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Bormac's Nichimo Midships 443 WDS - An unexpected project 1 year 10 months ago #71472

Yeah, I was surprised myself: when I started it, I did not thought I would finish it within the day (or almost the day). With the experience, it shows multiple things :
  • There is always more than one way to do something, but some ways will require more work and sketches than others
  • When I started with the Spirit, I was doing all the circle positioning from the center: it required measuring the distances from the edge, and adding the circle diameter divided by two to all mesures. I found out it was much quicker to measure distances from edges, place drawing lines accordingly, make the circle with the proper diameter and apply tangent rules to it. I do not think, you just do it quick as per the measurements, and it is error free (because some times neurons do not work when not enough coffee and too late in the night :-)
  • Approach plan is key. Looking at a part, I define my work plan first before I put anything into CAD. You have to do that before to do the first sketch, as the way you will do it will have some impact on the measurements you put on the drawing.
  • The approach must be consistent end to end : measurement is difficult, but it is even worse, as when the part are moulded, there will be one key difference between a 3D printed part and a moulded part : the walls are not perpendicular to the ground when you are dealing with moulded parts. On 3D printed parts, it's better to have them perpendicular, and obviously that has an impact on the measurements of the wall distances.
  • Another thing is that some holes positions are more important than others. it's another difficulty to take into account, and only experience will tell what are the important measures
At the end, I'm a bit lazy, so taking the shortest path is important to me :-)
I buy kits to built and ru(i)n them :-)
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Bormac's Nichimo Midships 443 WDS - An unexpected project 1 year 10 months ago #71475

Today, I decided to start the top chassis. I won't finish today most likely for lot of non rc reasons.

As usual when tackling a complex part, the most important is the plan...
The top chassis is a combination of multiple bodies each with with chamfer and fillets, and that's exactly what we are going to do before shelling the combination. Once this will be done, there will be cut outs on the faces, and then set of sketches for fixations and various holes...

I  first started by a partial projection of the bottom chassis where I started to plot all the bodies, with the intention of applying sketches on the face and do cuts using those sketches to bodies individually...


After few extrusions with "new body" rather than "joins", some sketchs, with cut extrusions applied differently depending of the bodies, here is what I had...


That's tricky, it requires to think your bodies the way you want to apply the sketches but it works... Another set of sketch later to complete the front with new bodies and cuts, I could combine all the bodies and apply the shell...


Looking at the comments of some in other forums, I was afraid it would not work, but it worked like a charm...


Next is cut-outs, fixations and holes and finition details...
I buy kits to built and ru(i)n them :-)
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Bormac's Nichimo Midships 443 WDS - An unexpected project 1 year 10 months ago #71477

This is wizzard to me.
I have tried to watch some of the youtube how to videos on how to design things, but I tend to fall to sleep or get bored/tired after just minutes
Due my illness my cognitive abilities has gotten worse over the last decade, especially the last 5 years or so.
Think that's why it takes me forever to learn new things that are a bit involving.
I can forget to read a book as each centences takes about 4 times to read before my brain picks it up what it actually means, before that it is just words with no meaning to it.

Think several years ago I could have learned the skill, but now each step takes forever to get into my head, so I get frustrated very easely.

Hats off to you for learning this.
Makes me want to learn to 3d draw tho'''

Awesome to see rare bits comes to life.
Are you printing these parts later to make this car for yourself as well? Hope so 
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Bormac's Nichimo Midships 443 WDS - An unexpected project 1 year 10 months ago #71478

Richard, thanks for the support.
I had somehow the same issue with videos. Unless you use the software by yourself before the video, most of the words would not flow to your mind... I was not able to watch detail videos without getting asleep until I started really to work in. That being said, Ryo helped me a lot to speed up and shorten my learning curve. He clearly told me he's surprised how good I'm at this. It took about 2 months to catch what he did in 1 year... I'm gifted in this, and my technics teacher in class back in the eighties could only recognize this : I was able to spot missing lines on drawing at first sight, as I always had the ability to rotate parts in space in my head. I just never used this gift until I started working on the Spirit FF...
If you want help to start learn, Tinkercad is probably easier to catch than fusion 360, although largely limited compared to Fusion 360... But it could help to get a good start...

As for the printing a Exceed or a Midships for myself, I will have two issues:
  1. The owner of this car will get it in parts as soon as I will have the car modeled. That means I won't have any of the metal parts I can't print. I could eventually find some substitues for some parts, but it will be difficult for the full car elements
  2. The Midships roll cage can't be printed easily : it's too big for currently available printing capabilities as acceptable cost.
At this stage, my plan is to model the car, and we will see later for any prints... But yeah, I would love to be able to get another Printed Nichimo :)
I buy kits to built and ru(i)n them :-)
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Bormac's Nichimo Midships 443 WDS - An unexpected project 1 year 10 months ago #71484

Early wake up this morning... I had some time to do the top cut outs before starting my day of work.

I had only the top faces to deal with. I first draw the cutout for the servo head (yesterday I had the check for the measurements and a standard servo should fit under but it is super tight), and for the air cooling feed (this is were the air scoop goes).


Then I went thru my working (boring) day. And at the end, reopened Fusion 360 to add the other remaining details. I added all of them (except the ribs) in one sing sketch and here is the result.


The top chassis is now in. The next step will be about the Midships specific parts : roll cage and bodyshell. For this I will need to get the gearboxes and chassis together so I can join the parts on the same plan.
I opened a new file, included the chassis and gearboxes in, and add joints between the parts.


I will obviously copy the file once all the common elements are added in and before starting the roll cage, so I can actually get it ready for an Exceed model :-D

Basically, what do I need to model to get there :
- central differential components
- central shaft
- metal motor cooler part (2)
- metal shock towers : the component is the same as the Spirit FF one minus one bent

What I have already thanks to the Spirit FF and common to the 443WDS cars :
- shocks
- dogbones
- knuckles (front and rear are the same, they are just inverted)
- sway bars (front and rear are the same)
- rear steering feed rod
- servo horn
- Bumper and bumper plate
- front arms
- front and rear differntial
- shocks (color is different, that's all, but I'll keep my CAD black and red because red :-) )
- ...

It's on a good path, but now I remember how pain it is to joint all the parts together... I may procrastinate a bit before getting there :-) (especially considering we are two weeks close from the club vintage event, and i have 3 cars to finish/start : the Samurai, a Kyosho Spider TF3, and a Galaxy RS for my son)
I buy kits to built and ru(i)n them :-)
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Bormac's Nichimo Midships 443 WDS - An unexpected project 1 year 10 months ago #71497

After my last post, I started to work out assemblies.

I added the battery door hinge to the rear assembly


I had the idea that making assembly will help me to check key measurements and design.
As expected, it helps, a lot.


The battery door helped to spot a mistake in the placement of a key measure (the second measure i plot in the first sketch was not exactly positioned rightly. It's fixed, now.

Then I added the parts that goes on the front gearbox and are common to both Midships and Exceed. The bumper plate holes are lining up perfectly and that is a good sign :)


In this file I'll add whatever is common to both cars. The front  train components will be added in the front gearbox subassembly. The rear end components will be added the rear gearbox subassembly. Now they are joined together, I just have to update references in the main file. component that will be added in the chassis file are the central shaft, the servo and its horn, and the input steering rods.

I've created 2 other files, in which the chassis assembly is linked.
- one for the Midships
- one for the Exceed

They will include at some point : their respective wheels, body shells, wing and roll cage. 

Exceed wise, a parcel arrived today. There was a mix of Exceed and Midships inside. I decided to pull the trigger on it for multiple reasons: the exceed roll cage will help for me, as well as the metal parts, shocks and other components if I decide to print one Exceed (I started to develop some love the ugly ducky look of that beast). The chassis, bumper and other plastic part will be eventually helpful for Jason as the chassis he got is in quite bad shape, with cracks that don't look good at the end. The bumper was a good indication, and that is the reason I was confortable to bet on this.


And I'm sure now to have everything to be able to complete the CAD model of both cars (except the Exceed body shell, but I'll order one at TBG at some point :-) ).
I buy kits to built and ru(i)n them :-)
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Bormac's Nichimo Midships 443 WDS - An unexpected project 1 year 10 months ago #71502

It looks nice from far..   congrats. You save the rc history.

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Bormac's Nichimo Midships 443 WDS - An unexpected project 1 year 10 months ago #71505

I spend most of my afternoon in the car, as I had to deliver my motorbike to the dealer for servicing. I discussed with the dealer, he's a friend, and he is following my stuff on Facebook. He does restore old motorbikes, and he told me he liked my work... Very pleasurable to see that people, even if they do not react follow and like the work.

Back at home around 5pm, I decided to prepare the transmission work. For that I decided to put the existing parts into the the design. I created a differential assembly and put it in both front and rear gearboxes...



I had to model the front axis as it is longer than for the Spirit/Vantage FF cars and it has some specificities on the central diff end. The Spirit FF axis is however there for the rear.


I'll add other things later on.
I buy kits to built and ru(i)n them :-)
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Bormac's Nichimo Midships 443 WDS - An unexpected project 1 year 10 months ago #71509

You're crazy Marc. That's awesome

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Bormac's Nichimo Midships 443 WDS - An unexpected project 1 year 10 months ago #71521

After the short but effective Samurai break, let's get back on the Nichimo...

First, I was highlighted that there is some differences between the Midships to chassis and Exceed top chassis. Analysis of the instruction manuals shows they use a different MSC. My car is a indeed a Midships chassis with an Exceed roll cage. I therefore contacted an owner with multiple instances of Exceed to get some measurements and further detail pictures...

Few minutes later on that was sorted out, and I have now as well an Exceed top chassis.


I also worked out the shock towers (Spirit/Vantage minus one bent), and the battery retainers (inverted from the FF cars).


(and if you are asking yourself, this is actually a picture of each chassis in its current state)...

Then  had a look at my front gearbox to note down some key information, that will be of use later on.

(I could spend hours looking at those views)...

This morning, I started by putting some additional elements on the front train....


And as I'd like to be able to complete the front gearbox, I need to get into the details of the center differential
Spur gear is 54T, Module .8. Once  this is clear, that was quite quick to get the part into Fusion360...


Next is the two pressure rings - very easy to deal with as well...


Had a look into the bevel gears, and they are in module 1. Smalls are 10T while bigs are 14T... This is my next activity, basically :-)
I buy kits to built and ru(i)n them :-)
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