New Project-Project SCRATHBUILD

[LexusFman]

Well this is my first R/C project. The goal of it is to create a micro r/c car from scratch using parts commonly available to your average joe for cheap. Pretty much I'm still in the design stage but I'm pretty sure it will turn out wonderful! I might need your help designing some things. Here's the things I already have bought.

Latex Mould Builder(same as steelwoodghani)
Easy Castt Clear Csting Resin(same as steelwoodghani)
Mould Release(same as steelwoodghani)
Micro R/C Turbo Twister
Precision Screwdriver set (Dollar Tree LOL)


Body

I recently came up with an idea to make this car easier to make.I could use a HO scale slot car then I wouldn't have to worry about tires, wheels, axles, frame, and body just motor, radio, and steering. The problem is I bought Latex Mould Builder, Easy Cast Clear resin, and Mould release. Did I waste my money or should I goahead and attempt to make my car out of it? Should I save it for later?

Wheels, Tires, And Axels

Again the slot car would already provide these things for me-sticky rubber tires, decent quality wheels, Axels with gears already on them ect. but I already bought the stuff to cast the body. If i decide to mould my own body and chassis where can I get decent quality wheels and tires for cheap?

Suspention

This is what really stumps me. Because there is only really two commercially available micro r/c car designs out there-The Bit Char G/First Gen Zipzaps design and the Zipzaps SE design, both of which use the exact same suspention setup, I have no data to base my design on. Whats beneficial? A arm style independent front suspention? Rear independent suspention? rear dependent suspention? No suspention at all? Please help. I know of betty .k's off road bits but my car isn't going to be designed to go off road it's going to be a on-road car.

Frame design

How would I mount the rear axles so it freely spins and is easily removable? pretty much my only question on frame design.

Steering

Since I bought the R/C turbo twister I already decided I want a motor to control the steering. I had a ZZSE awhile back and It was such an improvment over the original ZZ. Same with the ZZ 1.5's (Motor steering but no propo like the cars zipzaps). What do they use for TTTT? I saw one setup awhile back but I don't remember any details just a micro servo sticking out on the bottom. I remember one go-kart system and I might use that but I wanna hear your ideas first.

[betty.k]

re body: there are so many cheap toy car bodies out there i wouldn't waste my time making my own. having said that, if you did make one it would be pretty cool.

re suspension: the most important rule to suspension is keep the rear end planted. that means rear suspension is way more important than front. i honestly think you could go with no front suspension. i know this is contrary to all comercial micro rc design but i think they suspend the front because it's easier to do, not better for handling.
obviously i would recommend my design (which i just copied from mini z's) as it gives you the best on or offroad control and (if you use a microsizer rear end) you can swap gears as easily as a stock model.

if you made suspension like mine for on road i would just recommend stiffening it with thicker plastic.

[LexusFman]

Thanks for the reply! So basicaly the front suspention dosen't do anything? I guess that would be easier to build-only rear suspention. That's what most 1:10 pan cars use nowadays. What brand toy car would you recomend? I can only find ones with metal bodies and plastic tires. Also can you use superglue or plastic cement instead of screws for the hinge?

EDIT: I'm going to make my body-it's the cheapest way to get the amount of detail I want out of this car but I'm going to use pre-existing wheels. I'm not going to make the body until I'm 100% done with the chasis

[sidewinder]

The front does very very little on most surfaces you'll be likely to use the car on. Betty has put a lot of time in developing his bits, you might find his website helpful. Wait, just went to find it, it's gone. Hey betty, do you still have links to your builds?

[LexusFman]

where can I get a semi decent soldering pen/gun that is PCB safe? I might need to do some Bit surgery

[LexusFman]

UPDATE: I fixed the wire. It was easy...too easy. All of the electronics are good to go! The batts are dual cell! I'm in love! I also started on some of the chasis fabrication, just a rough shape. No pics yet.

[betty.k]

all my tutorials are in the articles section of this site under "fabrication".

http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/articles/ca ... brication/

superglue is awesome stuff, just take time to align things properly because once that stuff sticks it stays stuck!

[sidewinder]

Thanks, this is the one I was thinking would be really helpfull in this build. http://bitpimps.lixlink.com/articles/20 ... nge-plate/

[LexusFman]

Alright, I'm kinda stuck. My problem is I can't drive the rear wheels. The gears that came with the turbo twister won't fit onto the axle and even if they did they would have too large of a radius to fit on my chassis. Would belt drive work?
EDIT:Project is on hold until I can put together some cash.