The Half-Bakery - Raw and Uncooked Ideas.

[frizzen]

That sounds wild! He could use your body (well, the truck's really) as a form.

AAAAAAaaaaaaahhhhhh!!!

You got it man. Erik Estrada caught me driving down the road hopping and hitting three-wheel, it was either Ticket or Pics. He claimed that car to have just about every mod possible at the time.

No man, pick up a Cars "Ramone" body, you need an Impala! Maybe Stuntcar PCBs since they're the smallest dual h-bridge? Might be worth checking out if you can find any of the tiny gearmotors on ebay or electronics/robotics suppliers.

[frizzen]

I was at the hobby shop for parts for my AX-10, they didn't have what I needed.
I just bought something 6x6, that'll be 4x4 when I'm done. It's a stage 5 from Revell germany.

Scale 1/35
Model length when completed 10.000"
static kit diff with tires - 2.850"
SS diff, no tires and stock - 3.015"
SS front diff, stock no tires - 3.040"

tire width - 0.416
tire height - 1.495
rim size - 0.688




It's a MAN 7T truck, it's going to get downgraded to a MAN 5T on SS 1/43 axles.

[sidewinder]

That sounds cool as hell! I'm supprised that anyone still has those axles... Looking forward to seeing it.

[frizzen]

I've had the axles kicking around for about a year while I tried to find a good body for the project, and all my cool candidates were wrong, a few of the lame rides fit, but who could see something like a Jeep Commander on them? I bought them from a pimp, ok at the going-rate when I did, I practically stole them. So it has to be such a badass ride that it's worthy of the axles.

I got the front axle rim to hub mount figured out. 2 piece rims, remove the axle support from the inner rim, then gently clearance with blade until it sockets over drive hub, install screw into hub making rim captive.
Front SS axle with kit rims/tires - 3.600"
Bit wide, but it should work.

Now, to figure out the back end, so far no good ideas...

[sidewinder]

OK, so I've had an idea kicking around for a while; a build that is so different that it will take very precision equipment to produce. The project itself is still a secret, mostly because I haven't figured out exactly all of the details. But, what I can say for sure is that no matter how I decide to go I will need scale looking axles. I was thinking about trying to find some SSMT axles, and they could be an option if all else fails, but what I really want is a true scale axle made out of metal. Mild steel for the housing so it can rust would be perfect.

The build should be straight forward enough, the axle pumpkin can be prototyped out of plastic...say from a static model donor. The tubes can be sourced, or if worse come to worse, steel rod can be drilled. The real problem come in finding gears small enough to work. The rest of the build could benefit from a very small milling machine and lathe so, if I had them, I could just make the gears. The second problem is...I priced lathes and mills capable of working in such small dimensions, they are not cheap. I could farm the work out to something like e-machine shop or some other machine shop, but then I'm not building it, I'm just assembling it.

So, the idea has been on hold for a while now, but after seeing Frizzen's AX-10 the juices got flowing again. I started looking at used machinery...and then I found the answer! The idea of CNC stuff never appealed to me as much as a manually done project, the ideal (for me anyway) would be CNC quality work using hand tools. I got to thinking about it, and then it just hit me...watches! We have had very intricate watches for a long time, way before we had computers or even electric powered machinery! The tolerances in watchmaking are minute...I wondered, how did they do it? So I started searching watchmaking history...it turns out it is so precise that Ohio State has a major in watchmaking...wow.

Anyways, cut to the chase: I found plans for a watchmaker's mill; the kind they used before power tools! It's an indexed wheel with rigid mounts for various sized and shaped files. I also now have plans for a model makers lathe, and even my own welder --OK, I have a MIG I can use, but in for a penny, in for a pound...so, the build starts with making the tools!

This is not going to be a quick project, I'm not even sure when I'll get the time to started, but I now have a plan...sort of.

Hand Milling Machine:

[frizzen]

THIS...
...Sounds intriguing.
Handmade tools. SS-M or Handmade metal axles. And somehow my AX-10 got you motivated?

Maybe a 1/25-ish Comp Crawler or Scaler?

[sidewinder]

Ah what the heck... Probably 1/25 scale or so... I'm thinking Kraz 255B, it's a Soviet army truck. Some crazy old guy who lived by my grandfather collected military vehicles, when I was a kid I'd always sneak down and climb in them until my parents or my grandfather would show up and yell at me. The old guy who had the trucks seemed nice, but now that I'm older I wonder if there was something really off about him since my parents and grandparents both usually trusted people...but not this guy. Anyway, he had a KaRAZ, and I always thought it looked like the toughest truck in the world. Or maybe I'll just go for WWII big Dodge truck...the one that became the Power Wagon after the war. But either way it has to be real steel and maybe gas...I'm not sure on the gas yet, but steel from the frame up.

The KaRAZ 225B:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3AYyVlHL2qs[/youtube][youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=52apgCuu ... re=related[/youtube]

[frizzen]

Dude that'll be badass!

If you wanted to use SS-M axles, I'd think 1/35 model kit would probably be the way to start. Might consider using Aluminum and shoegoo for your body instead of steel, though that's better scaled for strength of civillian vehicles instead of millitary transports. Sounds like a wicked ride.

[sidewinder]

I doubt that I'll use a model kit if I can find enough pictures, especially if I can find blueprints. With as flat as most of the truck is it shouldn't be too hard to form. I may go aluminum, just because I have so much of it around (left overs that we used to make panels for the late model) I got a deal on a pallet of it about a decade ago and still have 15 -20 sheets left. The problem with it is that it's baked on enamel on the one side, which makes awful fumes when you anneal it.

With the size of the original I will have to do some calculating to see what scale I really want to go, I'd like it to come in around a foot in lenght.

I found a guy who works at the Wendall August Forge and he thinks I could make a female mold of the axle housing and just beat sheet metal into it, stretching and shrinking until I have a scale replica of the pumpkin then use existing tubing for the rest of the axle housing...that just leaves the gears. I'm actually more worried about how to hold them in place inside of the housing than I am with fabing the gears. I may take the wimpy way out and use inline slot car gears, although making my own has a real appeal to me. Maybe what I should do is prototype with Slot.It gears and then I'd have a plastic gear to copy in brass or mild steel.

[sidewinder]

I don't know if I ever mentioned it here (I think I may have) but a year or two ago I bought a 1/6 scale Tony Stewart RC made by Team-Up. I bought it expecting it to be crap but at least look good on a shelf in the garage. I didn't even bother charging it for probably six months or so after getting it. Then one day when I was bored I decided to try it...it was way better than I expected. For anyone unfamiliar with these cars they are 34 inches long, weigh about 15 pounds and go an honest 20mph (I checked by having a friend pace it on his Kawasaki). On a full charge they have enough torque to spin the massive rubber tires.

Anyway, I mentioned it a friend who visits twice a year on average, he mentioned he had a "big" RC car too and he'd bring it with him...it turned out to be a FG 1/5 scale car; bastard. Anyway, it was a lot faster (duh) but with his lack of driving skills I could keep up sporadically. Anyways, It got me to thinking, what would a few minor upgrades do to this thing? I played with the idea and then, like most of my ideas, I forgot about it...until today.

I was moving some stuff around and got tired...I am getting old after all. I was sitting there looking at this big car and the ideas started flowing again. The car runs on a 12v nicad battery, I expected the motor to be some huge canned industrial engine, but from what I can see it looks to be a generic 540! Sort of like the silver can Tamiya motors from a few years ago. So upgrading that should be easy... It looks like it has metal gears! but mounted in a plastic housing but they seem to be on a flat plastic piece so maybe I could cut an aluminum or mild steel piece to hold them. The receiver/esc is a circuit board, but the electronics could stand upgrading anyway...not that they don't work, it's more of the giant dork-like feeling you get standing there with a bright orange plastic air ratchet as a transmitter. The steering servo looks to be a standard servo. The biggest downfall is the huge injection molded chassis, and of course a totally un-adjustable suspension.

I have another project in the early planning stages but I think this could be a simple upgrade thing that will not take up that much time, so, I think I need a plan for upgrading, I'll know more once I get things actually torn apart, but for now I'm thinking, start with a stronger motor. then the electronics, then if it perks it up enough to make it worth the effort a brake-line tubing frame that uses the stock suspension (for now anyway), or maybe I'd be better off using a fiberglass sheet, CF would be great but a budget buster.

I'm thinking it could be pretty cool once I add some power and cut some weight.

Some stock photos:

[zzapultimate]

I thought I would post a pic of my ssmt crawler build. It might help you get your juices flowing agian

[sidewinder]

That's pretty cool...and it looks, uh, well...excited.

[frizzen]

So is that a Stinger Bumper, or is it just happy to see me?

Nice Jeep! That looks great. Am I seeing a leaf rear, with a 3 or 4 Link front?
Any tech pics of the chassis layout and suspension?
How did you mount up the rear rims?
*Other questions I have yet to think up*?

- Edit:
Just posted the start of the MAN on Scale4x4, took new pic.

A US-currency dime, my front axle , a tire on a rim, and a hateful mean spiteful brass u-joint that I made which still doesn't act correctly despite already being improved once.

[zzapultimate]

Yep- leafs in the rear and a 4 link in the front.

Rear rims are from the jeep model kit. I just glued them right onto the gray "brake drums" on the rear axle.

Here's two chassis pics from way back

[sidewinder]

I started to tear this down to get some idea of what to do, then my idiot brother called and wouldn't hang up so this is as far as I managed to get. The car has roughly a 17-4/5 inch wheelbase (hub to hub), I say roughly because I was using an old 12inch wooden ruler and talking on the phone as I measured. It's track from outside to outside of the tires at least in the rear, but it "looks" the same in the front) is 11-3/4 inches. Overall length looks to be 34 inches from the front of the giant cheesy plastic bumper to the back of the equally cheesy rear bumper.

SO pictures (please remember I was on the phone and using auto focus...but more because I'm lazy than the phone thing).

For an idea of scale the car on top is a Jada diecast 1/24 scale (but its the biggest damned 1/24 scale I've ever seen, I was thinking bigger until I looked at the box):



The bottom with the battery door removed (10 cell nicad):


The top (yes, I know it needs cleaned but I figured why clean it before tear down?):


The rear pod (gearbox, suspension, motor...):


Motor and rusty spring:


Other side rear, no rusty spring:


Front suspension from bottom, bizarre servo saver setup... it's clear plastic?):


Front top (focused on tire...arrgh):


But what amazed me most was the intricate, no, delicate work on the board...I think and electronics update is in this cars future. Although in Team Up's defense I can't complain about how it works, It seems about as accurate as most stock hobby grade cars...just massively bigger:

The good news is that it has a replaceable fuse, so I should be able to push the power input without cooking the board...well, if the fuse works quickly enough...:


So, that's what I have so far. I'm thinking with the lenght of the chassis plate being around 20inches or so (17-4/5in wheelbase) I might price carbon fiber after all...then when I realize how much it will cost, I'll think of something else. I like Ripper's idea of polycarbonate, but I was wondering if anyone has played with polypropylene? It can be welded with a plastic welder but I cant tell from the specs how rigid or heavy it is...damn scientific numbers.:cpain:

Any ideas or input will be appreciated...btw I'm planning on taking my time and keeping the cost down(if I can).