3D printed sway bar bracket/light mount (WIP)

[HumboldtEF]

So I just got a 3D printer and so far I've mostly just been collecting designs on Thingiverse so I can print them, I've got the printer dialed in or I should say after assembling it its been almost flawless (Prusa I3 MK3).
Anyway I've learned just enough to start some simple designs in Fusion 360 and the first is a rear sway bar mount with a brake light mount intended for using the (medium sized round) Axial light buckets.

Those light buckets are in this set
https://www.rpphobby.com/product_p/ax80045.htm

I was up till 2:00 am last night tweeking the design so I havent got around to taking any pics of it mounted or anything special.

Heres what I have so far, it mounts to the outside of the chassis rails through the rear crossmember on the K10 (now im wondering if the K5 and other models use this same crossmember or not? anyone?)
Theres a hole to mount the light bucket just above the chassis rails and there a little locating hole to keep the light from twisting around.
I've put the sway bar through hole forward a bit so that the sway bar end links land just in front of the springs for clearance (with the wraith front sway bar in mind)





I designed it so the sway bar mounting points are the same width as the chassis rails so anyone who has done the Wraith front sway bar and modified it to fit the chassis will be able to use this bracket

Wraith front sway bar kit:
https://www.rpphobby.com/product_p/ax30781.htm

I considered beefing up the area around the sway bar hole but I'm not sure how much strain it will be under so I've started off with a 2.5 mm thick area and 40% infill.

I'm hoping this can be useful for other folks too, I'm thinking people will want one without the light mount included so I may do an alternate version. I was also thinking that a version with multiple sway bar mounting holes would be handy for those with more customized rigs.
If anyone has a suggestion for what else to use this bracket for let me know.

Eventually I'll be putting this up on Thingiverse so anyone can print these.

I still need to make the passenger side mount, sadly I could get mirroring to work but I will figure that out next.

I was really pleased to have nailed the dimensions on the first go, but I did go back and revise it 4 times, I thinned it out and add a countersunk hole for the light mount hole.

Once I have the other side done I was hoping to send these off to some folks for testing.

[Yeti.stealth]

This is great!

Thanks for doing this, I can’t believe it hasn’t been done sooner.

[Yeti.stealth]

I have an idea for a part I think people would want, a ‘ rear cage WB4 adaptor ‘

See the part circled in red, someone needs to redesign it with the body posts offset, so as to allow the F100 or K5 cab and rear cage assembly to drop straight onto a WB4 Ascender chassis.

If I knew how to draw it up on a puter, I would have done it already.

[Ascender'nMN84]

Originally Posted by Yeti.stealth

I have an idea for a part I think people would want, a ‘ rear cage WB4 adaptor ‘



See the part circled in read, someone needs to redesign it with the body post offset, so as to allow the F100 or K5 cab and rear cage assembly to drop straight onto a WB4 Ascender chassis.



If I knew how to draw it up on a puter, I would have done it already.



Attachment 378322

That would have made my build a lot easier... I like your thinking.

-back to thread topic-

I'm gonna be keeping my eyes on this one. I've got the sway bar kit on my shelf, I've just been waiting for a good reason to install it. Looks like a solid idea!

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[Jboucher]

Not related to the vaterra but I am looking for someone to design a front windshield Mount for a go pro camera on the bomber cage.

Maybe you could be interested...

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[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by Yeti.stealth

This is great!

Thanks for doing this, I can’t believe it hasn’t been done sooner.

Right, its getting closer to being a bolt on affair now instead of DIY only thing. I just made some raised upper rear link mounts that leave no room for the sway bar (when its pointed forward) so this was a great time to re-think the mounting.

Originally Posted by Yeti.stealth

I have an idea for a part I think people would want, a ‘ rear cage WB4 adaptor ‘

See the part circled in read, someone needs to redesign it with the body post offset, so as to allow the F100 or K5 cab and rear cage assembly to drop straight onto a WB4 Ascender chassis.

If I knew how to draw it up on a puter, I would have done it already.

I would be interested in that, I did want to play around with making some cages eventually. Would you be able to provide some measurements? I dont have the WB4 to check out but I assume its just farther back?

Originally Posted by Ascender'nMN84

I'm gonna be keeping my eyes on this one. I've got the sway bar kit on my shelf, I've just been waiting for a good reason to install it. Looks like a solid idea!

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I'd be happy to set you up with a set to try once I get the other half done

Originally Posted by Jboucher

Not related to the vaterra but I am looking for someone to design a front windshield Mount for a go pro camera on the bomber cage.

Maybe you could be interested...

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

I was also going to play around with GoPro mounts too and I do have a Bomber to test fit with. I'd like to have one with a few swivels for when its mounted in an odd spot.

I also had a project in mind for the HPI Venture to make a new front crossmember, this is what the servo and motor mount to. If you have a 550 sized motor options for gearing down are limited (to 14T-15T I believe) as it ends up hitting this crossmember. My Brother ran into this with a HH Revolver and only noticed it after the revolver casing started to melt the crossmember and smoke, he caught it quickly though.

[Jboucher]

Thx
I know you can mount the camera to the hood, roof or fuel cell but it ruins the paint job or scale items...

I really want to hang the camera to the V shaped cage bars on the "windshield" area.

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[Yeti.stealth]

I will be building a WB4 chassis in about a months time, I won’t be able to get measurements until then...

[soze]

Nice choice of printer. I was thinking of getting the same one. My friend has one, and it's great. He's been printing pieces for his go-kart that he designed.

[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by soze

Nice choice of printer. I was thinking of getting the same one. My friend has one, and it's great. He's been printing pieces for his go-kart that he designed.

Yeah, no complaints from me. I almost feel like its working too good, I'm not really getting the 3D printing experience where I need to troubleshoot settings and why prints failed. That could also be because I've only tried PLA so far, other filaments like Nylon and ABS aren't as user friendly.

EDIT: I started my design over so I could do it properly and mirror the other side. Last time I didnt make the sketch a component so I went back and re-watched Lars Christensens tutorials again. Watching the tutorials after getting a bit familiar in the program helps a lot.

So I was able to mirror my design this time which is great.

[HumboldtEF]

Ok I've got the design finalized



Heres the light mount portion





loosely connected but not mounted to the chassis



Mounted up



I had to go back to fusion 360 to move the sway bar location back 1mm as it was just barely grazing the diff cover and bolts on my truck. I've extended my wheelbase so the axle is farther back than normal.



So I'm thinking for this to work well for others that it should probably have multiple sway bar mount holes for different wheelbases. I'm guessing clearances will be different for different builds.

[smog]

Nice design idea EF. Two Ascender mods in one go!

I am hopeful your experience is indication that the 3D printers are becoming less finicky. As a guy without one, who finds himself on Shapeways quite regularly it seems as though it should be a shop tool.

[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by smog

Nice design idea EF. Two Ascender mods in one go!

I am hopeful your experience is indication that the 3D printers are becoming less finicky. As a guy without one, who finds himself on Shapeways quite regularly it seems as though it should be a shop tool.

Thanks!

The particular model I picked up is really dialed with a lot of the newest tech in 3D printing, theres a great community and the company behind it as well.
I've been wacthing 3D printing from the sidelines for a while now and I really expected it to be more trouble, more failures, having to fine tune settings and I really haven't experienced much of any of that.
That said the market is flooded with inexpensive printers and people will sometimes make the case that you can just but one of these cheap ones and then mod the crap out of it until its good or better. I for one didnt want anything to do with that level of tinkering and dont regret the purchase at all.

[soze]

The nice thing about that Prusa is that the software is continually being upgraded. It's really a nice printer and worth the money. This is one of those things where I only want to buy once and stick with it for long-term. The printing tray is pretty nice to safely remove prints from too.

[mgputer]

That is the printer I was going to buy and after all of the issues I have had, wish I would have. Also for the MK3 you can get a 5 color upgrade kit so you can print 5 colors at the same time.

[Natedog]

That's awesome Casey, great work! Any particular reason the rear frame crossmemeber on your truck is bolted in backwards?

Dean, great idea on WB4 rear cage mount piece!

Edit: I can take measurements on WB4, just let me know what y'all want.

[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by Natedog

That's awesome Casey, great work! Any particular reason the rear frame crossmemeber on your truck is bolted in backwards?

Dean, great idea on WB4 rear cage mount piece!

Edit: I can take measurements on WB4, just let me know what y'all want.

Thanks Nate!

Well I'm not exactly sure, the idea is to replace that piece so it lines up on the WB4. My guess is that I would just need to know where these 2 posts need to get moved to. Pictures might help me understand as I'm flying blind here. Maybe Yeti Stealth or Ascender'nMN84 can elaborate?

Yeah I have that crossmember turned around because I used to have a trailer hitch that I made and mounted in that space. It used the pintle style of hitch and they arent the strongest, I've broken one and bent the replacement.
I took it of because its really quite heavy for what it is.

Hmmm... maybe I can design something lighter in plastic?

I just left it turned around in case I want to mount it back up.

[soze]

Originally Posted by Natedog

That's awesome Casey, great work! Any particular reason the rear frame crossmemeber on your truck is bolted in backwards?

I was wondering the same thing!

[druz]

All the cool scale accessories I got from my uncle were from his Prusa... That thing is awesome... He is currently do an entire RC plane print... Cool stuff indeed....

[HumboldtEF]

Originally Posted by soze

The nice thing about that Prusa is that the software is continually being upgraded. It's really a nice printer and worth the money. This is one of those things where I only want to buy once and stick with it for long-term. The printing tray is pretty nice to safely remove prints from too.

Definitely what i was after. The print tray is awesome just flex it and prints pop loose without having to use spatulas or scrapers. Clean up is as simple as pulling all the PLA off of the plate which just takes a fingernail at the most, wipe with rubbing alcohol and its ready to go again.

Originally Posted by mgputer

That is the printer I was going to buy and after all of the issues I have had, wish I would have. Also for the MK3 you can get a 5 color upgrade kit so you can print 5 colors at the same time.

Yeah I was kind of tempted by the MMU upgrade but I figured I should just keep things simple, but I have a feeling after seeing the Prusa in action that the multi filament setup probably isnt much different.

Originally Posted by druz

He is currently do an entire RC plane print... Cool stuff indeed....

I've been eyeing those as well but I'm deep enough into crawling that I fear what flying might become