The Craftmans Shop > Radio Control Models
1/16 Scale RC Truck parts
Rester:
Love the ingenuity with the Frankendiff, definitely beats dropping $200 per axle. Those Bruder conversions are looking great.
ddmckee54:
Rester:
Thanks, but the conversion hasn't really started yet. Right now I'm just designing the parts that I will be using during the conversions.
For the last couple of days I've been playing with assemblies in Alibre. So far I'm batting 1000, I've managed to break every one of them that I've tried - but I'm learning from my mistakes. That doesn't mean I'm making less mistakes, it just means that when they happen now they are WAY more impressive. This is my latest test assembly, I'm still trying to figure out how to save the current view.
I hope I didn't screw up the previous posts, when I previewed my post I noticed that I hadn't scaled the image for posting. Somehow instead of deleting just the unscaled image, I managed to delete the entire Frankendiff album. I put it back, reloaded the photos, and shared it again - hopefully all is well. Where's the EASY button when you really need it?
Now all I've got to do is figure out how to get my spring hangers, springs, and equalizer beam center pivot to fit into a 32x65x10mm volume.
Don
ddmckee54:
OK, as promised we'll open up the picture page. (Who besides me still remembers the jingle for Picture Pages?)
What you're looking at is the view from the passenger side, standing in front of the center axle looking to the rear.
I've temporarily hidden the passenger side frame rail, and just about every part of the suspension is in place now. I don't know how many leaves I will need for support, that's why there's a gap between the springs and the equalizer beam pivot bracket. I've got the springs drawn as three 0.5mm thick leaves, that may, or may not be overkill. I'll adjust the amount of leaves to suit the load, for now I'll probably just make a spacer block.
I'm still waiting for the donor axle order, according to the tracking it should be here within the next week. I sounds like the O-rings, the brass tubing, my 8" caliper, and the other odds and ends that I ordered should all get here about the same time.
Don
ddmckee54:
While I'm waiting for things to arrive, I need to figure out how to make some miniature squared-off U-bolts. The bolts will be M2, the legs of the U will be 7.5mm on centers, and the legs will be about 13-14mm long. Oh, and I'll need 4 of them - for EACH axle. I'm thinking I need some sort of die that I easily, and consistently, press the U-bolts. I started working on this a few days ago. So far I've tried and failed - twice.
This is the parts of the first die.
The movable top die is on the left and the base die is on the right. That V-for-victory shaped thing in the middle is the result of the first pressing - IT won. I'm using a Harbor Freight 1/2 ton arbor press to do all the pressing.
This just shows how things went together for the first press.
I modified the base die and the top die for the second attempt. The first dies' only had 3 bottom layers, 3 top layers, 3 perimeter walls, and 30% infill - I doubled all of those for the second attempt. The areas that had the most damage on the first dies were where the 2mm rod contacted them as the rod was being forced into a staple shape. The bottom of the top die took a real beating, but the radii at the top of the U-bolt slot in the base die also took a hit. I can't get a decent close-up picture of those areas so you're just gonna have to trust me on that one. Other than upping the wall count and infill, I couldn't think of an easy way to beef up the top die. The bottom die on the other hand was easy. I used steel, in the form of a pair of 1/4"-20 bolts. I punched a pair of holes through the base die, so that the outside of the bolt's shank replaced the radius in the slot for the U-bolt.
This is the parts of the second die, and the results of the second press.
I have the beginning of a squared off U-bolt going on there. The top die still took a beating, but not nearly as bad as the first time. If I make the top die out of steel I should be just about there. It's a simple piece of 5mm flat stock with a 2mm slot cut part of the way across it - eazee-peasee.
The is the second die set up to press.
Don
ddmckee54:
Well, my shipment of donor axles failed to arrive. Apparently the US Postal Service lost my order, they were the last to touch it on October 29th - after that the order apparently disappeared into La-La land. I got a refund on that order and placed another order, this time from a US shipper. That order is supposed to get here Friday.
I did re-make the top die for the U-bolt bending contraption, milled it out of a chunk of 1/4"x3/4" hot-rolled flat stock that I had laying around. There was some improvement, but not as much as I would have liked. However, squeezing the legs of the U-bolt while it's still in the top die closes things up nicely. I haven't threaded the legs of the U-bolt yet, I've just been trying to get as close to a 90 degree bend as I can. Now I'm thinking that the way I'm forming the legs of the U-bolt will just smear those little M2 threads out of existence. I think if I slip some brass tubing over the threaded sections before I bend the legs, that should keep the M2 threads for being destroyed. I'll need to modify the lower die to accommodate the tubing though.
My order of 6mm OD O-rings arrived yesterday. Those are for the equalizer beam pivot brackets, to allow things to flex a little. I don't think I've ever received a package that was as well protected as that one was. The O-rings, all 100 of the little suckers, were in a small zip-lock bag. This bag, and a thank you for your order note, were then put in a slightly larger zip-lock bag and wrapped in a double layer of bubble-wrap. All of the above was stuffed into a bubble-wrap lined shipping envelope, which the US Postal Service actually delivered to me this time.
Since I had to modify both the front and rear differential housings, to give me a fixed location for the equalizer beam and torque rod pivot brackets, I need to re-print the diff housings. Soooo... I might as well change the filament in the plastic-pooping-robot over to black. That way I "shouldn't" have to paint the suspension parts black. I might as well print out enough parts for both axles while I'm at it.
Don
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