Re-building Loaded Vanguard with Bamboo/Fibreglass/Carbon

Did you use the same epoxy you use for your carbon enclosures to add the additional bamboo veneer to the vanguard? Inspirational builds.

yea :slight_smile:

My twill has arrived, borrowed a vacuum pump from a friend, new mold is ready… Can you tell me, how much epoxy ratio to cloth do you use? I have read equal weight epoxy to cloth and also read just to coat the cloth evenly. Do you go by feel or measurement? I used equal weight epoxy to cloth this time.

22 hours to wait. 1 layer fibreglass 1 layer regular carbon 2 layers twill

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I usually use “enough”, soaking everything heavily, excess resin is pressed through bleeder layer into the soaking material anyway! looking at your soaking material it looks as if its not really getting a lot of resin, so I guess you couldve used a little more to be save! youll see the next day :slight_smile:

mold cracked :frowning: big crease down the centre of my enclosure :frowning: vacuum pump > plaster of paris.

awh :worried: how did you make the mold? I used the hardest foam that was available and for my latest enclosures I used MDF wood which is very strong, but still quite easy to shape. atmospheric pressure is STRONG, 9.5tons of pressure per square meter if you have a good pump!

I used plaster of paris, toward the stronger spectrum of water to plaster mix-found a cool tupperware container that fit the cells as per your build, but a vacuum pump running continuously is so powerful. I will try again. and again. Was a little dry I think more epoxy is needed. Also I think I should use MDF - terrible to unwrap a present to find this.

Still usable - will see how the next one turns out - will turn the pump off after I pull a decent vacuum. Routed into the flex 2 I picked up yesterday for $65 :smiley: now have flex 1,2,3 to play with. The extra burny bit is handy routing with a dremel to take the top of the curve away.

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doesnt look bad, too bad you had it crack! you dont wanna know how often I remade things :sweat_smile:

its all a great learning experience, embrace it :nerd:

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It’s therapeutic - the wife is away this weekend, I’m making the most of it ! (she doesn’t know about the 3rd vanguard yet!)

after a week with the trampa I switched to my DIY deck today for some urethane carving and woah, one week nearly made me forget how absolutely perfect this deck is - every detail is spot on. perfect flex, perfect trucks, perfect bushings, good old kegels which are great for this kind of excellent pavement. :hugging:

I recently reworked the deck slightly because, for the first time ever, the top carbon layer came off in a few places - really weird. I was able to peel the carbon right off with the grip tape - never saw anything like it before:

I gave it a very thorough rough sanding and took it as an opportunity to replace the 200gr/m^2 carbon with 400gr/m^2 fiber glas for an improved reception and minimally harder flex. it has bonded strongly as always now, inseparable. really not sure what went wrong with the carbon back then. the reception is really improved with the glas. I had the problem before that I wasnt able to keep the mini remote in my pocket, kept having dropouts like that. now I can keep it just about anywhere without any reception issues. :relaxed:

decided to upload a short video I made with my phone, so you get an idea why I build the boards the way I build them. every detail is made for the endless carve with my favoured carving frequency.

if you switch to slow motion, you can see very well the compression for a turn, decompression after a turn and taking the free energy right into the next turn. the carving frequency is pretty much determined by the flex of the board. if you remember my flex test videos: the natural swinging frequency is very similar to the perfect carving frequency - basically you will ride in tune with the natural frequency of the board for the best energy returns in the right moment. its highly addicting :blush:

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Do you think it would be possible to make a drop down deck using your method or would the (1inch) drops be to much of a hassle?

i dont really see the point of a dropdown unless you want to push your board? for carving, a deck that got your feet too close to the road feels somewhat “shallow”, not sure how to explain it better.

firstly, you loose board flex travel and might bottom it out or your heel/foottips might touch the road.

more importantly, the higher your feet are from the trucks, the more leverage you get over the truck and the easier leaning in gets - its feels more like balancing a rope, much livlier experience compared to low decks.

ultimately, this offset feet<->truck pivot point determines how much force is transferred to the outer wheel while carving - with a sharp lipped outer wheel, a large offset adds a lot of pressure and in return adds a lot of traction. its the “top moints have more traction, drop through slide easier” consensus in the longboard world. thats why you see only super high slalom boards - always top mount, often with high risers.

but if you rearmount the motors or start the drop after the motor sure, its possible. from a carving perspective: not optimal!

I was referring to making a custom deck based on a existing model like you did with the vanguard. I have drop deck with 1 inch drop already and have the motors rear mounted. I like the drop but there is things I would change like the flex. It was just a thought, it’s probably to complicated.

think thats equally simple - just put the bamboo layers ontop or below the donor deck, vacuum, done! what deck do you have?

might not be able to make it super flexy due to ground clearance!

I currently have older rayne nemesis. It’s has to much concave stock and heavy. I have been looking at treehunters deck also, but it would be nice to make a custom one

Ground clearance​ hasn’t been an issue with 100mm wheels and 1/4 shock pad. I just want tiny bit more flex. I had routed the deck for wires and it was to flexy​ so I put two fiberglass layers on top, I should have put one. Maybe I can just route for flex but I’m worried it will be to weak structurally.

i did that with my topspeed, it became more and more flexy, but it felt different compared to a bamboo fiberglas board. the board was kinda soft, but it didnt have that springy energetic pop compared to my vanguard and the diy deck!

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That looks spot on as terms of flex I’m looking for to give extra dampening. Does it make a difference if routing the bottom or the top?

nope, only the thickness counts!

Thanks for the info. Haven’t decided what Route I’m going between diy deck, treehunter deck or routing existing board.

@whitepony Simon do you any tips working with the rampa muffs ? I figured the ones with the allen insert are higher quality. I have mounted them on my vanguard but I couldn’t for f**ks sake get them in straight… :pensive: I have an icarus on my way which I’ll want to convert my current setup to. I don’t want to mess up the deck too much when trying to screw in the inserts.

I’ve read that you also have the icarus in your collection which you are using as a push board. Would you say its possible to mount a single 6374 under the deck(mby topmount?) ? Or should I have the mounts faced to the back just like evolve does.

EDIT:// would you say a split enclosures is required for the icarus ?