CAD data or Engineering Prints

[unccpathfinder]

I searched around and couldn't find a topic on this but I'm sure theres one out there somewhere...but I've been kicking around the idea of trying to build up one of my own trucks/engines granted some stock parts like spur gears and transmission internals would probably still be used...

granted I can reverse engineer everything but I was curious as to how many folks have already started stuff like this or have prints themselves and how far along they got and if/when they got discouraged along the process.

Right now I dont have the space to purchase a mill/lathe combo but I have a good machine shop locally that is really reasonable in price who actually ran nothing but RC parts for engines for a long time but will not share plans with me

I have a couple of Tmaxx's and Stampedes and I have a pretty good list going of what I want to make better on them so that they are more durable. esp bulkheads and chassis support

and mainly being an engineer (mainly mechanical design cad junky but for the past 6 months i've been converting over to an aerospace design) I like to have things in CAD and try to improve them. I don't have a lot of free time to work on it so it takes forever to get anything done

and lastly if anyone had any data they'd like to share please do so and I'll try to repay the favor as I find time to reverse and cad things up

 

[digger]

Here is one might help. Guy hasn't been on for a long time though.
https://www.rcnitrotalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28908&highlight=pie+wagon

 

[psunitro]

What exactly are you looking to do? To build a truck from scratch would be a huge undertaking of time and $$$.
I have reversed a few parts that I ended up making myself.(i'm a machinist) It can be a real pain. For example, I made up some alum arms for my 1/8 Storm. BIG mistake. all the force that would have broke the arm was transfered to other bits and broke them. Also, getting some dimentions is easy, but others is trial and error. But I guess that is part of the fun too.
What CAD system are you using?

 

[unccpathfinder]

I plan just to start off with basic structure parts mainly the chassis on my stampede and then move on into getting the entire truck in cad so I can either create a complete custom truck or be able to manipulate the truck with my envisioned fab without screwing up the truck (2 of my trucks are frankenstein's)

the machinist I have in town is really cheap so almost all the aftermarket aluminum structures I can have him make for me with a couple sets at spares or to sell.

for the most part the dimensions are going to be easy but as you say time consuming but needless to say a good way to spend some down time. (I have also been doing the same for my real truck in the suspension and body dept.) Slowly but surely I'll get it done.

I have access to catia V5, ProE (i think its 2000i) and Keycreator. How about yourself?

 

[unccpathfinder]

well I got a lil done yest and tonight...about 1.5 hrs in on my slow ass backup computer so its like working in a strobe light...but anyways I got about 50% of the chassis portion done that I want to get made 1st...theres a couple errors I have to polish out so far but nothing too major just mainly that servo mount...

sorry about the grid I forgot how to turn that off

 

[djdoug99]

How much does it cost to get this machined? It would be fun to do something like this.

 

[unccpathfinder]

I've got to check if I can find a shop that will let me come in and use their bridgeport (or other mill) I could get it pretty cheap. I've got a guy locally that is cheap when he's not busy with big jobs and when he is he's expensive but he used to do RC stuff so I will talk to him when I get a chance...I assume for a one off manual mill someone would charge to the tune of $50 or $60 maybe more...If someone has a CNC and mastercam with the model they may charge more or less I dont really know.

I am going to also contact some guys back where I graduated from to see if they could throw it on one of their CNC's for me then it would cost me material + shipping

Ultimiately i've been looking at purchasing a small 110V mill/lathe combo possibly by Smithy since I used one of those periodically for 3 years in school and they're pretty tough machines even after 100's of students have used and abused them for years on end (most would still hold within +/- .002 which is more than plenty for an RC and my other projects) but really none of these parts I've looked at are too complex to not do manually besides gearing of course.

I've gone through like 4 chassis on my stampede and all broke at the same spot so I figured if I made a one off and it worked then I've saved that much $ in buying more chassis' and I could possibly do a production run of like 30 or 40 chassis' to get the cost per unit down. Hopefully I can get this model finished by the end of the week but that all depends on how I feel (i mean I do cad/design work like 10 hrs a day 5-6 days a week) when I get home.

But a realistic goal for me to get a final product will probably be like 6 months but I'll try to keep updates coming periodically

 

[ohmygahitscoby]

Lessen is doing a project on a funny car, and I think he did a small scale drifter.

 

[unccpathfinder]

got a couple more things done on it tonight...just have a couple places to trim up then figure out where I need to cut my pockets and holes...hopefully it'll keep on snowing up in the mountains and I wont have to go to work tomorrow and I can finish it up