RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Another Beauty. ..got a question Woz...how long do those plastic tracks last?

ALPHA

There's no electronics in it so I haven't taken it for a spin yet. The tracks are in ABS so they are pretty tough and the tank weighs next to nothing (750g with a camera lipo and HL electronics)so the tracks aren't going to be put under too much strain.

NICE...good for some Blitzkrieg action ...you going to do them up Africa style?

ALPHA

ALPHA wrote:NICE...good for some Blitzkrieg action ...you going to do them up Africa style?

ALPHA

No I'm going for a '39/40 European tour scheme (Grey).

After a quick test run I noticed the road wheels kept stopping as the tank moved (no traction with the track) so I decided to go for rubber tyres

New wheel without tyre and my printed tyre cutter -



Cutting the tyre -


Wheel with tyre-


I also simplified the suspension. How it looks now-




Video of a test drive-



Ran it around for about 10 minutes and the tracks stayed on so I'm a bit chuffed. I think it needs a bit of weight adding to get the suspension to work better.

Woz,
The rubber tires are genius! Whole tank, printed out...I'll never get over the fact that this can be successfully done now.
regards,
Painless

PainlessWolf wrote:Woz,
The rubber tires are genius! Whole tank, printed out...I'll never get over the fact that this can be successfully done now.
regards,
Painless

Only wish we had this kind of technology around 20 years ago, I don't think I have enough life time left to print all the things I have planned.

Brilliant idea on the tyre cutter, Ive seen Weird Science- so when are you going to start printing THOSE models ?? !!
With what you have done so far on various designs using the printed system, do you believe there are any limits to what can be done effectively using the 'at-home' technology printers ?

HERMAN BIX wrote:Brilliant idea on the tyre cutter, Ive seen Weird Science- so when are you going to start printing THOSE models ?? !!
With what you have done so far on various designs using the printed system, do you believe there are any limits to what can be done effectively using the 'at-home' technology printers ?

Think my GF may have other ideas.

Printers are getting bigger, faster, higher resolution and cheaper all the time. The only limit is the user imagination. A year ago I wouldn't have thought this was possible but you learn tricks and ways around problems.

I'm looking at getting an SLA printer to do detailed parts then after that a bigger FDM printer so I can print entire hull tops , bottoms and turrets in one go.

I've just been watching a video of a guy who prints molds then casts from them (something else for me to think about). Instead of printing out tanks I could print out the negative (mold) then make several castings from it.

Woz wrote:

HERMAN BIX wrote:Brilliant idea on the tyre cutter, Ive seen Weird Science- so when are you going to start printing THOSE models ?? !!
With what you have done so far on various designs using the printed system, do you believe there are any limits to what can be done effectively using the 'at-home' technology printers ?

Think my GF may have other ideas.

Printers are getting bigger, faster, higher resolution and cheaper all the time. The only limit is the user imagination. A year ago I wouldn't have thought this was possible but you learn tricks and ways around problems.

I'm looking at getting an SLA printer to do detailed parts then after that a bigger FDM printer so I can print entire hull tops , bottoms and turrets in one go.

I've just been watching a video of a guy who prints molds then casts from them (something else for me to think about). Instead of printing out tanks I could print out the negative (mold) then make several castings from it.

That was what I was thinking, would be easy to make the negative, even in parts, then glue them together and cast the hull. Love the tyre cutter, genius! The Panzer runs really well, and the use of a camera battery is yet another spark of ingenuity!

There is a guy on You Tube who has a VW campervan running on free batteries salvaged from laptop power packs, he uses hundreds of them in a custom built frame. Free power and the van drives as normal?

What would you consider selling one of those for as a kit?