the corners were especially prone to cracking - not sure if this is a result of vibrations or what. Also, if one screw comes loose, it puts a lot of the stress on the other bolts which can turn a small problem into a large one quickly.
I ended up filling the cracks with epoxy (made molds by tin-foiling around the cracks then dremeled it down after it dried) and drilling new holes (avoiding the corners) using larger nuts and bolts. It has held up for ~100 miles so far, we’ll see though.
you guys should also add a washer
I’d bet washers would help, but that’s surprising it happened so quickly. Is there flex in your deck that wore away the bolt holes?
Washer’s not really needed since they’re large socket cap screws, though it can be a little helpful to have. I think the main issue is that you’re torquing the screws down too much. They’re not supposed to be tight, only screw enough to push the weather seal down a little bit. Tighten them during normal maintenance. I’ve never had a problem with my enclosure.
Ah - didn’t know about overtightening. Thanks.
My screws kept falling out even with loctite so I was torquing them down pretty hard.
Buy some little metal peice from the hardware store and hot glue them around the holes. The glue will dampen vibrations and the metal will distribute the load over a larger surface area.
I had the same issue and my space cell enclosure broke, maybe I overtightened them too
they do dig in a little bit without washers, but nothing significant. I’ve been doing great without them.
today was a real bummery day. So after I taped the whole thing on the goddamn 3D printed pulley broke! Christ. Mechanical reliability failure day. Its hot as all hell today in Venice. And Venice Blvd is a pavement shitshow-- i’m pretty sure this is all vibration related-- pulley included.
While i appreciate the ideas about what i clearly should have done does any one have any ideas about what I should do now that half the holes are cracked?
Also-- Its been a while since shopped for parts. Can anyone suggest a reliable 12mm Kegel pulley 36T thats metal?
Thanks!
no flex man! Although, i just wanna go flex.
this is a good idea.
@guyguy those are some good ideas too. I also Locktiteddd the screws and maybe i did torque them too much 
patch up the hole however you want (that fancy black duct tape will do the job) and add two more mounting holes
@blasto cool thanks. Ill probably take this opportunity to do it all around and do a wheel rotation with a pulley replacement. Go 2.0 on this bitch
I didn’t use the bolts that came with the enclosure. I just used a bolt through a washer at the top of the deck, a nut on the other side, then enclosure, then another nut to secure it, so even when I do tighten it down a bit too much, it’s pushing on the second nut instead of the empty space
Adding a washer and a thin rubber washer under the steel washer would help to eliminate vibration stress between the screw and plastic.
I had the same issue. So I cut my enclosure down so it’s only the size it needs to be and have straping holding it there now. I’d say there’s just not enough meat between the bolt and the edges. I also got some pipe insulation and placed that around the edges so I could tighten it down much harder with the straps to prevent it falling off 
The ABS of the SCP enclosure is pretty hardcore, so there must have been a large amount of pressure on it for it to crack like that. Key thing to do is to just not torque it down. I’m sure a washer or rubber gasket would help as well.
3D printed pulleys will wear pretty quick so you should pick up spares. I hear you can inject CF into the plastic to make it stronger, but I don’t know about 3D printing much.
Yeah I’ve got 2 more but if this is just gunna happen again in another 100 miles I’m over it. The goal was for this to be reliable. So far itnhas not been
