[Mastrecar]

Hi
I just see the topic from choc-ice "3D Modelling a slot car - Dodge Monaco" http://www.slotforum.com/forums/index.php?...3942&st=150, exelent post, and exelent work, I see he used a 3D printer to make his chassis, I also did a car with a CAD program but i used other types of rapid prototyping.
to make my car i used 2D laser cutting, a 2D1/2 router (3 axis router) and vacuumforming.

1-Choosing a car to make
I wanted to do an F1 cause in my slotclub they are making an f1 champinship and I didnt have a good car to race, so i decided to make an f1, why lotus 88? I really like weird cars in F1, and this car is one of the last chapmans cars, also my dad see it practice in the us grand prix (cause it was never aloud to race) and it wasn´t to difficult to make the 3D model. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_88
2-making the CAD model
-I used lateral, superior images and real life dimensions from the lotus to make the body of the car.the program I use is Rinoceros, is a very cheap and easy to use progam. http://www.rhino3d.com/index.htm

I designed my chassis to be made with a 1mm polyestiren sheet, and glued with monomer of polystiren (its like tamiya cement but much stronger and cheaper)

this is how I assamble all the pieces in the chassis

After making the model I made the archives for the "printing", here is how i order the pieces of the chasis for the laser cutting.

3-CAD to reality:
then I "print", here is wen i make my mould in MDF (wood agglometate with resin) in my school 2D1/2 router

this type of router makes models with positive angles, is perfect for a vacumforming mold. here is how it looks

then i vacumform the mold to make the body pieces with 1mm polystiren sheet.(the big squared piece is the difusser)

4-assembly
i dont have pictures of this process, but it take me one morning to glue and assamble all the chassis and body, cause this is my first protoype it needs some tweeks i have to modify my archive for the laser cutting cause polystiren is plastic and plastic bends with heat, fortunately the pieces, even bent, could work and here is the result.

Shot at 2011-06-08i dont use screws in the chassis i used the same way slot it HRS chassis hangs to the body.

here is the chassis.

here with a fly corvette

the driver is made of resin, i made a very fast clay body and use silicon to make the mold, the head is from a NSR driver.
5-Test:
I tested my car at my local slotclub and it works very nice, im doing very good times, I hope it works good on a race.

The car still needs a lot of improvement, i must vacumform with a .6mm polystyren sheet instead of 1mm to make the car ligther and better for the vacuumforming, choose the right wheels, f1 cars have much bigger rear tyres (Im going to use fly F1 tyres and rims) so it looks more like it was, also it needs more decals and the model of the air intake for the engine.
all the materials and process to make 1 car now (just chassis and body) it cost me less than 10 pounds, laser cutting is very cheap and polystiren sheets is also cheap, the problem with this process is that it needs like 2 hours of work afer the laser cut and vacuumforming.
when i make my second prototype i post photos of the assembly.
My english is not the best, so if something is not very clear plase tell me so I can explain it better.

I hope you like it.

 

[Mastrecar]

thank you for your comments

QUOTE (Slots-O-Fun @ 8 Jun 2011, 20:28) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Awesome!

I think you should build tunnels in the chassis and figure out a way to let the body slide up and down while riding the slot surfaceos that it provides the suction. I am sure this was the concept of the original car.

when i was making the 3D modeling i think something like that, but it is very complex an with so little space to work on, something i must work on is to make the body move to improve the performance.

QUOTE (choc-ice @ 8 Jun 2011, 20:43) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>That's a great build!

Instead of 0.6mm polystyrene, why not use polycarbonate (trade name lexan or makrolon)? It's tougher than polystyrene so you can afford to reduce the thickness.

A really nice job, you should be very pleased with the result. As you said, with the correct tyres it will look even better.

lexan is a great material for slot cars, but is very complex to vacuumform, polystiren is easier, if you see the side pannels in the car are also with laser cutting an polyestirene so when I use polyestirene in the body, I can join them with monomer, this glue melts both pieces to make it like one, also chassis and difuser are joined like this.

QUOTE (f143 @ 9 Jun 2011, 10:10) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Like it, I love it.
It should never have been banned.
I hope it drives as good as it looks.
Nigel

I agree with you, and it dives quite nice in the track.

QUOTE (conti_rowland @ 9 Jun 2011, 12:24) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>LOVE this - it is almost exactly what I have on mind to do if I can ever buy the equipment.

And since its not hand made you can churn them out........ - seriously though can I buy one please? PM me if I can!!

Cheers

Andi

you dont need the equipment, there are companies that can "print" molds like i did, also you can do your mold by hand and make a home vacuumforming machine (this is the cheaper process i found on youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGBRiYhxRTM) , for the laser cuttting is also easy im sure were you live must be a laser cutting shop near, some of this shops help you to make the archive, so you only have to design in paper and they help you to make the 2D archive and you can cut in different materials, acrilic, polystyrene, thin metals, cardboard etc..

I forgot to mention someting in my post, a cardboard prototype chassis, in my school i can use a laser cutting machine but there I cant cut polyestirene (because is a bit toxic) so in my school I made prototypes of cardboard and 1 funcional, wich i tested, it worked great until I crash with other car and destroyed the front suspension. this helped me to know dimension problems, structural problems, and if the configuration worked in the track.
the chassis in the middle is the one i crashed.

Thank you for your comments.

 

[Mastrecar]

QUOTE (lotus88 @ 24 May 2012, 21:31) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>Lotus 88 1/10 RC car - WIP

I've to pay mt "debt" with Mastrecar, who was so kind to pass me his excellent work with Rhino.

Target is to have a RC version of the Lotus88 in 1/10 scale...

Step one for me was to make a model of the real chassis. This is the Tamiya F103, which is probably one of the oldest F1 made. Is in the market from more than 15 years....Always the same...

Shame for me, I work professionally (well... somehow...) with SolidEdge, who doesn't like surfaces, so I've to "solidize" the surfaces, which in most of the case is easy but nose area....look like some one chipped it...

Note: I'm mad for this car since (his) day 1... more than 30 years ago....

Looking very nice, can´t wait to see it finished. I havent worked with solid edge, i know is great for mechanical things (i.e. Chasiss looks great) but sufaces are very complex in that type of program.

QUOTE (stoner @ 25 May 2012, 07:40) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>thai racer is right. this is the future, leaves me out in the cold then. i,m not computor literate, a bit of a ludite, so its the old fashioned way for me, flaws an all. i do admire this method it opens up all sorts of possibilities. wish to hell i was capable of this. outstanding. john

Using a CAD progam to make this kind of things (slot car racing, R/C) is great but you have to know the basics, and the best way to learn is the old fashioned.
Stoner you have the basics and the knowledge, I invite you to lern how to use rhino is very easy and user frendly, You can downolad a trial version (is the full progam, but you can only save 30 times) in http://www.rhino3d.com/, ad you can find a lot of tutorials for free in internet. once you have a model you can send it to http://www.shapeways.com/ they print it in 3D, now im working on my lotus to 3D print it.

Other example of this, is the type of job you see in the NSR cars (http://www.nsrslot.it/index_news_.html) if you open the car and look inside the body you can see how they use a CNC router do the mould (it looks like a lot of little lines) you can se it easier in the black interior piece, oviusly is much higer the price but if you are going to do thousends of cars is much more cheaper than other techinques used by other brands.

Thank you for the comments