TOPIC:

Love it

Today is an important day for this project...

The 3D printed MJF Nylon PA12 chassis arrived... I was quite impatient to see it arriving, and be able to do some fitting test



I also took the gearbox in, and it fits perfectly... As said, it is an important step for the project.

Have to decide if I print all plastic parts or just the one that I need to replace, but I tend to think the first option is better, as then it will be really my own car

Do the 2 options 😁😁

I basically spend quite a few hours yesterday evenning to build a bodyshell using surfaces, but I can't thicken it at the end... (even though I put all the surfaces in the same direction)...


I also had quite a long time to understand that combine become stitch when it comes to Surface environment (but still no way to thicken it).







I really need to take care of building some clusters of parts to reduce the printing costs (black MJF PA12 and red SLS PA12)... Which means the bodyshell and all those elements which require review will be left there until I get back on this.

In the meantime, a bit of fun with a vertical resize (and no, I won't use the perspective view, as the rear wheels look exactly like the front ones in perspective).



Next : take care of the parts printing (I already ordered a bodyshell to TBG for it), build, run and vidéo

Tonight, I prepared my cluster of parts. The overall idea is to group the parts together for the prints.

I will have 6 STL files for black parts :
- Chassis (already printed)
- Top Chassis
- Bumper and battery holders set
- Suspension arms
- gearbox
- lost ark (the radiobox )


I will prepare the red parts clusters tomorrow. Depending of the cost, I may print them white sls or red sls (not all providers are proposing dyed red sls)...

Couldn't you do a box like you already did some times ago?

Well, I could do a box, but some parts are too small, first, and secondly, I found another provider which is cheaper without the requirement of the box...

Yesterday, I had a puzzle with all red parts to tackle.


I decided to not decide anything yet for the wheels: the tires are in ok state, but they are old, and they would probably not survive to a run.  Which means I may have to adapt modern/easy to source tire, and therefore redsign the rims accordingly. This will be for later. In the meantime, I may use a set of hotshot wheels...

As the only providers I'm aware of doing dyed sls PA12 are all expensive for each stl file, I decided to take all the red parts I want to print in the same stl.
And I started to group them around the roll cage with some sprues, axles and other tricks relying on joints to capture bodies in the design, and create one single stl that makes it.


At the end I had this :


I estimated the printing cost in many point of time of this by exporting the stl and submittting it. Adding parts in the cluster doesn't climb the price much so it's the good method (same principle as the box I used with the Hunter, but with part too small to be able to use the same way)...

I will order the print for the black and the red parts soon...

You could keep old tires and rims for the shelf and resize the rims for hs tires

I did have that in mind, clearly... But did not made any decision yet... Still considering options and checking costs...