Some custom work of my own ! !

[Guest joelvardy]

Hi to all of you!

 

I know that this has been covered before (well I presume so.)

 

I’d like to start off y saying that I have always wanted to do some custom work. I have always been jealous, when I look at members showrooms and people have some fabulous machines that they have custom made!

Well now I think you have guessed my goal…. YES I want to make a custom car!

 

I have always put off bringing it up because it would end up costing too much to get the stuff milled/cut. And didn’t want to disappoint you. But as one of my brothers works with the lathes and laser cutters. (He is a programmer, but can get all of my work done for me.) All I have to do is supply him with the materials. (Local suppler  - www.hillfoot.com.) And I will of course pay him a little something. I know longer need to worry about the cutting side of it!

 

So I would like to start with something simple. (I do not have any specific preferences, as it will be my first car.)

 

Really I would like some ideas on the car. (Be it on road, off road and dimensions.) And also some ideas on drive trans. (I think that it would be easier to use some standard tamiya belts. But as I said I am not sure, I will listen to all suggestions as people that reply to this are more likely to know a lot more about this than me!)

 

No my brothers machines can accept most C.A.D formats, but I need to not only find a good program but also learn how to effectively use it! (Again I am sure that some of you that have done these custom jobs can help me, on finding an appropriate program.)

 

As I said my brother can use milling lathes and laser cutters, I am presuming he can also work with carbon also.

 

Well if you have read though this I think you and I hope this helps you answer a few of my questions! (If not then ask me the details that you need, and I will see what I can do to help you, help me.)

 

I would appreciate any help form all of you that read this and help me out on my venture. I believe I should cut my post off now as you will get board.

 

“I have some ideas for you helpers though”  - I will extend on this later

 

Joel

[MikeT]

I think a Pan-Car would be easiest, custom T-bar rear suspension and flat chassis.

Obviously, unless this idea is just another pointless post...

[Guest joelvardy]

I do aggree with you there, as with pan cars there is usually just a direct drive and a general simple design with usually no upper deck.

One think I think ?I will have problems with on any car I make (and probably the most easy) are the axles/drive shafts. I think I will have trouble getting them mounted on and also having the wheels attached (but I think I would probably have hex fitting wheels so I could just use some tamiya hex wheel holders)

"Obviously, unless this idea is just another pointless post..."   - Is that supposed to remind me of my past posts (BTW I am still working on the tracked car idea) or were you referring to something else?

Joel

[Z]

Just how custom do you want it to be? If you would consider using

existing axles, you could build some sort of scale truck with TLT or Hi

Lift axles and a custom chassis. Or, if you're considering

scratch-building a buggy, TC member Grahoo's showroom is a good place

to start. As with the tracked car, I will be anxiously awaiting the

results of this build! 

[Guest joelvardy]

Looking around a lot of people use TLT gearboxes and have a custom suspension set up and chassis (if you know what I mean.) That looks like a very good starting point as you should just be able to laser cut the chassis plates from sheet aluminium!

I will have a look at Grahoo's showroom again.. There is some very good info on his site also!

Not to go off topic but my bro will be sending a donor chassis for the tracked car as soon as he gets back to Germany and I already have the tracks and sprockets with the guider wheels!  << I might also put some skis on the front lol

[Rusty2903]

No my brothers machines can accept most C.A.D formats, but I need to not only find a good program but also learn how to effectively use it! (Again I am sure that some of you that have done these custom jobs can help me, on finding an appropriate program.)

Joel

 

Not sure what a CAD programme is but i would like any information on a drawing programme for scale drawings if anyone has any info. Thanks.

(Sorry for hi-jacking your thread Joel, i'll get my coat lol)

[Rusty2903]

No my brothers machines can accept most C.A.D formats, but I need to not only find a good program but also learn how to effectively use it! (Again I am sure that some of you that have done these custom jobs can help me, on finding an appropriate program.)

Joel

 

Not sure what a CAD programme is but i would like any information on a drawing programme for scale drawings if anyone has any info. Thanks.

(Sorry for hi-jacking your thread Joel, i'll get my coat lol)

[Guest joelvardy]

Rusty2903, A CAD stands for Computer Aided Design which is basically and electronic drawing what incorperated the full dimensions (height, length, with the materials ect..)

I am not bothered about you using this thread for information for yourself !  it is better than starting a new thread for the same information that I want.

 

[Rusty2903]

Maybe i'm going in a little over my head then as my computer knowledge is although ok, not masterful lol. Willing to give anything a go though!!

[Guest joelvardy]

Well I have never mastered CAD, never needed to so I have just messed around with it. so now I need to use it this will be a test for me

I am still looking though showrooms at some custom cars!!

[Rusty2903]

To be honest i'm not even sure if it's what i'm looking for. I'm trying to design a cab for a truck tractor unit as Tamiya don't do the model i'm after. What i really need is something to do me a scale drawing. All i have is some pictures of my fathers truck and i can get the measurements easily enough. Going to be some task i think lol

[Guest joelvardy]

Well then I would suggest a A3 sketch book and a ruler with a pencil (oh and a big bin for the rejects) lol

[Rusty2903]

lol, it's looking like its going down that route [:S]

On the plus side, i have just found a site that you can download a 15 day free CAD trial http://www.vectorengineer.com/

Hope that helps a little [Y]

[Guest joelvardy]

well as this is my first car and I can always make another I think that looking around I will go for a pan car. I will only run this indoors and on the car parks around me so there is no real need for suspension.

I was thinking of using tamiya steering (I know it is not my own but for my first car I want to keep things simple)

My brother went on holiday today for a week so I was thinking of using this for the chassis - acrylic plastic

what do you guys think?

[Prescient]

Acrylic is very brittle. I remember trying to make a chasis for my blitzer beetle in the 90s. In the end I tried aluminium and a few different plastics. The acrylic can stress fracture even on road conditions. Vacum forming polycarbonate sheet makes quite a rigid tub chasis which you can reinforce with some aluminum.

Alternatively you could make the mold and either use fiberglass or carbon fibre which would be my choice.

As you have access to the CNC machining, you could get the aluminium uprights, steering, suspension mounts, engine mount and bearing casing made.

 

[Guest joelvardy]

well as acrylic is brittle I think that I will just wait for my bro to get back in a week and in that time I can buy some aluminium and I can get him to do it me in alu!

I would like to know the thickness on the aluminium??? 2mm  3mm 4mm ???

I really need to work CAD so that I can make the designs for him but as of yet I don't even have a program??? HELP

I think I will use the tamiya uprights at first (I can always get them done in alu afterwards)

Oh and I would also like to know what I should expect to pay for aluminium?

Thanks

P.S - Sorry for all of the questions

[Prescient]

If your making the parts out of aluminum you will probably need some nice billet or T6 sheeting (10mm thick at a quess). Making the whole chasis out of aluminium will be too heavy or expensive. You can't get away with B&Q stuff unfortunately.

You can however get your fiberglass sheets/mats readily and resin to make a nice chasis plate then get it machined out or DIY depending on what you have.

[Guest joelvardy]

If your making the parts out of aluminum you will probably need some nice billet or T6 sheeting (10mm thick at a quess). Making the whole chasis out of aluminium will be too heavy or expensive. You can't get away with B&Q stuff unfortunately.

You can however get your fiberglass sheets/mats readily and resin to make a nice chasis plate then get it machined out or DIY depending on what you have.

my first post said that I would be buying the materiel's form here - http://www.hillfoot.com/   not quite B&Q

[mymonsterbeetleisbroken]

This sounds like a very ambitous project joel, definatly a step up from the tracked car project anyway.

I work with CAD everyday at work. there are thousands of programs out there that could do what you're after. but the ones that get results don't come cheap.

Sounds like you need something that can model in 3D, and you'll need to be able to export "surfaces" from the program, as those are what are commonly used for CNC mills. I'm not much of an expert on all the programs out there - let us know what you find!

At work, I use a bit of software called Freeform Modelling Plus.

Its very cool as you use a pen type device, thats linked up to a series of stepper motors - it allows you to "feel" what your modelling on screen. sadly though, to get a freeform system running, you'll need about £20,000 (just for one system), plus a high end machine to run it. we've got PC's with 16 gigabites of ram at work [:|] 

Hopefully though, you'll be able to download a CAD system of some sorts, otherwise it's going to be one expensive RC car []

Gud luck [] 

[rhenbelz]

I might be able to help you out with getting a CAD program Joel, if you are interested shoot me an email. This project of yours sounds interesting and I would be willing to donate parts (I have many).

[Z]

If acrylic won't work, how about plexiglass, or are they the same thing and I'm and idiot for not kowing that[]

[Tamiya Learner]

Hi Joel, why not do an extended or shortened chassis of the say TB EVO IV / V or the 3Racing TA05 Chassis conversion kit, so that the latest pan chassis bodies would be able to be used, or the shorter wheelbase bodies; thereby extending the body choices for anyone cars.

You then would find that most of the stock parts would be straight forward swop overs, the only other specials would be say longer belts or shafts; shafts may be just adding dogbone to original though, as would be say short belt to originals; thats my thoughts anyway.

You could also have a look at fibrelites site for ideas too. they do carbon fibre chassis kits among other things.

Good luck with your project and a happy new year M8, hope this helps

[ChrisB]

I think most of the pro CAD / modelling software is going to cost a significant wedge of cash, and the learning curve is going to be very steep if you have not used it before.

However, having said that if you have a lot of spare time maybe have a look at something like blender

Its open source and therefore free, plus there are a lot of tutorials on the net showing how to model car bodies if you google. I think its great to look at building something like this from scratch, but I would maybe start out by basing your design on an existing Tamiya chassis and go with creating the body from scratch.

If you have access to a  3D CNC milling machine that can work from one of the main CAD formats then why not look at getting a mould made from aluminium that could be used to vacuform lexan bodies? That way you have the option to produce more than one.

I would suggest a body with fairly simple lines to start with and plenty of reference material. How about a Mk2 Ford Escort rally car? There would be quite a lot of demand for it and there isn't one available at the moment to my knowledge. Its quite a simple shape too, and maybe size it to fit on an M-04 based or TT-01 chassis?

Cheers,

Chris

 

[federx]

i took 2 full years to learn how to 3d drawing (quite) properly....

i think that this project is quite unrealistc 

[BiggusDitchus]

Federx - I think thats really an unfair post, I personally dont think we should discourage people from trying to improve themselves, just need a little pointer to whats more achieveable.

 Joel,  firstly I think you need to try walk before you run.   All these plans for a totally custom car when you already stated yourself you havent a clue.  Why dont you start with thinking up custom bits for a car you already own to "improve" it.  You dont need to have to make the entire car to have something unique. My 3 speed TLT is a pointer, I dont have the ability to cut and bend metal, not even great at drawing (twinset will agree there) but with time and patience I have exceeded my expectations, it was built from mostly existing parts.. i.e TLT axles, XC driveshafts, truck gearbox etc.

 And I would suggest in future putting putting your brain fully in gear before posting, or to put it another way think about what YOU want out of this. Asking us to come up with an idea for you to do, in my opinion, will take away from the end result.  You will get more from coming up with your own idea and following it through to completion and having something you want not what we want.  Then brainstorm on paper, and when you have ideas post on forums with your ideas and how you think you can go about it and ask for comments/advice and hopefully you should get constructive pointers.

Others may not like it in end, but if your happy with it then thats the main thing.

But goodluck, go for it... you wont be disappointed just dont give up, the reason I posted this is I see you posting up all these wonderful ideas your going to do, but after numerous posts you realise you have far overstretched yourself... Think carefully about this one, get a firm idea and plan in your head or on paper maybe test some out then follow the project through to completion.