Re-building Loaded Vanguard with Bamboo/Fibreglass/Carbon

Thanks yeah i was looking for some bamboo the other day it seems really difficult- it almost seem worth while to get it imported from China

Really nice and clean. I can smell the fresh cut wood. :relieved:

Edit: What sand papers are you using? seriously. :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

I wish I could mail you my vanguard for you to do it for me… lol it’s so nice

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Do you use your vanguard for your press?

I want a nice vanguard build by him too. My vanguard looks like an ogre compared to this build.

:laughing:

yea, the thread is a little mixed up. started with pressing my very first own deck with the donorshape of my original vanguard, then I jumped ships to finish winter maintenance with the bamboo veneer and transparent grip. now that the old girl is sexy again, I went back to my pressed deck after I made up this very cool new modification of the shape! :slight_smile:

Thanks for clearing it up, so for the one with the transparent grip - was it just this “bamboo fiber bamboo fiber bamboo fiber bamboo”.

How would i try that out if i buy the veneer sheets.

Also would it possible to have a built in enclosure or would that make the bamboo too weak

the one with the transparent grip, red trucks and black trampa wheels was my original vanguard thats been running over 2000km now. for next season I wanted a more natural look, so I removed my black vicious, covered the wire channels ontop of the board with a 0.6mm bamboo veneer, clearcoated with a thin layer of epoxy, followed by transparent vicious grip tape.

the other storyline is my DIY pressed deck (the one with 4 bamboo plys, 3x fiberglass and carbon 45° unidirectional stripes with that new kind of shape = no bottle nose). I just restarted working on that after I fixed up my “old” vanguard flex 2 for next season. today I drew the new shape, cut it out and sanded a little. :slight_smile:

build in? nah, dont think so! I specifically want a very flexy deck with great damping and springy energy returns. any enclosure must be split and working it in means, the board will instantly be too stiff because of the decks thickness.

if i set it up to be electric, I would just follow my original vanguard build, since it works very very well. Loaded Vanguard Carbon Cast Ronin Single VESC 10S4P | Endless Sphere DIY EV Forum

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Ok thanks for explaining this to me :smiley:

What tools do you need for the fibreglass/carbon fibre bit - is it vac forming

yea, just used my original vanguard as shape/blueprint in a vacuum sack - check the initial post for the pictures.

if you dont have a board you love as a blueprint, it can be done like @MasterCho with some acrylic sheet for camber & concave. check his board building threads - they are amazing with great results!

Thanks your a god :smiley:

I am considering getting the bamboo from china if shipping costs are not too high.

I added 2 ronins to the board just now … and my forever-leftover kegels to test the board on the road a little … on socks, no grip tape and I didnt want to make the bamboo dirty just yet. :stuck_out_tongue:

well, what can I say … what felt good when it was seated on 2 bricks and before it was cut is now WAY too flexy with trucks on wheels. :unamused: Ill certainly have to add one more bamboo layer or some serious gfk top & bottom! probably one more bamboo layer is the way too go … and then fine tune with thin GFK layers. got a lot of time during winter and my vacuum pump is silent. :slight_smile:

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and the vacuum pump is peacefully humming again - the next layer fiberglas + bamboo added! ill know tomorrow if that was enough for my desired flex! :slight_smile:

you can see nicely how the pressure squeezes out the epoxy at the sides! good that I enjoy sanding :nerd:

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results: with 5 layers bamboo and 4 layers GFK in between, Im now pretty happy with the Flex (ist now just a tiny bit too flexy for me). once I add some channels and a notch for the enclosures, Ill wrap it completely in gfk for weatherproofing, which should really yield the amount of flex I was looking for!

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some flex testing - I think it will really be spot on once I have it wrapped in one top and one bottom layer of GFK.

its very springy and got a lot of pop. was wondering if loaded did anything special with their boards - turns out they dont. cambered bamboo + gfk = springy board with a lot of pop. :slight_smile:

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What thickness Glass fiber cloth did you use between bamboo layers?

I guess Gfk=Glass Fiber k?

200g/m^2 glas twill!

oh yea, GFK is actually german for “glasfaserverstärkter Kunststoff”, i.e. glas fiber reinforced plastic! not sure if people actually say GRP in english - thought GFK is a common international abbreviation actually.

I heard of GRP before from suppliers . Maybe GFK is. I haven’t stayed in US long enough to know.

German language is cool. I took German classes in my high school as a third language and currently my son is also taking it in his high school.

few weeks ago I started fiddling again with my first DIY pressed board - it finally got the perfect flex after some sanding, routing and finally adding carbon (man, carbon is so strong, a carbon layer on the outer layer is really massively affecting flex - i think I got lucky with the outcome. expect to add some GFK to the top for fine tuning the flex, but the carbon bottom brought the flex just where I wanted it. or well, initially I had the boards edges covered in carbon too, but it felt just a tiny bit too stiff, so i sanded it down again and now I love it!).

I couldnt really sink in anything, because the board is very slim - all I did this time was sinking in the future enclosure lid in advance (following my jet spud build). these sunk in lids REALLY help avoiding sand, dust and wet inside your enclosures, because its a double corner entry for all these things - really hard to pass. at the same time its very elegant to have the enclosure lid at the same level as the rest of the board.

electronics and battery done 2 weeks ago - its a 10S3P LG HG2 battery with a german vesc and a custom 2x 2200uF capacitor layout to account for the very limited space I have. even though I like 10S4P a lot more, my daily commute to work works with a 10S3P without overly stressing the battery. I did this to minimize enclosure and maximize unaffected board flex really.

as you can see, I set back the enclosures as much as possible towards the trucks - the middle flex part is really as large as it can be, the motor is forcing the rear enclosure into some L-shape. tested all the relevant heights and wheel clearance - everything will fit to the millimeter! :smiley:

for the enclosure, I will probably try something new: I want to use the electronic parts as they are, fixate them on the board with double adhesive tape and use them directly as mold for the enclosure. that way it will be the absolute best possible fit, no rattling, no movement, nothing. all parts are already covered in a 2mm felt layer, including the vesc. the copper heat sinks of the vesc are partially sunk into the board on the lower side to give it an overall low profile. think all the components can widthstand atmospheric pressure and Im looking forward to the results. possibly, it looks like an accident with bumps and dents, but then again its the street side anyway and in the end form should follow function.

here are some pictures that show some of the ingredients. its old wheels, Im probably buying the 90mm stickies from trampa once they become available.

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Would you please post how you connect the capacitors between the battery ans VESC?, do you have any picture of the layout? On yout build did you use just a standard 2200uF capacitor?

I wonder if I should use two capacitors, 1100uF for each VESC?

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