Lets build some parts!!!

[lincpimp]

Ok, just had a look around the forum and boy does this place seem dead... Hellooooooooooo

Anyways, figured I would try to spice things up a bit (sorry to disappoint you Harold but there will not be any pics of Bondoscrot and Hippie in compromising positions..) with a cool custom build or 2.

I never did finish the 6x6 lst based truck or the Centipede (Shawn named that one), and I feel like I now have the equipment to do so. Pics to follow, and those shall explain alot.

Since I stopped full time rc hobby-ing I have moved back to gunsmithing. Did alot of hands on work and my skillz have imporcved greatly. Recently jumped into machinging parts, so now I can scratch build what I want.

I will detail some stuff in this thread, and give overviews on a few of the custom projects that have been in hiatus.

1st up will be an aluminum transfer diff for the lst. I built the last one by sectioning 2 plastic diff cases together, but always felt that an aluminum case would be best. Int needs to be strong cause all of the force for both sets of rear tires go thru it. Same with the Centipede, although I was thinking that one might get 2 outrunners for power, one to drive the rearmost set of wheels and the other to drive the front and center. Depends on how the trans mount comes out with the BPP torpedo chassis.

Pretty simple in concept, the case holds a std diff and pinion, and also holds a second pinion which is driven off the diff as well. That pinion is attached to the rear most diff. Just a simple way to get drive to two rear differentials.

I have some ideas on the construction and machining, and will do my best to post as much detail as I can. This will also be a father/son project, as my dad recently bought and restored a lathe, so I plan to have him do most of the work on the lathe. My mini mill will likely come in handy for some finishing, and precision drilling/threading. Both of us need some experience with these tools, and aluminum is much more forgiving than steel on the bits and bars.

Still need to order material, but I will be doing the inital design in the followig days. I will also take some pics of the equipment and workspace for you guys, as I know you are all very nosy. Hopefully this will spur everyone to get back to the best part of this hobby, making/modding!!!

[moneybagsfor-rc]

Looking forward to it.

Yes, the forum is quite dead - it is even driving me crazy, despite myself being a non-poster. But I read quite a bit on the forum - here are my hypotheses for the deadness:

Brushless has become mainstream - No more cruddy BK controllers (which were better than Schulze tenfold btw) and no more Feigo. Castle/Traxxas has taken the "third party"-ness out of Brushless. Nitro is dead, brushless is mainstream and where everyone is at. RC-Monster thrived when electric RC was for freaks and weirdos like myself. Now RC-Monster is sorta a third party - they were unique because they found the best stuff from around the world to help prevent us from blowing up our BL every weekend. Nowadays, one purchase of a BL E-Revo out of the box is pretty much better than any custom BL setup.

Second reason is, in my opinion, the whole slipperential thing probably killed the hobby for RC Monster Mike. He used to keep this place hopping, now members can't even join without waiting 2 months for an admin to let them in. I don't even know if Mike is still interested in the hobby. I can understand though, considering how much work went into the slipperential and how it was ripped off. The main evidence of this hypothesis of mine is that "**ATTENTION ALL BUYERS**" thing on the front page of the website has been there for years now. Clearly there has been no bigger news to hit RCM since then.

[DarkSammy]

I love this forum, and even if BL is mainstream now, this site will always mean more to me that the traxxas forum that is filled with idiots. People here know what they are talking about, so I hope that we can keep it strong.

[moneybagsfor-rc]

Nah, forums across the internet are dying. All of them. Nothing to innovate, talk about or ask questions about now that BL systems are stable and are the industry standard. MTs are much better than the Maxx - so no mechanical issues to deal with either, for the most part (namely, bulkheads and diffs). With the advent of truggy, even the best MAxx stuff like the VBS, RacerX are easily outperformed.


Traxxas forums was always a place for children to ask questions about their new toys -there's nothing wrong with that- but at least Traxxas lets in new members, RCM only does that once in a while. I don't compare the two forums (different target audiences).

Even that Losi 5ive with a sick twin MGM power system posted in the Brushless section of RCM is just plain boring. Maybe it's fun to drive, but it's really nothing new, innovative or worth talking about more than saying "that's sick"...it's nothing more than somebody willing to put more of his/her paycheck into toys than the rest of us.

I wonder what will spark this hobby up again...for me at least.

[Arct1k]

Nothing has come after the flamethrowing, paintball shooting, bodacia bladed brushless truggy.

[lincpimp]

Originally Posted by moneybagsfor-rc

Nah, forums across the internet are dying. All of them. Nothing to innovate, talk about or ask questions about now that BL systems are stable and are the industry standard. MTs are much better than the Maxx - so no mechanical issues to deal with either, for the most part (namely, bulkheads and diffs). With the advent of truggy, even the best MAxx stuff like the VBS, RacerX are easily outperformed.


Traxxas forums was always a place for children to ask questions about their new toys -there's nothing wrong with that- but at least Traxxas lets in new members, RCM only does that once in a while. I don't compare the two forums (different target audiences).

Even that Losi 5ive with a sick twin MGM power system posted in the Brushless section of RCM is just plain boring. Maybe it's fun to drive, but it's really nothing new, innovative or worth talking about more than saying "that's sick"...it's nothing more than somebody willing to put more of his/her paycheck into toys than the rest of us.

I wonder what will spark this hobby up again...for me at least.

Very good points. I will try my best to make some off the wall stuff to get interest up. I also plan to do some how-to threads on beefing up some of the traxxas rtr brushless rides, complete with one off parts. The homebuilt stuff was always the coolest to me. Just seeing the lengths members went to to make a maxx bulletproof was worth trolling this forum endlessly. And Neil's wit, is he still alive?

I try to make my posts a little more lively (like Harold when he thinks you are interested in him for more than just his body) so possibly they are worth reading.

Originally Posted by Arct1k

Nothing has come after the flamethrowing, paintball shooting, bodacia bladed brushless truggy.

It will be hard to top Shaun's creation, that is for sure. I could show you guys some of the rc ideas I have for home security, but I would hate someone to run with my ideas and hurt themselves. Until cheap integrated facial recognition becomes mainstream I will just work on the hardware.

[A RC Dude]

I'm interested either way lol I could flip through pages of custom rc's looking at the designs.

[redshift]

I still check in now and again, just don't log in much...

Yeah BL is commonplace now, just like so many things, the innovators are often forgotten.

What was 'wow' is now 'meh'

Everything evolves, but other useless distractions have also evolved...

One thing was left out- Bacefook.

Oh and texting.. lt's c hw fw wrds we cn cmunic8 in nd stl gt teh point across..

wasting entire lives staring at a "smart" phone and walking into poles. What a bright future...

Good to see you back with more skillz linc, put them to use :)

J

[lincpimp]

Thanks for the kind words. I almost walked into a hole while I was trying to read them on my tiny smart phone screen in direct sunlight while walking across a busy intersection at rush hour.

On another note, the material showed up today. Forget to get a pic but will snap one tomorrow. It is a 12" long piece of 6061 t561 aluminum that is .75" thick and 1.75" wide.

Dad and I spent lunch hour discussing what we need to make the various cuts, and the small ridges that hold the bearings in place will likely require a custom tool to be made, or I will have to drop some coin on an "inside groving" boring bar and some inserts that will need to be ground to the correct width (looks to be 4mm)

I also plan to pull the current plastic transfer diff out of the 6x6 lst. I have never run it under power, as I never finished the build. I will continue the build thread for the truck as I complete this project. Need to make a chassis, steering setup, etc. I may go with the xxl chassis up front (the truck needs to be longer, YEAH).

[redshift]

Wow glad you survived all that :)

Since you're cutting aluminum, tool steel is your friend... time to play on the old grinding wheel.

First tip, use an aluminum oxide wheel for grinding tool steel aka HSS.

Silicon carbide wheels are normally only used for cemented carbide bits, and super-hard materials.

Form your relief so the chip material 'flows' as shown on the end view of my super-professional illustration, see tool bit on left of photo. The actual cutting width can be far less than the space, you'll go in a little, then pull the cutter away from the chuck, repeat til you have your proper ID & width. I usually use a dial indicator to know the depth of cut in a counter-bored hole.

The hardest part is measuring the bore inside the 'lip', if you have a junk pair of calipers, carefully grind away a relief on the inner measurement end of the caliper jaws, to look much like the cutter you used, so the measuring tips fall inside the lip, make sense?

Tool steel is cheap and you may have a few chunks lying around already, you'll need no more than 1/4" or 3/8" HSS blanks.

Use a silicon carbide stick to dress the wheel to the profile you need.

Standard wheels are 3/4" wide, so you'll want to cut a step in the wheel for grinding narrower gaps in your HSS bit. No need for fancy tooling here...

[lincpimp]

Good info Redshift.

Dad wanted to buy a inside grooving tool with removable cutting inserts. I figured I could make what I needed using some stock and the welder. I only need to cut a groove 1mm deep 4mm wide. I figured I could whip something up, basically like a chisel point that could be advanced very slowly into the material and it would cut a square shoulder on each side. Otherwise if the cutting surface is angled I would need 2 tools, and would have to make them quite narrow to allow them to track along the 4mm groove. Not sure if that makes sense, I will have to draw a diagram.

[redshift]

Yeah I follow, I actually wasn't thinking much about the small scale, but you can take either a well-used endmill, or even a decent standard drill bit.. so that you're starting with a round profile.

And in this case you're more likely going to use a dremel with a stone wheel to shape your cutter.

The examples I gave above also both show angles, which is wrong.

You'll need either a dead straight (along the long axis of the bit) edge, or an inverted "M" shape to get square inside corners, so that only the actual corners are making the cut.

Not critical for a bearing seat, as bearings have a slight radius on their corners, but more critical for touch-off, and bore depth measurements. I don't recommend grinding your cutting face to the 4mm width, you'll get corner chip-loading, rather you should do more like 1 or 2mm and move the cutter 2 or 3mm to get your cut, working your way in to get your final ID.

In other words, I would't try to take the full bearing width, OR depth in one cut, this is difficult to explain but I hope it makes sense.

You must always allow the chip a place to go, one little chip load will snap your tip off, and you may just have to re-grind your cutter. But worst case is you'll ruin your finish dimensions and have to start over with new material, which sucks.

I haven't looked, but there's sure to be help vids on Youtube for doing small counterbore holes, I would have a look :)