1 May 2016

How to make copers


Another of my #DIY posts!

One day out skating, a friendly skateboarder asked me why I don't do truck grinds. I explained that even trying grind down the king pins, they still stick out. He had a look at my trucks and said get copers! So simple solution, why hadn't I thought about it before!? If I can't get the kingpins lower, I should just rise the truck... and with the coper it would be slidier! At home I googled 'copers' to see what they look like and then headed off to a hardware store....

Coper installed

Materials & Tools 

  • One length of plastic plumbing pipe (pvc pipe) about 25mm diameter (check your trucks for size!) and with walls thick enough (2-3 mm). I took one truck with me when I went shopping, just to make sure.
  • Hacksaw 
  • Sharp drill (useful but not necessary) 
  • Vice (useful but not necessary) 
Material and tools
Select pipe with thick walls

Steps 

1. Cut pipe to length - slightly shorter than your trucks.
2. Draw a line lengthwise Draw the little cut out in the middle (to accommodate your kingpin assembly)
 (optional but makes things easier: drill three holes to take most of the material off middle of the pipe)
3. Saw the pipe open lengthwise
4. Saw off the middle 'cut out' section. If you'd drilled it already, there won't be much to saw, so just tidy it up.
5. REPEAT three more times until you have four copers

DONE!
Drill 3 holes in the middle, cut lengthwise then cute the middle section out
Now you can fit them by simply snapping them on. The pipe is flexible enough to open up to snap them on, but retains it's shape well and will hold on nicely.
Snap on, snap off!