Ideas for turret bearings.

[jarndice]

Mick Is there a reason why you are confining the direction of spin of the "Bead"?
Cant it just be allowed to freewheel in the confines of its enclosure ?
Surely you only need to ensure that the "Bead" cannot escape from its box And that the box interior is not made of a high "Drag" material,?
Just the Turret alone would provide the lid to the enclosure keeping the "Bead" in place..
I love engineering solutions to problems, although in this case I am not sure many Tank Builders would see that there was a problem
Shaun.

[BarryC]

Interesting notion Mick!

I had been considering some type of bearing surface for my Abrams turret. I had thought about a slippery nylon strip of sorts but you idea makes more sense.

Barry

[jarndice]

Mick I do like your thoughts of a Metal ball in a Nylon socket but I have my doubts as whether a home 3D Printer would be capable of the small size of the item and its tolerances.
I would go looking toward the manufacturer of Surgical Implants (Various Joints)and model engineering suppliers for a source before trying a home built,
Not to buy but to see what is required to make one.
Shaun.

[43rdRecceReg]

It shouldn't be massive challenge to mimic the basic Tamiya turret roller system shown here on the KT. The metal bars used as axles could be made out of brass tubing, the roller bearings cut out of a styrene sheet with a small circular hole-saw (mini tank cutter), and the supporting bearing shells cut out of sheet styrene. Tamiya use three bearings, but there's nothing to stop you using five or six, if OTT tendencies kick in

Tamiya turret bearing system..

I've just tried it, and it seems to work pretty well...(the system, not the reproduction of it)

[gisalook]

Hi Guys
Have you tried Delrin plastic? Very (slipery) Super slipery with just a touch of oil.

[PainlessWolf]

Good morning,
Somewhere on here is my Taigen Panther G build. To smooth up the turret rotation without drilling or adding a lot of height to the ring, I went to Home Despot and got those dot sized furniture sliders. Hard, smooth and very slippery to the touch. They are also self adhesive and 4 - 6 of them work perfectly on most types of tanks to keep that turret rotating smoothly.
regards,
Painless

[sassgrunt]

I know this isn't along the "roller" lines that all of you are discussing, but I have had luck using transparent colored section dividers for notebooks. These vary in thickness from 0.005" to 0.007" depending on manufacturer. I use a circle cutter and cut a ring that fits around the turret boss and doesn't show past the turret sides. They're slippery enough to let the turret turn more easily; while allowing the entire turret under-surface to be supported. I've found that one thickness is sufficient, but you could always make multiple layers if you had an uneven hull top, or something. -Mike

[Afrikakorps]

Here is a different thought on turret bearings.
Cheers
Steve

[Norton1]

That last one makes even more sense as the turrets don't seem to fit precisely anyway. The bearing placement would be able to adjust for that slop. And it looks really simple.

Be well,
Steve

[jarndice]

Steve if you do decide to buy the Metal Turret Ring with Bearings I would suggest you get the 360 Degree wiring harness at the same time as finding an aftermarket one separately is not easy, make sure it is the "BB" one and not the "IR" one, also you should be aware that the Metal Turret Ring comes in two sizes, Your Tiger2 takes the "Large" one.
I have two of these Turret rings but I am still wondering how much harm in the long term they will be doing to the sheet of unsupported ABS underneath them,
Shaun.