Hoverboard Tank Chain Drive

This is a fully 3D-printable drive wheel and chain link system designed specifically for hoverboard motors.

Whether you are building a custom rover, a tank-tracked bot, or just modifying your hoverboard, this kit has you covered.

The drive wheel slips right over standard hoverboard motors, and the chain links can be chained together to fit whatever wheelbase you need! 🚀

📐 Dimensions & Specs

• Wheel Diameter: 125 mm (approx. 4.92 inches)
• Chain Length: Fully customizable! The number of chain links you need will highly depend on how far apart your two wheels are mounted.

🖨️ Recommended Print Settings

Since these parts need to handle tension, friction, and torque, material choice and print settings are super important.

• Material: TPU (95A hardness is highly recommended for the best balance of flex and strength).
• Perimeters/Walls: 8 perimeters (this gives the parts the heavy-duty walls they need to survive).
• Infill: ~15% Gyroid (Gyroid is perfect here because it flexes evenly in all directions!).

🔩 Hardware Required

To connect the chain links together, you will need some specific hardware. I used these exact parts for my build:

• Screws: M6 x 50 mm Socket Head Cap Screws (Partially threaded, galvanized steel / ISO 4762 - DIN 912).
  • 🔗 Get them here on Amazon
• Nuts: M6 Nylon Lock Nuts (Stainless Steel A2-V2A / DIN 985).
  • 🔗 Get them here on Amazon

🛠️ Assembly Tips & Tricks (Please Read!)

Putting this together requires a little bit of elbow grease, so here are my top tips to save you some frustration:

1. Mounting the Wheels When TPU is cold, it is very stiff. If you try to force these wheels over your hoverboard motors at room (or even colder) temperature, it will be incredibly difficult - if not impossible!

• The trick: Gently warm the TPU wheels up first (using a heat gun on a low setting, a warm radiator, or a warm water bath or a filament heater in case you have one). This makes the TPU much more pliable so it can stretch perfectly over the motor. As it cools, it will shrink and grip the motor tightly!

2. Assembling the Chain Links ⛓️ Because we are using self-locking nuts, they require some force to thread.

• The trick: Push the lock nut into its slot, and squeeze the flexible TPU firmly around it with pliers or even a vice, so the nut doesn't spin.
• To drive the 50mm screws through the links and into the nuts, I highly recommend using an impact driver. However, please do this carefully! Feather the trigger so you don't strip the plastic or overdrive the screw.

I hope you enjoy building this as much as I did designing it! If you print this out, please post a make and let me know what kind of awesome project you are using it for. Happy printing! 🛠️✨