Hi, Shoey, Rob & Dave, thanks for the comments.
Rob, that's an impressive bit of kit, thanks for the offer but think it'd be wasted on this though! At the moment I've just got a double pole double throw switch, centre off for forward & reverse and the controller has the pot on flying leads. I realised after I didn't need a centre off switch as I'll need a normal on off switch before the controller too anyway.
Here are a few more pics - I've made a slight amount of progress since last time but then I came down with
and have started working on the design of something else - will start a new post!
I put the wheels on the axles where I thought they should go but took it to the club track to try before I made anything more permanent. Good job, it was too sloppy. I'd allowed 1mm clearance either side as the rad on the wheel tread was 1mm, but it seems I can push them a bit further out maybe by 1-2mm.
This makes the wheels pretty damn close to the frame - i'll need to turn some spacers to stop the axle floating too much and the wheels rubbing on the frame. If it's too close I can always skim a little off the outside of the wheels.
I need to mill a flat on the axles where the gear grubs screws will tighten onto. The wheels are quite a tight fit at the moment - not sure whether to knurl the portion of the axle and press them onto it with loctite or just loctite.
Then I need to make up the slotted cross braces which will stop the motors from rotating about the axles and stop them sliding along the axles, they will be welded into position - I think, well if it still allows disassembly they will be.
Then there is wiring to do, the body of course and lots of cosmetic bits like bearing covers & buffers. I have bought the materials for those.
My dad had a good idea, I think it will be easier to make the body from wood, maybe thin plywood or MDF then fill bits and paint.
Still a long way to go! Hopefully I'll get it done before xmas so it can be a surprise for my sons - they've sort of forgotten about it, the oldest one (4 1/2) kept saying, "daddy, are we going to make that train today" thinking it would be done and dusted in a couple of hours!
