silvertriple

Nichimo Luminous and Cosmo Shooter arms are prone to deformation including for display usage, and this even if the wheels are not touching the ground... All of them are deformed. I did model them without the deformation, and that is where we are all superior to any scanner which would have included the deformation without even considering that as an issue... I started by the front Then made a copy paste as new to change the few measures required to be changed plus review the following operations to make a rear arm. That took me about 5 minutes... C-hub and carriers were easy to do with a limited number of sketch for each... On the suspension it remains the upper arms and steering arms to model, as well the pivot balls and joints... Speaking about suspension, I made the shock tower which comes on the front gearbox... It's a bit complex, and required a bit more than 10 sketches to get there (I might have done less, maybe, but I've been lazy :-) ) The fact is this part allowed me to check and review the position of the shock tower fixation on the gearbox, which was the only doubt I had...

Did not post much those days... Lack of motivation it seems, plus a bit too much of work in the office... Anyway, yesterday, I worked on the front gearbox left side... I started by putting all the key measurements in a single sketch, did a few extrusions, chamfer, and lofts, and I had my part ready to shell... On the other side, I had this... I first worked the inside... Then move to the other side... The suspension supports remain to do... And that was quite fast to do... The right side was started with a mirror from the left, were I did rework whatever was required using extrusions... And here is: I'm not sure what I tackle next yet...

I spent the night sleeping with an issue in mind, I didn't now where it was when going to bed... Today, I checked. The diff had not enough clearance based on what I see with the diff in the gearbox : the diameter had to be bigger inside, and the thickness is not in cause. This means the diameter is wrong. And the diameter is made from the center position and the extreme point which is 100% sure. My center position is wrong then : and the mistake is because a sign in the calcul of the position of this hole. The spacer is shorter in the gearbox than for the Exceed, that should have ring the bell... Anyway corrected the sketch and had a look again... And it became clear that my tangent arc is not right, as we have likely a double curve as the diameter is bigger, which means as well the tangeant on the circle is taken lower... it's the same, but different :-). I'll have to get a print to see if I can reproduce the exact spline on the top, but it's not too much important...

When I went back from the office, the Luminous were sitting next to my computer with the caliper... I started by the rear gearbox... Measured the overall length, positioned the center hole, then the diff hole, and derived the rest from there... The distance between the two key holes is the same than on the Spirit FF and Exceed front gearbox, unsurprisingly... Once the right side was done, I did a mirror and worked out the left side Once there, I had a few checks, and I noticed that the shell thickness is variable : it should 12.25 mm deep in the center (1.75m thickness) while the rest is 2mm thick. I check on the front gearbox, and it is 12mm deep in the center (like on the Spirit and Exceed, so it should not be an issue, really - just have to make it proper in shimming). I still need to make everything that close the gearbox and complete it, in both 4WD and 2WD as while thoe part are common, some are distinct between the two models in the gearbox...

After analysis, the issue came from the fact that the extrusions are slightly conical... I measured them at the basis, and there is .4mm of difference in the diameter between the base and the top... I've reviewed the diameter to correspond to the top rather than the base...

Gearbox parts are printed... Good : - it matches the profile of the original gearbox, and holes positions are correct, axles as well, and on all faces... Bad or mixed... - it is really tight with the arms axes. I'll recheck the measurements, but I may have to review the main extrusions for the axles on each side to give more clearance. - I can't really check the internal recesses are right as the surface is not good enough on the side with the centering plot... I may need to reprint it without the centering plot... I'll have further checks on the model and the gearboxes tomorrow...

While the gearbox print test is in progress for the Super Wheelie/Big Bear, I did some cleaning on the Luminous parts... Ultrasonic cleaner, water and dish soap, 50°C, 30 minutes bath with 10 minutes ultrasonic waves activated... Parts look almost like new... I've not cleaned anything on the transmission parts (for most, I don't need to model them as I have the front and rear diff from the Spirit FF and the LSD (limited Slip Differential) from the 443WDS)... That should allow me to work on the Luminous CAD model very soon...

After the print of the bevel gear 27T confirmed I could be slightly more optimistic about prints, I launched the full Big Bear gear set I checked after a few layers to see it was ok to continue... And it was... 2 hours later, I had the full gear set on the bed. Once there, only remain the key thing : testing... I took the original diff, the printed one... And tried all the possible combinations. I'm very happy to report a full success on this... Next tests will be about the gearbox and rear arms...

After a few hiccups my printer is back online... I had some hard time with it to the point I'm more and more considering than rather than buying new old cars, at some point I should trhow it and replace it by something more reliable... Anyway, today, I started the test prints for the Big Bear/ Super Wheelie parts... After the print, I pull the diff I used to do the CAD model, and did try the part in... It drops in, it works, it meshes, and the overal dimension of the diff is the same than with the original part... That sounds good

yeah... I have a dryer... But I forgot to heat it up... My bad mistake...

Honestly, I did not look at that yet... I spend the afternoon trying to fix my printer following an user mistake, and it still not back to work (long story short : started a print with wet PLA, filament broke into the bowden tube, had to change the tube and the nozzle, and now I have to redo the offset properly (which I thought it was, but still is not))... I'll let you know once I can have a look. Not sure how much dependencies there is on what I need to modify (which is almost on the first sketch)...

Today, I got some pictures from my friend @BORMAC... He allowed to share them. It was about the Midships bodyshell attempt... @yogi-bear is probably awaiting eagerly for this post :-) Just a few reminders before the pics : - this is a dimensional test, which means the mould was taken straight out of the printer and the vac forming was done without any additional preparation - the idea to try to do a mould came long after the original bodyshell was sent to Australia, and when I did the model, I had no intentions at all of this sort, which means I paid attention to get the general idea of it without making too much attention to get very close of it (not like all the mechanical parts). Additionally, I made it using plain solid, and this likely did not help at all, because having some limitiations in the exercise... There is some good and some bad. The bas is mainly the front part which is off... At the time I did this model, there is a lot of things I did not know how to do yet. I would do it differently today... The good is that it shows it is possible to do something, and I could do better... There is still some work. Jason told me this is not a fail for him, but on my side, I see where my model is off and that is where I'm unhappy... On the other side, this allowed me to learn so much that it is somehow very good, so it is very positive. The Midships was my second car model, and from there I came a long way, and what you can see it this post is the result of lot of discussions with a few people, and they all participated to make this possible... Thanks to all of them, and specially to @yogi-bear who made this possible...

Thinking about my Samurai N°4 which is still in parts and incomplete currently... Missing elements are actually very few : - Center differential - Sprocket I'm thinking now that based on what I have done with the Ninja, I have already a good part of the Center diff already : the main gear is a derivation of the rear diff gear, and for the big bevel gear, they would be easily derived from the rear diff big bevel gears... So this should be easy to pull a model for Samurai center diff (I could cheat with an aristo craft hitec Kangaroo's spooler, but that would be no fun )... Then it would remain the sprocket... I need to find data on how to design one, so if one has a lead to design information of the sprocket, I would be interested :-)

I can confirm the Luminous is indeniably a Nichimo : there is a **** lot of screws to get it down to parts... I will need to do the same for the Cosmo Shooter, but I will proceed to the cleaning of the parts of the Luminous first. It's much more confortable to model clean parts :-)

The overall purpose of the Big Bear chassis modeling was to help a friend who helped me in more than an occasion. He has an almost Big Bear with a broken chassis... And his printer is small... Today I part the chassis in 3 pieces to allow printing on small desk printer... Approach is using 6 screws and nut to set sides together (so 12 screws and nut in total).