Nelo 520 Foot Plate Supports

thingiverse

Recent Nelo surfskis come with a plastic foot plate that flexes. They have rubberized bolts at the bottom of the plate to keep it from digging into gelcoat. They do not work, the pressure is so great even rubber encased bolt heads dig into gelcoat, not to mention there's quite a bit of flex in the bolt brackets. Here is the feet that spread the pressure over a large area so no damage occurs. Important points: 1. You will need 2 stainless M5-0.8 x 40mm socket head Cap bolts. Shorter may work too, but not too short (see pics). 2. YOU NEED TO PRINT IN TPU. Flexibility is needed for correct operation and assembly. If you make them rigid you won't be able to assemble. 3. I am including the whole part as well as top and bottom separately. The latter is to print using different infill/wall settings since you want the bottom soft and the top strong. I printed the bottom at 15% infill and 1mm walls and the top with infill 30% and 1.6 mm walls. Infill type: gyroid. Generally it's ok to experiment as long as the bottom is soft (needs to conform to the hull) and the top is strong enough not to break apart. I used a 0.2 nozzle, but that's certainly negotiable (I just find that tpu prints come out quite strong with this nozzle size). Assembly. 1. Sink a nut into the recession at the top. 2. Insert the bolt through the bolt at the bottom. Tighten snug (don't apply crazy force, the recession will round off and the nut will spin). 3. Remove the foot rest, take off stock feet. 4. Thread the new foot into the existing nut that is inside the brackets. Keep threading until the foot is pretty close to the footrest. One side on the foot will rub at that point, but it's tpu so it should be fine. The feet are meant to be threaded loose so once the footrest is in place and pressure is applied they rotate into their optimal position. 5. Reinstall the footrest. Lower the plate and apply pressure. Make sure the feet are in the good position for best contact. 5. Tighten the side-bolts. If they are hard to rotate or come in crooked, your feet are too far out, thread them in some more and reinstall. At the end, you should have a small amount of sliding as your feet apply pressure. Not too much but also not so the whole assembly requires force to install. 6. This is optional. I added washers and nylon nuts on top the feet brackets (shown in one of the pictures). If you choose to do so, remember to keep them loose, the feet need to rotate to find the best position. To avoid squeaking and rubbing sand into the gelcoat I applied tape to the foot well.