Acrylic plywood skater

T

Texanite

Well-known member
"Acrylic plywood skater"? Is it made of acrylic plywood? No, it's not made of plywood at all, but it was inspired by the now-ubiquitous "plywood skater" from 2005 and is, therefore I consider this my acrylic version of the plywood skater. It is made of acrylic, and that was based on inspiration from another project here which was the "Acrylic skater dolly" of 2006

I started work on this in mid 2008 and finally got a good working version by the end of 2008. Through the prototyping / build process, I ended up with 2 complete skater dollys along with some leftover parts. Here is what the results were:

skaterdolly.jpg
dollywithouthead.jpg


Since that point, I've sold both of the dollys to recoup the costs involved and now that I have a little unallocated money to use, I'm hoping to come up with a new revision in the nearish future. As it stands, the dolly is time, money and labor intensive. I'm working on laying out a slightly smaller version for cameras that don't require extra heavy-duty support, and I'm hoping to reduce the production costs a bit in that fashion. I have an HV20 and making a dolly that can hold a 20+lb camera seems like overkill.

I don't spend as much time online these days, but when I get my slightly smaller version made, I'll post some pics.
 
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very nice texanite! I'm getting some requests for version 2 design which is smaller. still havent gotten down to making the vector file for it since i personally still use the first version.
 
teddybear said:
very nice texanite!
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Thanks. You are the man (or 'the bear') seeing as it was your original design that inspired me to make my first wooden skater. If it wasn't for the fact that I'm so terrible at woodworking, I might have stopped there :)

teddybear said:
I'm getting some requests for version 2 design which is smaller. still havent gotten down to making the vector file for it since i personally still use the first version.
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My acrylic version is slightly different than yours and I think is just a smidge smaller, although maybe fatter. I've been through so many changes that I can't remember now, but I know I compared it at some point and it's smaller in at least one direction. I've done a little messing around with a design for a smaller version, but one of the tricks has been making it smaller without losing too much of the camera-deck and also without making it too small for the wheels. I'm hoping to get a good compromise.

I swear I say this every week, but I'm hoping to have some time in the next couple weeks to finish up the smaller design and contact my local laser cutter to get some parts made. Like any hobby or DIY project, it's never as quick as I'd hope. I guess we'll see what I can get done.
 
Not the smaller version I'm working on, but she's pretty none the less. I call her: Big Blue

newskater.jpg
 
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Thanks for the props everybody. As far as instructions go, the best threads to read would be teddybear's original thread and then the acrylic skater thread that I linked in the first post. I'm having my acrylic cut for me, but the user who posted the original acrylic skater thread did it all by hand and even has a list of itemized supplies/costs proving that you can do this fully DIY.

I've edited a couple posts to make sure I wasn't confusing anybody about my first version versus a new smaller version. I'm in the process of trying to make a smaller version, but the blue one pictured is not a smaller one. It's the same large scale version which is about 19" x 16". I had parts for a smaller version cut, but it's a trial and error process to a certain extent and I'm going to have to get some other parts made and things cut before it's ready for primetime. But I'll post pictures of the smaller one when it's done as well.

thekreative said:
itching to get my hands on it.
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She's getting closer every day! :beer:
 
acrylic skater jr.

acrylic skater jr.

A bit smaller than the previous versions but completely suitable for most prosumer cameras. Here it is sitting inside a carrying case:

blackskaterjrincase.jpg
 
Texanite, these are beautiful. I think you could do very well with these even if you offered them as a kit. This might be a great way to lower your cost and yet still offer a great service and product.

Lee
 
What wheels are recommended? Doing A search brings up prices from a $8.95 for a set of 4 wheels to $200 for one wheel! I am starting to put together the parts to build one soon. Do the cheaper wheel sets work out ok? Also what size are best the 70 mm, 80 mm, 110 mm?. I would assume good bearings are the key for smoothness, although the bearings won't have near the weight of a person skating.
 
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Thanks for the props GBTJ and Lee! I'm hoping to have another revision of the mini version in the next couple weeks. I'll post some pics when I do.


TommyK: The wheels I'm using for the bigger version are 70mm or 72mm (I think). I don't think you'd need something as large as 80mm. I can't see what the benefit would be, so I'd go ahead with the cheaper wheel set. The amount of wear and tear that a dolly is going to put on the wheels is nothing like what they were actually designed to take from an inline skater.

You're right that good bearings are key. I've tried 3 or 4 different kinds and it partially depends on what I can find, but there were some that I dumped on ebay after buying them because they were rough.

I think some ABEC5 bearings I got from VXB were the best but it's difficult to pin point exactly what the determining factor is. They might just have been better constructed overall. The funny things about bearings is that they're tough to test. The natural inclination is to spin the wheel and see how fast it goes but from everything I've read testing them that way with no load (IOW, no weight on them) is pointless. In my own experience, I think that's true. You want to make sure that they roll smoothly and aren't all clunky, but as far as 'speed' goes or the ABEC rating, I don't know how much it matters.
 
Wow- the jr one looks awesome for an SLR video setup. Hey Tex, I know you got the original plans from TeddyBear, but yours looks sooooo different. Would you be willing to share your plans (I'm assuming you have some AI files or something)? A good business idea for you (since you said you wouldn't be selling them) would be making a DVD for distribution on all the steps you take for making this, or a wood version. Of course, none of us would be mad at you if you share the video for free! :-)
 
tbanucci said:
idea for you (since you said you wouldn't be selling them)
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On occasion I have an extra for sale as I move and shake through slight tweaks. It's a matter of months and months between changes but you can send me a PM if you think you might be interested.

Cheers!
 
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