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Post by Mark Huber on Mar 4, 2019 18:58:14 GMT -5
Brilliant!
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Post by f143 on Mar 4, 2019 19:26:45 GMT -5
Ah ha, just as I thought, a great result again Matt, and what a great idea, a cartoon version of a vehicle. Regards Nigel
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Post by Aurora on Apr 23, 2019 12:04:49 GMT -5
This car has missed the proxy race. Seems to be a bad habit, I've missed other proxy races. But work continues. One day, in the distant future, this car will be finished...and sit on my shelf. Here are some scintillating chassis construction pics that bear no resemblance to any slot car. What to do when you are making flat parts and don't have any flat bar stock. Cut the parts from whatever you have, such as this round stock. All that mess just to get this teeny tiny piece. And now the real work begins. Broken drill bits comin' up!
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Post by Aurora on May 5, 2019 11:04:44 GMT -5
This block will form a stock to support a bushing in which the drive shaft will rotate. The blue stained paper is a pattern glued to the brass. Bisecting the workpiece with a saw. Not precise but the only method available to me. The upper and lower halves of the stock are held together with M2 screws.
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Post by Aurora on May 9, 2019 8:22:17 GMT -5
The drive shaft bushing stock has been cut to final shape. It will be pinned and soldered to the rear chassis plate.
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Post by Peter Seager-Thomas on May 9, 2019 10:58:59 GMT -5
Nice machining Matt.
Some of your pictures seem to have gone AWOL or is it just me?
Peter.
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Post by Aurora on May 9, 2019 12:37:25 GMT -5
Thanks Peter. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all the parts fit together in the end.
Yes, the photos are AWOL, as Photobucket has reduced free hosting limits. I hope to re-post some of the photos using the excellent attachment feature.
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Post by Peter Seager-Thomas on May 9, 2019 13:59:55 GMT -5
Matt, this one was shown as 418KB on disk and registered as 415KB as the attachment. I thought I'd keep it topical. Left click on the image for full size. Peter.
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Post by Aurora on May 10, 2019 5:31:54 GMT -5
Nice car Peter, and a blue car at that. Don't see too many cars that color. It reminds me that I don't have any blue cars, have never made a blue car, and need to get on it! Here is a 6"x6" sheet of nickel silver. Oooooh....aaaaah! So pleased I had to share a photo! A big deal for me to get my grubby paws on this stuff.
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Post by munter on May 11, 2019 15:01:30 GMT -5
Hi Matt, can you please enlighten me/us about this 6" x 6" sheet of nickel silver, please?
Is it for chassis or body parts or?
Thanks John
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Post by Aurora on May 11, 2019 22:44:55 GMT -5
Hi John, I like to use nickel silver to simulate metals that have a silvery appearance, such as steel, stainless steel, chrome, etc. This could be for chassis parts, body features - any component outwardly visible on the car that might have been made of steel. Unlike yellowish brass, I don't need to paint it to simulate the steel color. I like to use stainless steel when I can, but nickel silver is generally easier to work. Especially drilling. Drilling very small holes in stainless steel is a difficult operation, at least it is for me. Nickel silver isn't quite as easy to work as brass but it's close. It is harder than brass and doesn't have that as much of that slippery, self-lubricating feel of brass. Cutting fluid isn't needed when drilling brass but I've found that it does help a bit when drilling nickel silver, reducing the torque required to twist the drill. Not necessary, but helpful. Nickel silver solders easily, on par with brass, and easier than stainless steel. Here is an example of a part, rough cut from nickel silver, showing its approximate configuration in the rear axle assembly. It still requires more work. I am not sure what this part is called, but would guess that it is a torque arm of some sort. On the ERA, it appears to be made of a tapered rectangular steel tube. A small portion of it is outwardly visible between the rear wheel and the outer body work, where it then disappears into the interior. The geometry and shape of this part isn't an exact match for the real car. I couldn't get it to match perfectly due to compromises imposed by the gears, wheels, motor, etc. Or maybe I just couldn't design it correctly. And of course I didn't need to drill all the holes in the part, as only a couple of the larger holes will be visible. But what the heck, might as well drill them all for the fun of it. I did screw up when drilling a couple of the smaller holes. I knew they wouldn't be visible, so I took a chance and tried to drill a few holes with a hand-held electric rotary tool, instead of drilling them by hand with the pin vise. Of course, the holes ended up being distorted. Curses!
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Post by Peter Seager-Thomas on May 12, 2019 4:30:56 GMT -5
I don't know how accurate the drawing is, but.... From Autocar. This might help. Peter.
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Post by Aurora on May 12, 2019 8:21:20 GMT -5
Amazing Peter, where did you find that drawing? I never seem to be able to track down such excellent reference materials. Thank you for sharing it. That drawing does expose some details of the torque arms and illustrates how the car was constructed. I have prepared my own drawings. Not accurate details of the real car of course, but dimensional drawings of the parts I'm fabricating. I need the drawings to determine the required size, location, and clearance between each component. My torque arms will not share the same plane, nor a pivot point with the plane of the rear axle. This is because I cannot get the body shell to sit down low enough on the chassis. Several reasons for that: the shape of my body shell is inaccurate, the shell is thicker than the aluminum of the real car, and the crown gear and motor are both too big. The gear diameter is too large and the motor is too tall and wide, the same old problem that affects every car. If I were to simply raise the torque arm to pivot off the rear axle, it wouldn't align with the small cowling on the bodywork where the torque arm inserts into the body. The arm would end up being very high up on the side of the body. This wordy explanation probably makes no sense at all without a drawing for reference, but I'm sure you understand the principal of compromising when designing model car parts to simulate the real car. The torque arms will be anchored to the motor mounting plate. Of course there is no guarantee that any of this will actually work. There is the constant threat that a design flaw will be a show stopper. I suppose it is similar in a way to designing the real cars - many of them were not successful.
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Post by Peter Seager-Thomas on May 12, 2019 14:38:07 GMT -5
Matt, the two page spread comes from the ERA Gold Portfolio, with the picture originally from a 1940 copy of the Autocar.
This Gold Portfolio is still available at a very reasonable price, an interesting read. Recommended!
Peter.
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Post by munter on May 14, 2019 4:13:11 GMT -5
Thanks Matt, lots for me to think about in your reply.
That sums up scratchbuilding for me....solving small problems in as elegant way as possible as they come up during the build process.
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