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The Nerd's new rig
*Most of the following posts are old but just for context's sake i'll post them anyway*
I'm still in the collecting stage, but slowly but suring I'm getting it together. Full specs are SDS Customz Al Fighter Axles Holmes Hobbies 454 Puller 16t specials, with slotted arms Futaba 4pl Mamba micro pro's (this may change) Hitec 7950 (this may also change) CC bec Berg small 3rds, 4th gears, large 3rds, large 2nds, small 2nds and gear pins 10x15 bearings x 6 5x10 bearings x 8 6x11 bearings x 2 Vanquish zero ackerman knuckles Axial knuckle bushes 18 awg silver wire Proto CrawlerX bodiless chassis Revo and Jato rod ends All fasteners express aluminum bolts Lunsford Ti links (I might experiment with making my owe ti or 7075 links also) SCX10 shocks Mini T springs Axial hexs VP V3 SLWs Eritex Charlottes Boss Claws Rovers Nova's foams all round :intello: Kieren |
About all I've got to show for myself at this stage, however parts will start rolling in very soon :yes:
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050139.jpg Kieren |
The pile ever increasing, got the first order in today, with hopefully more following next week. :yipi:
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050146.jpg Kieren |
Got some more parts the other day.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050174.jpg Also got the very first custom made part for this rig done. A special spring retainer so you can use mini T fronts on scx10 shocks. The rod end cup is just off a set of HPI firestorm shocks that has had the outer lip sanded of. Before and after. http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050176.jpg Kieren |
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I discovered a rather strange issue with my one of my scx10 shocks yesterday. The shaft had been only partly ti nitrided (the gold stuff) and is rather hard to move in and out. I was going to email axial, but in no uncertain terms on their website it states they won't deal with international warranty. So it looks like I'll be out of pocket for a new set of shafts ($13 US). I'll put up a picture later.
Kieren |
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050188.jpg
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050189.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050192.jpg The foams are about 1 and a 1/4 rover foams and a 1.9 CI foam all stuffed in. Nothing fancy and I just put it in there really cause I don't have anything else at the moment. I will probably pick up some new CI foams down the track to try out, but we'll see how this go. Sorry I didn't get any weights as it seems the scales have gone walkabout :no: Oh and finally BCs don't make for easy mounting on these wheels, it took me about 10 tries before I perfected the method :lol: Kieren |
Motors arrived today, wow they are tiny.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050198.jpg Kieren |
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http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...htassembly.jpg
Made a few amendments to my original knuckle design, and came up with this. Major advantage of extra wide hubs is I can have a fairly similar amount of weight to my old design, except all below the axle centre. As pictured, according to inventor, is about 190g. So up to 380g all up. Kieren |
*From this point onwards posts are current*
Die arrived today. Results on Ti machining test later today. Kieren |
Forward progress.
Forward progress is good. It appears that you are moving right along. From your list one can only assume that you are building a custom crawler? The wheels look nice. Not sure of exactly what your going for with this project, but it looks interesting enough. Thanks for sharing with us.
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Things will be a bit slower now though as I'm heading away for a couple weeks, but hopefully by then I will have my axles though to get things really moving! In my opinion no crawler should be off the shelf, so yes very much custom. My aim is to build the finest crawler money can buy, but still build as much of it with my own two hands. No trouble, I figured even though it isn't very RCM style speed wise, a crawler is the best way of showing my skills custom parts wise. Plus who doesn't like cars built of exotic parts:lol:
Thanks Kieren |
Here's a couple pictures of the test run. Machines quite nicely with a bit off cutting oil. Also threading isn't so bad once you get it started. Use decent cutting oil here also. I used rocol cutting oil throughout it's brown, oily and smells like maple syrup :lol: I ended up turning the rod down from 3/16" to 3.6mm for easy tapping. Still has plenty of bite in the revo end though. Next to the Ti is standard M4 all-thread for reference.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050224.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050222.jpg Kieren |
looking like its gonna turn out nicely
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Small update. Mamba Micros ordered along with the replacement shock shafts to replace the dodgy one on the SCX10 shocks. Still not very happy about having to fork out $14 for something that shouldn't be my problem.
Yeah hopefully Rooter. That's if SDS ever finishes the axles:whip: Kieren |
My esc's turned up today. I paid the measly sum of $3 for first class shipping from amain, yet despite this it was THE fastest I have ever received a parcel from the US. Now to those that pay for priority and express, I think you're being had.
Kieren |
You know you're hardcore when you haven't even used your ESCs but they are already under the knife. Straight from the packet the case was removed, the white wire desoldered, switch removed and soldiered so it is permanently on at the board and then heatshrunk. From my rather inaccurate scales it is around 5-10g lighter per ESC.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050230.jpg Also I got a picture of the bad shock shaft, this is what you DON'T want your shafts to look like straight out of the packet. Not the clearest picture, but enough to get the general idea. http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...ShockShaft.jpg Slowly getting there... Kieren |
Just purchased myself a Futaba BLS157 at $183 shipped it is the most I have spent on a servo thus far. Lets hope it's worth it.
Kieren |
Now if only I had a crawler to test it in :whip:
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050258.jpg Kieren |
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050294.jpg
What shocks shouldn't look like :lol: Also damaged was the plastic caps at both ends, the shock was saved though. http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050295.jpg Kieren |
Bought myself a set of near new berg axles to tide me over till the Al Fighters arrive.
Kieren |
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Here is some better pictures. I had to redo the proto as I screwed up the bearing pocket on the front, the new ones are as nice as can be fit wise.
Tube lathed to 14.8mm http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050301.jpg Bored to 14.9mm to fit bearing nicely, and fit the tube neat, but not tight. http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050302.jpg Finished product, minus bolt holes. http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050300.jpg Next to no slop even though I'm still using the dogbones. For nothing spent I'm quite happy with the result. Next up is either lathing the long tube or machining the case. Kieren |
Here's a few pictures from last weeks mods. I've got a few more tricks up my sleeve yet, but not sure when I'll get them done.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050307.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050306.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050308.jpg Kieren |
After a mild brain wave, the rear axle lockouts have been redone.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050309.jpg Kieren |
Well I'm back from holidays, and I've already got some updates. The major one is the CrawlerX chassis. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves there.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050317.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050319.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050320.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050321.jpg More to come very soon Kieren |
The second update is some work on the front axle. I got my cheap as chips venom AX10 C hubs and immediately noticed quite a bit of material could be removed from the back of the C hub (around 2-3mm) without cutting into the mounting bolt slot. So into the vice it went. The next part was lathing the tubes so that I could use HR length super 300s. I originally only lathed up to the original link mount width as seen in the first picture. However this didn't make the most of the extra engagement afforded by the 300s so I took a little off the link mount as seen in the send picture. The end result is about +-10mm narrower a side. Plenty of room to go from a 350-475 to a 600-725.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050315.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050326.jpg Right now the tubes are pretty much done minus drilling and tapping, so I might try get to a roller of sorts tomorrow. Kieren |
Rear axle lockouts/tubes done (at this stage anyway). The gearcase might get some machining though.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050330.jpg Front axle tubes nearly complete. Just needs a set of HR 300s, I put the one in from my super, but I'll need to get a set for this. Also will just need to drill and tap when I settle on a caster angle for the C's. Again like the rear I might do some machining on the gearcase too. http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050331.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050327.jpg Haven't had a chance to mock it up on the chassis yet, but it's very much on the agenda now the rear axles don't fall apart whenever you look in their direction :lol: Kieren |
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For those interested the weight of the chassis as pictured above (no skid and minimal hardware) is right around 100grams. Once it's gets a skid and whatnot this might increase to around 120-150grams. This is about the same as a standard BJv4.
Kieren |
A little work to the front gearbox.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050342.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050347.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050348.jpg Kieren |
Well it's about time I got some more (not better though sorry) pictures up. Plus a little work I got done today. Pictures should explain most of it, but basically I got a servo mount started and the tubes got a little more work. Don't mind the miss matched links, they are just whatever I could find in the toolbox. Also does anyone know of a shock about the same diameter and whatnot as the SCX10 ones, but about 3" long?
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050351.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050353.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050357.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050360.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050363.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050364.jpg Kieren |
Edging ever closer. Hopefully by next weekend I'll have it running, won't that be a shock. Apart from all the links being mocked up, there are a number of other changes, I'll leave to the pictures to explain them.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050378.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050377.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050374.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050371.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050370.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050369.jpg Cheers Kieren |
Made up a new servo mount that clears the shock a bit better. Also made up my first Titanium link. No problems as such but it takes quite a while. Also note the tie rod is definitely not permanent. I will make a Ti one that tucks in under the servo horn, and is closer to the axle.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050380.jpg Kieren |
Update from wednesday. Got the tie rod done. Tucks in nicely, but at the same time is very direct for the steering. I'm already loving the BLS157, just from plugging it into the super's receiver. The speed is crazy, and the torque seems to be well up there also!
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050381.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050382.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050383.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050384.jpg Kieren |
Just a few pictures of the latest additions.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050387.jpg Just got to get some bigger heatshrink and shorten the RX and battery wires, then the micro's should be finished. http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050385.jpg Kieren |
Electronics are about 90% done. Pictures should be fairly self explanatory, but if there not please ask away. Also just a tip to those who might try something similar DON'T solder a micro deans on your bec and then realise that $%@& I forgot to change it to 7.4v :lol: You do have to solder the servo connector back on and reprogram, then put the deans back on. Also apart from trying to get away from my normal birds nest of wiring I tried a few new things I don't normally do. The main one was micro deans on the battery instead of my normal full size deans. I wanted something a bit smaller, and 3.5mm bullets were going to be roughly the same size as a deans plug. So I decided to try the micro's for a couple reason's, the first being that the wires are tiny on the battery so a small plug can't hurt to much and the other BundyCrawler's new rig has micro's and it will be easier if we share plugs to swap and compare battery's if need's be.
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...P1050388-1.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050389.jpg http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...P1050390-1.jpg It's getting there, hoping to get the rest of the Ti links done, but measuring things up I think I might be about 100mm short, so off to order some more I go. Kieren |
http://i704.photobucket.com/albums/w...1/P1050391.jpg
Wasn't 100% happy with the way it was before. It would have had no affect on performance, but as I'm sure you worked out by now that's not the only thing that matters to me :lol: Front's not done yet, but it will be done in due time also. It also went for it's first drive the other night. By drive I mean turned on and moved under it's own power about 10m. So far I'm happy with it all electronics wise. The pullers are just as smooth if not smoother than a normal 540 3 pole so I'm happy. From what I could tell in the short drive they might have a bit less power, but that's to be expected given the small size. Kieren |
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