Shipped!!
 

...sent with gum about 10 minutes ago :D Got in for the weekend flight so should be there mid to end of next week...I am guessing Wednesday Thursday...Might want to give them a bit of a scrub because there is still a bit of purkle left on them...Good to go Joe :D

Wait... gum, but no parsley?! :lol: Thanks Bit, I appreciate your willingness to always help.

Got the braces mounted. The lexan and motor mount are marked up and ready to be cut in the morning at the machine shop. Im ordering new center dogbones that actually fit, so I cant mount the center diff on the lexan until I get the bones to place the diff exactly where it needs to go. Not sure if Im going to use the radio box or not..

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ABRUPT CHANGE OF PLANS AHEAD!!

I have decided to scrap the idea of mounting the CD on top of a sheet of lexan. I ran into big problems:

1) CD cups were going to end up very high above the F/R diff input cups. This would have stressed them too much and may have even caused binding... dont even want to find out anymore.

2) I was coming up empty on how to secure the top of one of the two CD plastic mounts. The huge hole in the chassis where the tranny goes left no metal for chassis braces. It was all going to just be kind of akward anyway on the top part of the mounts.

The change:

I have decided to use just 4 chassis braces and found a good spot to suspend the CD between the plates low in the chassis. 2 braces on the front CD mount, 2 braces on the rear CD mount (which the motor plate will also be attached to). 3 of the 4 braces will be a direct fit into the chassis I think, the 4th will most likely require me to make a custom motor mount not unlike Bithed's for his HFX. This will allow me to get the 4th chassis brace mounted at the top of the chassis and connect it to the tip of the motor mount.

Im pretty stoked about this, I think its going to work better and look much cleaner!

I got the front CD mount braced in, and Im really happy with how its turning out. The spur gear will hang out the underside of the chassis a bit, but I can make a skid plate to protect it. Before you ask, yeah I know the plastic piece is crooked, it had to be that way to get the screws how I wanted them. There is JUST enough clearance between the cd cups and the braces to be comfortable. Cant wait to get the last 2 braces and finish this up.

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http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x...y/DSCN2394.jpg

Looking good. How much have you spent to date?

Close to $200.... I anticipate total cost (everything but motor/esc) to be around $230 or so.

Well I hit the jackpot today. First off the last parts I ordered are in and I think I pretty much have everything now. Driveshafts/dogbones, axle cups, and 17mm hexs came today.

Now, I live on campus at Georgia Tech. I am a senior and next semester I will be in senior design class and have access to this amazing workshop and lab full of goodies. I know they have anything and everything a geek could want for any kind of project, so I stopped by today to see if I could get some scrap metal for a motor plate. I went up to the lab coordinator and before I could even finish saying "Hi, is there any scrap metal I could have for..." he said "Yep top drawer in the blue cabinet." Well much to my delight I open the top drawer labeled "aluminum/copper" and find a JACKPOT of scrap metal. I obviously found the perfect sheet to use for a motor plate, and he said that since Im an electrical engineering senior I have full access to the lab equipment AND power tools any time I want. Were talking a lab and workshop that takes up 3 classroom sized rooms. I nearly shit my pants! He said hed show me how to use the tools when I need them and Im good to go. So it looks like when I have time Ill be going over to cut up the aluminum I got and have myself a motor plate!

This lab is so amazing... cabinets full of electronics, tools, scrap material... Spools and spools of bare, insulated, and magnet wire... Cabinets full of batteries, speakers, test equipment... Power tools galore... Lab stations with all the goodies (magnifying lamps, oscilloscopes, soldering station...) Im really looking forward to next semester now!

While I was there, a student was working on a RC vehicle that had a sheet of lexan bolted across the chassis (no body was in it). On the lexan was all kinds of electronics - microprocessors, data ports, FPGAs....I started asking him about it and it turns out its a Tamiya Hummer model, looked to be something like 1/12 scale. Dont know exactly what it did as I didnt have much time to talk, but it looked awesome!

Anyway, sorry for the huge digression, just thought Id share. I hope to have this build pretty much finished within the next 10 days or so.

The center is now COMPLETELY finished! I worked for 5 hours in the senior design workshop to get it done.. painstaking measurements paid off, everything fit pretty much perfectly on the first test fit! YAY! I just threw on an esav motor to see how it looked. Since I cant spend any more money I may just run it with the single brushed motor geared way down until the 2 of them burn out just for fun heh... Here are some pics, the drill press I had to use pretty much sucked, so the cuts arent exactly pretty...

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Hmm, seems like the smallest pinion Im going to be able to use is probably a 17T due to the screws that are just underneath the motor... Cant bring the motor down far enough to use any smaller pinions. Hadnt forseen that when I made the motor mount... Right now I can get a good mesh with an 18t pinion on the brushed motor, with a brushless I think I could get 17t because they have no flux ring on the can and that will give me another millimeter or so to drop the motor.

...just cut the posts shorter...I did on mine :D

I think youre talking about the black plastic posts in FRONT of the motor, right? Im talking about the screws that stick out UNDER the motor! :) Cant really get around that... Ill probably just have to use a larger pinion and lower Kv motor, not really a problem.

there are some monster sized motors on hobbycity. i'm most likey going to use a kb45 series motor. i've seen people get tons of torque with the L motors. the XL motors are just SICK! a feigao xl motor is 36x74 while a kb xl is 45x78. the only downside is you will need to either find a 30mm spaced motor mount or make one with 30mm spacing for the mount screws.

Yeah the KB45 is a beast, but Im going to stick with a 36mm diameter can I think, I believe that will be more than enough power for me! If I want more I can just make a new motor plate :)