1:5 Scale buggy from scratch
 

Evenin' all. First post on here - been lurking and admiring for while so I thought I'd share what I have been up to and hopefully pick your brains for some electrikery advice.

So, taking a lot of inspiration from supercrawlerfreak's 1:6 Cambell build, I thought I'd jump in the deep end and make my own 4WD, 4WS tube framed buggy.

So far I have machined one wheel from 4" billet, one stub axle and knocked up the frame.

Most of my time has been spent on making a diff / spool (what a nightmare that was!) for the first axle.

It will be electric powered, but I have not the first idea on what type of motor I should use. I want, if possible to be able to crawl and blat about via a two speed gearbox (still to be made!) so what motor / esc / radio setup would you folk recommend? I am in the UK if that influences anything?

Anyhow, enough of me talking, here are some pics...

Frame - 770mm long 10mm solid bar

Axle - 435mm hub to hub.
Aaargh - why can I not post attachments...?

Excellent! Welcome aboard!

Im not sure why you cant post pictures, do you have them on a host site like 'photobucket?'

Hurrah! Another fellow UK member. Welcome chappy. "thumbsup"

Until we see pics I don't believe you. :flipoff:

Nope - I'm used to forums that you can upload to directly. Bu99er, better go get a hosting account then........

It does say that I can't post attachments at the bottom of the page though. Does that mean anything...?

Glad I could inspire someone. I cant wait to see what you come up with. lmk if you need any help with part design and what not. As far as a speed control, I'm using the mamba monster since it can handle 6s and run brushed. I personally will be running the new hitec HS-7980TH for steering since its 611in-oz ans just a tad bigger than a standard servo.
-Mike

Pictures at last!
 

Here we go then. Believe me now...? :razz:
[URL="]http://www.flickr.com/photos/53579179@N08/4946424834/"]http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4127/...bb254c46_z.jpg[URL]

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4144/...e6a4f907_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4141/...04a34e85_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4123/...2266beff_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4095/...b474a097_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4149/...b5221acd_z.jpg

Obviously the axle shaft will be shortened to enable the knuckles to steer, but i needed it like that to ensure the hubs were coaxial.

:flipoff: copycat. Great job on the axles and tube work. Was everything welded with mig? Any shots of the back of your 3rd member.
-Mike

Do u have any pics of the build process of ur axels I am getting redy to make my own

Copycat? Who me your honour? don't know what you mean!!;-)

I'd rather not show pics of the rear of the diff as it isn't pretty. :shock: Maybe I'll post some when I strip the axle down... maybe not.... It looks a lot like yours Mike but with added "character" shall we say from having to "machine" it by hand and with a home made mill!!

I'll do some step by step pics of the axle build when I do the second axle. I don't have any of this one unfortunately.

The frame was mig welded.

Shit we don't care if it's pretty. Nice axle and chassis"thumbsup"

Another question
 

Forgot to ask - anyone got a source for UJ's?

I need a load of them - 8mm shaft but relatively short - only 30mm long.

Any clues? the only ones I've found have been £30 each!! :cry:

I like the axles :ror:

http://www.motionco.co.uk/universal-...ore-p-217.html

Google is a wonderful thing,,,took 15 seconds.

Indeed
 

Very true, Google is very useful. Surprisingly enough, I have used it extensively and failed to find anything that I thought would be man enough without costing the earth.

I have seen many plastic UJ's and discounted them all on grounds of strength. Do you think the ones you linked to would be strong enough for a model of this size & weight? Serious question, I have my doubts personally as they are only rated to 2Nm.......

vary cool rig

the Traxxis 3.3 axle shafts are vary strong but look to big for you tubes
http://i695.photobucket.com/albums/v...12-09_2022.jpg
BIGGER IS BETTER

OK, to answer some of your questions - a few pictures:

Firstly, the back of the diff (3rd member in your speak ;) )

http://www.rccrawler.com/forum/%3Ca%...f7b2ceb7_z.jpghttp://farm5.static.flickr.com/4088/...f7b2ceb7_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4087/...f01518e1_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4103/...66489905_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4107/...4d77761d_z.jpg

I told you it wasn't pretty!!

Next, the first steps of building the axle:

Some bits:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4085/...3bf32a72_z.jpg

The first thing i did was make the outer half of the steering knuckle. This is simply a short piece of tube that I have machined to receive a pair of bearings:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/...47c856dc_z.jpg

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4108/...b4c98d92_z.jpg


and two bits of box section that I sliced in half. This pic shows me making my third knuckle so I am copying one of the ones I have already made. I made the first one based on a sketch I did of a real spidertrax axle (image on the spidertrax website)

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4111/...4a80cdce_z.jpg

A quick wave of the hot glue gun and you get this:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4128/...cceb033b_z.jpg

From here, all you need to do is weld in the top and bottom plates.

When I made the first one I used a length of threaded bar to ensure the top and bottom pivot points were coaxial. Once I had the top and bottom plates welded in, I opened up the holes to receive brass bushes:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/...70fc091c_z.jpg

That's as far as I got today - I made a right mess of the second diff so I am currently waiting for some JB weld to cure...... Possibly more tomorrow.....

Continued with the axle build today:

Finished the knuckles by bolting the top and bottom plates to the first axle then welding them to the knuckle, ensuring the drive shaft is engaged in the bearings of the knuckle to keep it all aligned. Doing it this way also ensures the steering axis is aligned and the knuckle will actually swivel!

I then moved on to the axle side of the knuckle. Same idea really, this time with complete box section but of a smaller size so it will fit inside the outer arms of the knuckle.

Glue them on and you get this:

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4154/...73bb7f02_z.jpg

Then it is just a case of putting the top plates on, which I haven't got to yet.

The rest of the axle is easy - here are the bits in process.....

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4136/...7d509ce6_z.jpg

Hopefully this is some use.....

those are some pretty sweet steel axles. what did you use for the diff gears?

wow, nice fab work, subscribed for sure, can't wait for more!

The diff gears are Protech, I presume from their (now defunct?) 1/6th scale Promax car. Came out of a very dusty odds and sods box at the hobby shop!