Dead Ripper, or Trail Bolt?

[bgredjeep]

So I bought the trail ripper stl a while ago and was going to have it printed for me. Had some delays and ended up ordering my own 3d printer to mess around with. After a couple test prints, I ran the chassis stl to see what it would do. I was really just wanting to finish off the filament that came with the printer and knew it would run out before it finished.

It ended up running out just over the belt line of the chassis, so no roof. I was just happy that the printer put out a usable chassis on my 3rd ever print.

I shared the picture on fb and someone suggested I flip it over and use it as a cage inside a body. That got my wheels turning and a couple quick cuts later my stock deadbolt body was fit over the chassis.

I didn't intend to run this chassis as I wanted to print it with better filament, plus I wanted to print the full chassis. Chassis number 2 finished, but one of the B pillars got knocked out of place near the end of the print.

I was able to break it off and glue it back in place, but between that and some other changes I wanted to try in the slicer (more infill, and adjustment to the supports) I ran another. This was the first completely successful chassis print.

And assembled to a roller.

 

[bgredjeep]

It was at this point I started second guessing the full chassis. These cars are hard enough to work on due to their size, and now I'm trying to work on it through the cage with my xxl hands. I decided to revisit running the deadbolt body.

Rather than cutting the roof off this chassis, I decided to print a fresh one. When I assembled the roller I found the mounting holes for the skid were too close together. I had to oversize the holes and still had to fight it a bit to get the screws in. I opened the stl in Fusion and checked the spacing for the upper link mount holes, it showed 1.08" (I converted from mm since my dial caliper is standard). I measured the same location on my stock chassis rails and got 1.1". It comes down to 1/2mm, but when you are working with 1mm screws it made a big difference.

I did a little mathing and came up with an ~1.8% difference, so I scaled the X axis in Cura to 101.8% and started the final chassis. I stopped the print after it passed the belt line similar to my initial test.

The new chassis is ~5mm longer overall but the skid plate lined up perfectly on this one. No fighting with the screws or ovaling out the holes.

Here's the new roller. I still have some work ahead to wire it up, and mount the body. I'm thinking some magnets on the sides is all it needs. The body fits over the chassis (width wise) like it was made for it.

 

[rob5059]

The Deadbolt body on the chassis looks good. I love the picture of the chassis on the printer, it looks like it is melting. I would put that on my shop wall.

 

[bgredjeep]

The Deadbolt body on the chassis looks good. I love the picture of the chassis on the printer, it looks like it is melting. I would put that on my shop wall.

Thanks.

Yeah, the tree supports do some crazy stuff, but it works and it's relatively easy to break off the actual part.

Also, for anyone looking to print this, I suggest using a raft in the adhesion setting (not the skirt which is pictured). Makes it much easier to remove from the printer and easier to remove the supports imo. It does add almost an hour to the print.

 

[Doom!]

Looks good, I've got a 3d printer that I haven't had a chance to try out yet, this is very inspiring.

 

[bgredjeep]

The trail bolt is back.

I haven't messed with this car in a bit. I had installed a brushless setup (cheap aliexpress sensored) and it initially worked really well, but something happened where it started getting really hot as soon as I went full throttle for even a couple seconds. It wouldn't ever cool down unless I turned it off once it started heating up, and gearing down didn't change the behavior.

After it was parked for a bit I decided to just stick with a brushed motor and I tossed in an 050 to get it running again. I'll probably stick the pn racing 130 in it soon.

For now, everything is mounted, I just need to get the battery situated. I ordered the 300mah tattu pack and I think it'll fit right on the floor next to the trans, just waiting on that to arrive. I also need to secure the body, but a couple of magnets should be all that takes.

 

[bgredjeep]

I got the body mounted. Added a couple steel tabs on the side of the chassis and glued magnets to the body. In the rear I made a lexan tab that hooks under the chassis tube.

Just waiting on my new battery and I'll have this wrapped up.

 

[bgredjeep]

Gens ace tattu lipo showed up yesterday. This fits great down in the bottom of the chassis. I bent up a lexan tray to keep the battery in place and away from moving parts.

For the moment the car is complete. I'm going to order the pn racing motor, and stretch the front wheelbase some more, but more waiting on parts before that happens. It's running and crawling for now.

 

[bgredjeep]

New pack of axial driveshafts showed up sooner than expected so I was able to stretch the front a bit more. Running deadbolt rears all around now.

I also decided to try another brushless motor and ordered a 1404 size outrunner. I'll update once I get that and see if I can make it work.

 

[Doom!]

She looks great!

 

[bgredjeep]

Thanks man. I'm down to fine tuning at this point. Loving it.

On that note, I did some more trimming on the body. Now it's getting full travel from the suspension. It was hitting pretty good before depending on the steering angle