Well, I decided to get crazy last night on weight savings. Go big or go home right?
I ended up milling the axles down to what some may call extreme measures. But I myself think they will hold up just fine under normal crawling circumstances. Granted, if it see's a cliff, there probably is no hope, but I can't see an axial or losi axle being any stronger.
With the help of my machinist we milled each side down so the axle tube thickness was right about 2.5mm... Then to save time I whipped out the dremmel and some sand paper and quickly put in some 45* corners on it. We really didn't do any hardcore measuring we just started cutting and stopped when it looked ok...
Managed to get it down to 25 grams.
My machinist then looked at the stock berg locker and said, well lets make that out of 6061 and see what happens. So alittle while later we turned this...
Into something that wouldn't even register on my scale lol. Looks like I need to get a small one for very lightweight parts. Under 5grams this thing sucks.
The tolerances are tight, so there is no wiggle room. But I can't guarantee it will hold. If anyone can break it, I can. So we'll see how long it lasts.
On a side note, the machinist and I were comparing axles gears last night. He has a newer shipped set and everything is different. The gears are a metal finish, no longer black, and the locker isn't cut nearly as deep as mine is above the driveshafts to fit.
His driveshafts also do not have the center pins like mine. Anyone know if theres a strength difference?
We will be milling my gears down next. A engineering friend is looking into the stronger and lightest way to mill the gears down. So it should be interesting.
