3D Printed Skater Trainers

I started skateboarding a few months ago. I can do some pushing.
Now, I am on my way to learn my first trick: Ollie.

I tried, but I fell down many times.

So I am going to try using Skater Trainers to learn the move first and then do the actual trick.

Skater Trainers

This is rubber wrapped around the wheels to prevent rolling. They cost around $20 to $40, but I have to wait a long time or pay a large sum for shipping to get them to Sri Lanka.

Lets 3D Print them

I have a 3D printer recently got some flexible filament, so I decided to design some Skater Trainers myself.

Take 1

I simply printed some box-shaped wrappers and attached it to my skateboard wheels. I tried some moves, and they were pretty great.

Just after I printed them

They didn’t break or change their shape (I weigh around 70Kg, so, this is a pretty decent load test).

This is how they looks like in wheels

But they came off the wheel after a while. Thats not bad; I can put them back and start training.

Take 2

As an improvement, I designed a bigger version that wraps around the whole wheel. They will take more time to print, but they work great.

The bigger version which fits nicely into wheels

Now I don’t have any complaints.

Print Them Yourself

You can print them yourself as well (here’s my thingiverse entry). To print, you must use flexible PLA, otherwise they’ll break instantly. I used a generic version of flexible PLA, and it works really well.

Before you print, make sure your printer can handle flexible PLA, then turn off retraction and print at speed around 40mm/sec.

For me, it takes around 1.5 hours to print a single skater trainer. But you can play with that by tweaking settings.

Let me know what you think about these and how I can improve them.