RC Tank Warfare community hobby forum

Progress on the bearing. It has taken over 5 days and many, many reprints/redesigns before it went together as intended




Does it work? Yes
Does it work as desired? No. It still has too much plastic to plastic contact and the plastic is not smooth enough to give the bearing effect that I was looking for so the result is not a frictionless turn so at the end was it worth it? As an academic and design exercise probably yes but in terms of the frustration level no. I could probably improve it with some tweaks in the design and some sanding of the components but after five days my patience is exhausted, there are things to do on the build that will be much more satisfying and worthwhile. If anyone wants the scad file for the bearing then pm me and you are welcome to it!

Anyway moving on to the build, I will have to fire the design team as I had a lulu of a Homer Simpson moment as I was trying to get the turret mounted.
I designed, made, and fitted the mounting ring to the hull to mount the turret drive ring that I got from Haya (£4.95), and that was good, and then tried to fit the drive ring into the hull:


DOH!!!!
What was I thinking? Anyway after some hull strengthening and modification with the dremel it fitted.



So next is progressing the turret mounting as I don't want to get into the finishing/detailing until the main construction work is finished.

Alwyn

Actually I was a bit premature with my displeasure, after adding a tiny amount of grease and really working the unit to bed in the balls and settle them in the races, it isn't too bad and I might still use it on the build. Watch this space.

Alwyn

Hi Mick, er that would be me then
viewtopic.php?f=195&t=23212

I've been hatching this for some time...........
Alwyn

As they say in Oz - No worries mate, all contributions are helpfull and much appreciated.

Alwyn

AlwynTurner wrote:Anyway moving on to the build, I will have to fire the design team as I had a lulu of a Homer Simpson moment as I was trying to get the turret mounted.
I designed, made, and fitted the mounting ring to the hull to mount the turret drive ring that I got from Haya (£4.95), and that was good, and then tried to fit the drive ring into the hull:
http://i.imgur.com/eOdWfk7.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/6Iu07Jj.jpg
DOH!!!!
What was I thinking? Anyway after some hull strengthening and modification with the dremel it fitted.
http://i.imgur.com/uWXCuYe.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/ZttigrQ.jpg

That looks like something I'd have done, only I'd have cut the turret ring in halves and reassembled them inside the hull.

Rather than greasing the bearing, have you considered the dry Teflon lubricant that Shaun's mentioned? I've found that it makes gearboxes too noisy (or more correctly, doesn't do anything to stop them being noisy), but I bet it'd work a treat for working surfaces like these.

Thanks Raminator, I'll look out for some.

Alwyn

Heaven alive! That turret ring looks huge! Is it the one from the modern tanks, or just an optical illusion?

It's the one off the King Tiger/Leopard, suitably modified for 360 degree turn.

FINALLY I got the turret mounted. The bearing was a total bust, it sort of worked but raised the turret by about 3mm too much, so back to plan B.

Here are the turret mounting pics






The turret now sits where it should and turns fine, not as smoothly as I wanted but some teflon lubricant should fix that.

Now I can get on with the build.

Alwyn

Double post

After the turret mounting trauma I can at last get back to the build. Added some milliput to the turret area, printed off the louvres for the rear deck and mounted them, designed and printed the exhaust (or is it air inlet) covers and mounted them on the rear deck, and then added some bolts and welds.



It seems odd creating beautifully formed louvres and then having to make them look as though they've been welded by a blind welder!

Alwyn