Funky Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 Has anyone made "Power Pads" out of: "polymorph thermoplastic"? The plastic beads that melt in boiling water, but in room temperature gets rock hard. Also adding coloring while melting, you could get any color you want. You just need to make "Mold, Form" for the pads. Or having "to hard" pads are kinda bad? Any insights? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..... Posted March 5, 2022 Share Posted March 5, 2022 (edited) 6 hours ago, Funky said: Has anyone made "Power Pads" out of: "polymorph thermoplastic"? The plastic beads that melt in boiling water, but in room temperature gets rock hard. Also adding coloring while melting, you could get any color you want. You just need to make "Mold, Form" for the pads. Or having "to hard" pads are kinda bad? Any insights? I saw you mention that somewhere and it sounds like a feasible idea. I dont know the material you are talking about, but it would need be pretty soft OR molded to flex. I made some pads in the past that learned me a bit. FIrst was tpu (flexible material), but the design was thick and even at a thickness of .4mm, it proved pretty tough on the legs, specially bare legs. I then moved onto epdm foam. Oh man was that stuff so damn comfy. It was luxurious and worked great. Until.... you crashed. Epdm is soft enough to be comfortable, but it didnt fare well enough if you slid on it. I moved back to tpu, but changed design idea. I came up with ShanesPadsV2/V2SE and I solved the problem of being too hard, by making a design that flexed. Even then, the tpu is somewhat a hard surface, so I covered the 'nubs' with epdm, then eventually RollNZ neoprene(SE pad variant). Success was had because it would flex, had a soft face for legs, yet durable enough to slide and smash them w/o being damaged. Fwiw, I finish off my edges with a heat gun, so I somewhat mold via heat as well. Original molds were done in hard Petg or Pla+. Aside from being a cheap way to design and try sizing, both were dangerously hard and completely useless for actual riding. The reason I mention this is three fold. One : Shameless promotion. Two: design has a lot to do with the useability of each type of material Three: Give you a pat on the back for a good idea, even if it proves impractical. Worth a try! For your sake I hope it works. For MY sales sake, I hope it doesnt Edited March 5, 2022 by ShanesPlanet 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funky Posted March 6, 2022 Author Share Posted March 6, 2022 33 minutes ago, ShanesPlanet said: I saw you mention that somewhere and it sounds like a feasible idea. I dont know the material you are talking about, but it would need be pretty soft OR molded to flex. I made some pads in the past that learned me a bit. FIrst was tpu (flexible material), but the design was thick and even at a thickness of .4mm, it proved pretty tough on the legs, specially bare legs. I then moved onto epdm foam. Oh man was that stuff so damn comfy. It was luxurious and worked great. Until.... you crashed. Epdm is soft enough to be comfortable, but it didnt fare well enough if you slid on it. I moved back to tpu, but changed design idea. I came up with ShanesPadsV2/V2SE and I solved the problem of being too hard, by making a design that flexed. Even then, the tpu is somewhat a hard surface, so I covered the 'nubs' with epdm, then eventually RollNZ neoprene(SE pad variant). Success was had because it would flex, had a soft face for legs, yet durable enough to slide and smash them w/o being damaged. Fwiw, I finish off my edges with a heat gun, so I somewhat mold via heat as well. Original molds were done in hard Petg or Pla+. Aside from being a cheap way to design and try sizing, both were dangerously hard and completely useless for actual riding. The reason I mention this is three fold. One : Shameless promotion. Two: design has a lot to do with the useability of each type of material Three: Give you a pat on the back for a good idea, even if it proves impractical. Worth a try! For your sake I hope it works. For MY sales sake, I hope it doesnt Yeah as i mentioned the material is hard as "rock" You can smack it with a hammer and you won't destroy it. So padding is needed for sure. One plus is, i can use same material as many times i want, simply by remelting it. For sure it won't be as easy as 3D-printing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..... Posted March 6, 2022 Share Posted March 6, 2022 2 minutes ago, Funky said: Yeah as i mentioned the material is hard as "rock" You can smack it with a hammer and you won't destroy it. So padding is needed for sure. One plus is, i can use same material as many times i want, simply by remelting it. For sure it won't be as easy as 3D-printing. 3d print the mold? Working with epdm is a total pita, I can tell you that much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Funky Posted March 6, 2022 Author Share Posted March 6, 2022 (edited) 30 minutes ago, ShanesPlanet said: 3d print the mold? Working with epdm is a total pita, I can tell you that much! Nah, i meant making them self vs 3d printed pads.. Edited March 6, 2022 by Funky Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..... Posted March 6, 2022 Share Posted March 6, 2022 (edited) 1 hour ago, Funky said: Nah, i meant making them self vs 3d printed pads.. Yeah, I got that. I was merely offering a suggestion on how to work with it. Printing a mold to put the plastic into, may be an option? I guess depends on how the 3d material reacts when you pour boiling hot plasitc into it. Then of course theres the removal of the mold. Maybe someone good with wood carving, would do that for a mold instead. Again, was just a thought, as I don't know much at all about the specific material you have in mind. Could be fun to try. Who knows, even if it doesnt work for pads, it could prove educational and work for something else... Edited March 6, 2022 by ShanesPlanet Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TantasStarke Posted March 6, 2022 Share Posted March 6, 2022 4 hours ago, ShanesPlanet said: Yeah, I got that. I was merely offering a suggestion on how to work with it. Printing a mold to put the plastic into, may be an option? I guess depends on how the 3d material reacts when you pour boiling hot plasitc into it. Then of course theres the removal of the mold. Maybe someone good with wood carving, would do that for a mold instead. Again, was just a thought, as I don't know much at all about the specific material you have in mind. Could be fun to try. Who knows, even if it doesnt work for pads, it could prove educational and work for something else... The 3d printed mold should be fine, PLA "melts" at around 200C. I wouldn't recommend the polymorph thermoplastic if it's as hard as some people have said. Maybe if you made them in the style of Grizzla pads where they're seperated, and added a soft layer that your leg actually hits, only using the polymorph for like an exo-shell for the pads. I'd still just go with TPU pads personally Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellkitten Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 I made some toe hooks outta worbla. Super cool stuff, they’ve held up great so far. https://www.worbla.com/ I’m actually making some custom side pads for my V11 out of silicone shortly. The forms are almost finished I’ll be molding them soon. As far as I know nobody has made silicone versions yet. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawpie Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 10 hours ago, Hellkitten said: The forms are almost finished I’ll be molding them soon. Molds.... means you can make more! I'm quite interested in your project, silicone shouldn't be so hard on your shins during an unplanned get off. Please keep us posted! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellkitten Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 (edited) @Tawpie Will do. I actually make custom plastic and rubber things for a living. I thought silicone would be a perfect material for pads. It can be firm or soft tinted any color and should be “grabby” not slick on the legs. I’ve also found the adhesive backing does not like to stay stuck on the rubber tops of the V11. I regularly use a silicone that I can make sticky. The plan is to cast the main body in a firmer rubber then add a backing in the sticky stuff so the pads will be self adhering. I’ve done this before, just not with pads. Edited April 7, 2022 by Hellkitten 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tawpie Posted April 7, 2022 Share Posted April 7, 2022 Haha! I figured with your chosen profession, you would be without peer in this arena. A part of me wanted to break out the thermoformer and make molds for pads... then sheer laziness (as usual) stepped to the fore. Some things are more suited to application of the checkbook tool. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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