3139 replies to this topic

[68Caddy]

Craig that's a sweet chassis and it looks like straight down to business to me, your coupe car that you build me is a great car and I
can hardly wait to run it again at the Western State.
Thanks for sharing those pic's.


Nesta

[Richie]

Craig,

Gorgeous work!!! Keep em coming!!

[team burrito]

Here's my latest chassis design, a tripod:

The inter rails are .078" & the outer rails are .063" with the ends pivoting freely.
The nose piece is 1/16" & the pans are 1/32".

Weight is the car is presently 104.7 grams, I'll be test driving the car tomorrow at Eddie's.
Stay tuned, race fans.

[Alchemist]

Real nice Russ! Hope I can make it to Eddies tomorrow to see how it runs!

Ernie

[Cheater]

Here's a new Can-Am chassis from one of SERRA's top builders. It was tested, but not raced, at the SERRA™ Championships yesterday.

[4laneron]

Nice build, Russ.

[Mark Wampler]

I'm supposed to know this, but what's the idea behind the slit cut on the guide tongue?

[Bill from NH]

Mark,

That slot is made by the laser when it goes in to cut the guidepost hole. That guide tongue looks like a Slick 7 Eurosport item to me, but maybe not.

[Jay Guard]

Bill / Mark:

The chassis is made from a Slick 7 Stock Car chassis kit. Slick 7 does not use a laser to cut their chassis but rather a wire EDM process. The slot is where the wire enters to make the hole.

[Bill from NH]

Thanks, Jay, for clearing this up. I thought it was probably a Slick 7 part, but didn't know exactly what process Rudy was currently using to machine his chassis components. Are his brass chassis also wire EDM'd?

[Hworth08]

IIRC, the laser method is the cheaper method of cutting but results in more unwanted heat. EDM is the deluxe method of cutting spring steel.

[Jay Guard]

Bill:

Yes, even the brass chassis are wire EDM'd (Electro-Discharge Machined).

BTW... Don is correct, very little heat is produced by this process so the material properties are not affected as in a laser cut part. In addition the tolerances are even closer with EDM, easily in the +/-.001" range.

Last but not least, Rudy is an absolute master with his wire EDM equipment.

[Bob Campbell]

Where I work we use Wire EDM's to cut out blanks that get machined into medical implants.

The plates are loaded into a frame ten or twelve plates high. Some of these programs run for 12+ hours. When finished, you have a bunch of perfectly-cut parts ready for finish machining.

Like Jay says, +/- .001" is possible and the slot that the wire goes through is only .010" wide. If I had the money, I'd own one in a heartbeat.

Here's a question to Jay or Rudy. Are Rudy's EDMs used only for slot cars or is other stuff cut on them?

Bob C.

[Jay Guard]

Here are a few detail shots of my first Tripod chassis (note the bite bar adjusters) and a few of the specs:

.032" nose piece w/.015" doubler, "Pablo" main rails, .015" pans, S7 guide tongue w/.925" lead, Ready-to-Race weight = 106 grams.

[Phil Irvin]

WOW... That looks nice.

I like the way you did the bite bar. I have never had them work well for me that far back. But never worked them this way either...

Let us know how well they work!

OLPHRT
PHIL I.

[Pablo]

Ultra-SANO.

[Tex]

Very nice chassis, Jay. Pablo was the first guy I saw put wire inside square tubing for the main rails; works good, eh?

Tell us more about those bite bar adjusters. Are they screws?

[Cheater]

Tex,

I don't think Jay will mind if I reply for him...

The adjusters are simply setscrews inside internally-threaded tubing. The screws are simply the "downstop" position for the rear of the pans.

Jay practiced the car on Saturday, but decided not to race it, as the balance wasn't quite right. He told me he felt it was a bit too nose heavy.

[Tex]

So, how does one get the tubing "internally threaded"? Is it as simple as just finding the right sized tubing and screwing a set screw in? At any rate, a simple yet elegant way to adjust. Very cool.

[tonyp]

Beautiful, Jay.

[Cheater]

So, how does one get the tubing "internally threaded"?

By using a 4-40 tap to cut the threads...

[tonyp]

Or take a big nut and grind away everything that looks like a nut...

[Cheater]

Tony,

Do you do everything bass-ackwards?

Wait, that may be more than I want to know. I withdraw the question.

[Richie]

Well, here's the Can-Am I've been building... Pretty standard car, I'm trying to build some "racers" for myself LOL!

Anyways, JK rear bracket, Warmack guide tongue, .062" rails, .032" pans, .064" nose piece. The car really went together well, then I had to change the side pan design!! I just got it out of the tumbler for final assembly, hence the floating bite bar keepers are no installed yet. I need a better quality camera... this six-year-old gem isn't good for the close-up quality details. LOL!

[tonyp]

Greg, LOL. I've done things like that when I did not have the right tools for the job. I've drill holes with xacto knifes.