117 replies to this topic

[Pablo]

Looking at Slot Car Rod's vintage cars, one thing that stands out is his anglewinder motors are always tucked in really tight. His rear axle tubes are always basically cut the same way - straight across and squared up.

 

I tried to make mine similar. BB's are just temp jig quality right out of the junk bin, given microdots of Loctite to keep them in place for a while

 

 

 

My stats at this point are pretty much written in stone:

 

-Clearances 1/16 level front to rear

-Front wheel slop 1/8 total

-Chassis width 1 3/4

-WB 3 7/8, GL 1.0

-Front wheel OD 3/4

-Rear wheel width 11/16, OD 13/16

[Pablo]

I don't think custom anglewinder builders, other than me, spend much time agonizing over left to right weight distribution. In the day of pro racing, each chassis was built with a specific track in mind. No way am I inferring superiority here.

 

Unless a customer gives me a weight bias preference, I always shoot for middle of the road. Meaning, balanced and centered left/right. Blue Kings aren't the only race track in the world 

 

My spur/BB/spacers/tube assembly is centered on the jig and motor mocked up with pinion, giving me the ability to experiment with angle, placement, etc. I used blue tape to mark it, then remove the motor and check the balance. My first try (the tape) was slightly too far to port

 

 

So I moved the tape further to starboard and hit paydirt. This is where the motor needs to sit. You can see the temp aluminum spacer holding the pinion in proper position

 

 

[Pablo]

Termites have arrived at "The Wolcott Ranch". All you can do is turn off the lights, close the drains, and go to bed. The scout arrived in my hobby room tonight and immediately made a bee-line for my work. So progress has paused   

At least I'm not a homeowner, otherwise I'd be worried 

 

[Pablo]

Termites didn't swarm tonight   Twin .055 Swiss rails tacked in place, then pristine spur replaced with jig spur of similar dimensions. Tube needed to be hogged out a little more in one particular spot

 

 

 

First set of rails set and secured temporarily with cross connectors

 

[Pablo]

Tube is getting stronger. Motor fits in the nest like a glove

 

 

Drop arm is 1.255 wide. It needs to be narrowed to 1.13 (1/16 per side)

 

 

"THE 888" stamp will end up right on the borderline 

 

 

[Bill from NH]

I guess termites don't eat brass.

[Martin]

Just an eye ball engineering here, but wondered if the short L brace would not be best on the outside of the right hand main rail ( left side in the last pic)?

It would be more vertical and look better IMO. Plenty of room over there unless you already have plans for a parallel main rail?  In which case "never mind"

[Pablo]

Maybe. I may or may not need that spot for an extra rail, not sure yet. Vertical uprights aren't my goal here, as you can see. My main concern here is strength and never failing in a wallshot 

 

The wrapping wire I've been using is 26 gauge. I have some 28 gauge on order for this car.

 

Bill, the swarmer was after my wood block, which I use to jack up the RGeo closer to my aging eyeballs 

[Pablo]

888 drop arm narrowed to 1.120. I was able to save the "888" stamping A-OK

 

 

Main rails are complete at twin .055. The outer ones bend upright to connect the front axle tube

 

 

Motor fits the nest real sweet if I do say so myself 

 

[Pablo]

888 is .040" but rails are .055. I'm going to elevate the upstop (forward) and hinges (rear) areas with 16 thou brass. Pieces are oversize to be trimmed flush later. This is my first actual test of the "solder tape" I bought from Kimco

 

 

[Bill from NH]

I used .063 rails with.040 drop arms a lot, so did Tony P. & others. We used a length of ,047 or .032 to fill the gaps & reinforce the joints. With "L" hinges, you had no gaps if they were bent right.

[Pablo]

Thanks for reminding me of the option of using the double "L" hinge pins - I may forego the rear doubler and use bent "L"'s. We shall see - later today

[tonyp]

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pablo]

      Uber-SANO

[Pablo]

Instead of the 15 thou (rear) doubler, I gave the hinge wires a slight up bend to elevate them (horizontal ends left long for now, to be trimmed later). Thanks for the "nudge", Bill, I needed that 

 

I installed the forward 15 thou doubler so a drop arm upstop across the front end will manage it correctly

 

[Pablo]

Happy Memorial Day weekend everybody     Between friendly neighbors and delicious local seafood today, I still managed to make some progress on the GP A/W Lotus 49. 

 

.055 bits up front installed. All solder joints polished with carbon wire wheel. Drop arm doubler piece trimmed and cleaned. Plumber on the drop arm is where I'm headed 

 

[Pablo]

I re-thought my main rails - added another set of .055. Giving me more meat to attach drop arm hinge tube pieces, more strength, etc. Since I've already met my flex goal, I didn't solder them all the way - just in certain places 

 

 

[Pablo]

Drop arm upstop

 

 

Drop arm hinge tubes tacked in. I made a pair of .032 brace gizmos for them

 

[dc-65x]

Nice gizmo duplication Pablo. Making one part is fun. Making more than one part all look the same......not so much. 

[Pablo]

Thanks Rick    Twin brace gizmos ensure the tube pieces will never fail. Like the grappling hooks they use on "Deadliest Catch"

 

[Pablo]

The 28 GA Chinese wire I ordered from Amazon is nice; strong yet pliable. Much better than the 26 GA I've been using

 

 

My wraps may be ugly but they are tight and strong

 

 

I used the Hakko 454 mini-iron to tack "start and stop" the wires, then the FX601 to melt a layer of silver solder over them  

 

 

I decided not to wrap the rear end. The way the "uprights" sit, it's real crowded back there. It won't fail, given the amount of redundancy  

[Pablo]

I simply ran the plumber hinge tube all the way across the drop arm with Koford silver solder. Plumber wires will sit all the way out at 1 3/4" with 1/16 brass spacer rails inside 

 

 

[Larry Horner]

Ahhh, so the pans are going to be hinged off the drop arm instead of the main chassis rails (duhh, I only now realize this). I don't think I've ever seen that done before ... very interesting design. Pablo, I can see where this would increase the effective weight of the drop arm but are there other advantages here that are more subtle ... perhaps more stability for the flag?

[Pablo]

Read my post # 66. Pans hinged off the drop arm was a popular pro-car design from back in the day, and no way did I invent it. In this case it's more like "twin plumber rails hinged off the drop arm", since this narrow car has no "pans"    

 

Yes it has handling and performance advantages for sure. To explain the theory(s) involved would be lengthy 

[Pablo]

Careful rear axle/BB setup resulted in "one-stop shopping" - the Kester 60/40 defied gravity and "capil-Larryed" a perfect solder bead from on top all the way around 360 degrees. I just invented a new slot car word, Lorenzo  LOL

 

After a bath and a test spin, the grub screws always end up at the bottom, so I guess the dummy axle is happy