I've Got About 2 Weeks!

[007jag]

Hi Marty,

"The professor" is RIGHT -- I mean what more can be said - except thank you for what you show & describe!

The multiple wire thing as opposed to say one wire with brass sheet in between - has me puzzled??

But as they say: "There is more then one way to skin a cat" - LOL.
Marty - I love it and hopefully I'm learning

Ok brass axle tubes with the bearings as far out towards the wheel - makes sense. Now why cut out the center section of the rear axle tube?? -- Save weight???

Respect,
Jack

[bill from nh]

Jack, the center section of the rear axle tube is removed in order to provide a space to mount your crown gear on the rear axle.

[torquemutant]

I can't wait to see where the magnet goes. :D

[Florida_Slotter]

[Florida_Slotter]

Before I put my first photo up, I'd like to talk about something that came to my mind the other day when I was thinking about this particular build.

I had built a couple of "Retro" Formula 1 cars and they worked very, very well. One of the things I started to think about was the fact that these cars basically have no aero downforce, yet they work very, very well. So I based this chassis on the thoughts about that concept. Buckle up, as here we go.




Hey, wait a minute, I'm mounting the pans up against the main rails of this chassis! Kinda sorta like this chassis:



With an appropriate body on this chassis, it weighs in at 108 grams with a Pro-Slot 4002BB motor in it. This particular chassis works so well and is so easy to drive. So I kind of thought I would like to give this a try in 1/32. So you might see the similarities between the two chassis.


Okay, let's talk about the first photo now , , , , , I mounted the pans right against the chassis main rails. This is moving the mass to the center of the chassis. In past builds, I have always mounted the mass out towards the limits of the width of the chassis. As I sit and think about this, it could cause the chassis to be a bit tipsy in hard turns. So, this build is just an experiment to see if the concept works. Bear with me and perhaps we might see something new come out of this.

I cut the pans from .032 x .250 flat brass strip. I cut them extra long as I was not sure how I was going to finish up the ends. It's a lot easier to leave them long and cut them later as opposed to cutting them where you want them to be and find out later that you need them a bit longer. Just do not ask me how I know this fact. I used a piece of .020 wire between the main rails on the pans on one side to set the inside width of the pans .020 wider then the main rails. After I put the hold down strip on, I removed the wires.




The next thing I did was to make a 'spreader / downstop' for the front of the chassis. Since I used a piece of .064 thick material for the guide tongue, I had to make a bend in the "U" shaped loop. I kept adjusting the height of the loop until it just lays on the top of the guide tongue. Once that was complete, I soldered the legs of the "U" loop in place.




Now it was time to tie the both pans together at the rear of the chassis. Since the main rails and the pans are both .032 thick, a simple piece of straight wire is all that is needed. I used .047 wire for this as it was what I picked up first. Now we have the pans separated and the amount of 'down' direction is limited. When you have your pans dragging on the track, it slows down the car. Also the trackowner tends to get irritated.




I then cut 4 pieces of .032 x .250 flat brass strip to .430 in length. These will be the basis of my body mounts.




Well here is what our minimalistic pans will look like. The extensions are simply a way of supporting the yet to be built body mounts and also the outer part of the pans. Basically the only job that .032 diameter wire needs to do is keep the lexan body from curling around the pans.

You sill also see the center 'spreader / downstop' in place. It too is made from a length of .047 wire. I bent the ends to provide for more surface area to provide a stronger solder joint.




A lot is going on here. First I had to make a couple of my 'flying gulls'. I've made many of them and once you get the moves down, you can crank them out quite easily. I used some .032 wire. I make a mark on my needle nosed pliers near the narrow end - this is how big you want the "V" to be - I use a Sharpie for this. I put a piece of .032 wire in the jaws so it is aligned with the mark I made. One side I bend up at about a 45 degree angle, the other side I bend down at about a 45 degree angle. Then I move the pliers to the long, unbent side of the "V" and make sure the wire is aligned with the mark and make another about 45 degree bend. You should now have a piece that looks like this:



To set the amount of movement is by placing a 'spacer' under one side of the pan assembly. For this I used a piece of .020 wire. Then I laid the holder with the top of the "V" setting on the 'spreader / downstop' and soldered it in place. Move to the other side and repeat. If you look closely, I left a short amount of space at the end of the guide tongue. The back of the guide tongue forms a limiting stop. I simply move my pan assembly so the 'spreader / downstop' is just resting on the vertical edge of the rear of the guide tongue. This will give you a limited amount of movement in all directions.




Since this is an inline drive configuration, I chose to add a bit of ballast to the rear of the pan assembly. I cut a piece of .064 x .250 flat brass strip and soldered it in place at the rear of the pans. I'm hoping this will help plant the rear tires for more drive off the turns. We will find out sometime next week how and if this works. More on this later.




This is basically the whole chassis ready to be cleaned up of all the residue, long ends and such. Then a trip to the sink and some time tumbling in my Thumbler Tumbler in some ceramic media from Cabela's to remove all the stuff that will turn the chassis into rust. It also cleans away a lot of the dull of the brass and makes it look pretty good.

You will notice that the body mount tubes are set on top of some .093 square tubing. I don't like to put the pin holes low on the body as it is likely to tear through. Also it ties the extensions to the pans with a reinforcements.

Once I get it out of the tumbler, I'll add all the parts to make it into a functional chassis - motor, gears, axles, wheels, tires guide, lead wires, etc. I will take a couple of photos so you can see what it all looks like.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask them. I will do my best to answer them for you.

I hope you have enjoyed this thus far. I know I have enjoyed bringing to you.