RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Horrible experience you suffer. I feel you.

Hang in there! It's a lovely look beast so far, once you get the gremlins ironed out it will be something special!

Hi Richard, it's hard to fully understand the problem without having hands on, but is there any 'fat' around the gear housing that is jamming the steering to allow you to gently file away sufficient metal to give you steering clearance? It looks, from the pics I have seen, that the part that is fouling the steering is the point where there are lugs for the screws holding the 2 halves of the gearbox together. Typically there could be as much as 3 to 4 mms of 'fat' on those lugs, and you may only need 2 mms to get the clearance you need. Alternatively is it possible to put a slight bend or bends into the steering connection to clear the gearbox? Another alternative depending on how thick the metal casing is, is to grind a groove into the casing that the steering rod could partially sit in, thus giving it space to move properly?

Hang in there bud, I know what it's like with knotty problems as I have been fighting my printer for nearly a week, and it was three different problems that needed to be solved before the dratted thing would work!

Holding thumbs for you to find a solution.

Alwyn

AlwynTurner wrote:Hi Richard, it's hard to fully understand the problem without having hands on, but is there any 'fat' around the gear housing that is jamming the steering to allow you to gently file away sufficient metal to give you steering clearance? It looks, from the pics I have seen, that the part that is fouling the steering is the point where there are lugs for the screws holding the 2 halves of the gearbox together. Typically there could be as much as 3 to 4 mms of 'fat' on those lugs, and you may only need 2 mms to get the clearance you need. Alternatively is it possible to put a slight bend or bends into the steering connection to clear the gearbox? Another alternative depending on how thick the metal casing is, is to grind a groove into the casing that the steering rod could partially sit in, thus giving it space to move properly?

Hang in there bud, I know what it's like with knotty problems as I have been fighting my printer for nearly a week, and it was three different problems that needed to be solved before the dratted thing would work!

Holding thumbs for you to find a solution.

Alwyn

Thanks for the suggestions. I will strip it down and have a good look.

Incidentally, I have discovered what the problem was that was causing the turret to stall in one direction. It was nothing to do with the rings that you made, it was the worm drive from the motor. When running in reverse, so to speak, the motor and worm were able to move slightly. As a consequence, the drive disengaged. I have re positioned the worm gear on the motor shaft so as to reduce that movement and wedged the motor more tightly in place with the judicious use of some masking tape. Testing it without any load other than the large tooth drive gear, it runs fine in both direction whereas as before under the same conditions, it was one way only.

As I said earlier, I will NOT let it beat me. One way or another this is going to work.

silversurfer1947 wrote:
As I said earlier, I will NOT let it beat me. One way or another this is going to work.

That's what I keep saying about hanging this paintball cannon in this Hetzer. I WILL figger it out.

Hi Richard, that's super news about the turret, that just leaves the steering issue then!

Best regards
Alwyn

I'm feeling a bit happier today. After some trials and minor modifications, I have fully assembled the turret. This is what I've got.

It's a bit noisy, but it WORKS. I must give credit to Alwyn, without whose valuable help I think I would still be struggling.

Now to tackle the steering problem.

silversurfer1947 wrote:I'm feeling a bit happier today. After some trials and minor modifications, I have fully assembled the turret. This is what I've got.

phpBB [video]

It's a bit noisy, but it WORKS. I must give credit to Alwyn, without whose valuable help I think I would still be struggling.

Now to tackle the steering problem.

Richard it looks excellent

Richard that looks great , I'm so glad to have been able to help out. Keep plugging away on this build it looks awesome!
Can't wait to see it finished and driving around.

Alwyn

I have some progress to report. Yesterday, I moved the motor slightly in its mount to give a little more clearance. My main concern was that it would no longer mesh with the gears properly, but so far that seems OK. Just tried out the steering and I am please to say I have full lock, left and right.

Before assembling the lower and upper hulls for the first time, i thought it best to check all the other functions one last time. (Once the two hulls are together, it will be quite a lengthy operation to get them apart). Recoil work fine but I have lost the muzzle flash. The elevation needs some changes. I had connected up the front lights for the first time but can't get them to work. I think I may need to check the polarity of the connection - I tend to assume that red is positive and black negative, but I know this has not proved to be the case in other models.

Overall, quite pleased - a major step forward with the steering, just some small steps backwards with some LEDs.