106 replies to this topic

[munter]

Wow....beautiful chassis but I am starting to worry that it will be a heavy piece after seeing the body mount arrangement.

 

Any predicted final weight?

 

It will probably be meaningless to me as my weight concepts of slotcars are based in 1/32 scale and usually with a resin body.

[Tex]

such attention to detail, to maintain the curvature of the lower part of the body.... to be applauded. I agree that the extra weight of the body mounting pieces detracts from the "pro" aspect of the build but I am in favor of the scale appearance taking precedent over the "pro" aspect. Really super build!

[Pablo]

Heavyweight cars compliment the handling of a heavyweight body.

[dc-65x]

The "racers" solution to the body mounting would be to use small diameter tires lowering the body past the curved area and simply cut it off. Widen the chassis to 3", splay the sides out a bit and you have your slammed racer.  

 

That's what the handling bodies are for. Since this is a scale body I chose a different route.
 

I have a Lee Gilbert "magazine car" chassis and I'll compare it in size and weight to this chassis next............

[Larry Horner]

I just finished a chassis in which I used 1/4" angle stock to push the pin-tubes higher up into the body. And since the angle stock is only 1/64" thick, the finished assembly was super floppy hence I decided to go to rectangular stock instead. Rick, if you had posted this a week ago, it would have saved me a lot of trouble! 

[Alchemist]

Rick,

 

The way you designed the body support to accommodate the curve of the body is really creative.

 

That is an excellent design! ! !

 

I find it so inspirational - thank you for sharing your creativity along with your craftsmanship Rick.

 

Ernie

[Bill from NH]

The chassis doesn't tend to look too heavy to me. Maybe it would have if all .050" sheet brass was used. People should remember not all slot cars run on Kings & other banked tracks. Differing weight cars run best on some of the various track designs. The few 1/32 scale chassis I've built don't look anything like my 1/24's. I don't build HO but they would be different still.

[dc-65x]

Thanks Ernie and I agree Bill.  

 

Larry, the rectangular tube also makes installing the pin tubes easy as they self align in their pair of holes if properly sized:

 

 

 

The finished chassis:

 

 

 

 

6 grams is the weight of the pieces of tube I added to support the scale body. In retrospect, I wish I'd have drilled a series of large holes in the rectangular tube. Not sure if it would save much weight but I think it would have looked awesome:  

 

 

Here's my chassis weighing in at 52 grams:

 

 

And a good example of a Blue King car from the 70's, the Lee Gilbert Car Model Magazine car at 58 grams:

 

 

Finally a size comparison of my scale body chassis on the left and the handling body chassis on the right:

 

 

OK, that's the "tale of the tape"..........time to final assemble the motor.

[dc-65x]

All the goodies for motor assembly:

 

 

The motor runs smooth and cool drawing 1.5 amps at 3V:

 

 

I use black wrinkle paint with an area tinned and masked off for a soldered on brace:

 

 

 

Here's a size comparison with my mini motor and a standard Mura C-can:

 

[Mark Onofri]

Perfect size for a MESCA clone.

[dc-65x]

To finish up the roller I cut the cool MESAC style treads in the front tires:

 

 

 

I'm finally running low on vintage FASS 3/32" axle reducers. But these current production pieces:

 

 

I've also converted the fronts to spin independently:

 

 

Finishing off the front end is an REH JET flag:

 

 

And finally a vintage FASS 45T spur and 9T pinion handle the gearing:

 

[Brian Czeiner]

Was there any performance gain we've since overcome or was it just appearance for using the MESAC front wheels?

[dc-65x]

Hi Brian,

 

I think the wide fronts have a more scale appearance that goes well with the scale body I'm using. It's just my personal choice for the build. I wouldn't think they offer any performance advantage over skinny hard fronts or O-rings, most likely just the opposite. I've got an ISO front axle and the front wheels spinning independently to, hopefully, lessen any negative performance influence they might have.

 

But, you know, if everyone had to run them.......what difference to the outcome of a race would it have? 

[Bill from NH]

Their rolling resistance has to be less than a tire with a solid footprint. Rick have you ever tried grooving urethanes? If grooved fronts were a production requirement, the grooves might be molded in or else all cut at once.

[DeanJ]

Hi Rick, great build and craftsmanship! I thought I saw a Sherline in one of your pictures, can you share what tools you use, setup, etc?
Im new at brass chassis building and wonder how your pictures are pristine. What are you doing after soldering to clean up all the parts?

[dc-65x]

Hi Bill,
 
I've never cut tread grooves in urethane tires. Many vintage manufactures did mold in tread grooves. K&B even had the authentic tread pattern on their Goodyear stock car special tires.
 
Thanks for the kind words Dean.
 
You wrote, "I thought I saw a Sherline in one of your pictures, can you share what tools you use, setup, etc?"
 
Yes, I use a little Sherline hobby lathe. My cutting tools are mostly high speed steel blanks I ground to shape. I also have a few carbide insert tools from LittleMachineShop.com. If by "setup" you mean how am I holding the workpiece, I mostly use collets, the surprisingly accurate 3-jaw chuck or bore out a collet pot chuck for an odd ball sized workpiece.
 
"...........and wonder how your pictures are pristine."
 
I'm still using my little 20 year old Nikon COOLPIX S1 pocket camera in Macro close-up mode.
 
"What are you doing after soldering to clean up all the parts?"

 

While obviously not necessary I enjoy sanding off all the excess solder from moving the iron's tip along the joint. I'm not shaping the actual solder joint, just removing the "collateral damage" around it with 400 grit. Then I scrub the entire chassis with a grey Scotch Brite pad.

 

Below is an example of of this including dragging the excess solder off the chassis onto scrap brass:

 

 

Clamps, clamps and more clamps. I have 2 locking the center section down, 1 each on the plumber and pans:
 

 
I also locked down 4 brass bits I used to drag excess solder off the pans as you can see below:
 

 
The chassis all scrubbed up:
 

Also not necessary, but something I enjoy, is a final polish with finer sandpaper, metal polish and a Dremel carbon steel wire wheel. I used to use a tumbler for this but there is something therapeutic in doing the final polish by hand.

 

 

Hope this helps and thanks for following along.   

[Jaeger Team]

Rick, there is also something therapeutic and inspiring in following the making of your masterpieces

[DeanJ]

Yes, Very helpful thank you!!!

[dc-65x]

The roller is finished:

 

 

 

 

 

It's a relatively small car at just 2 3/4" wide across the pans and.....

 

 

.......2 7/8" across the pin tube body mounts:

 

 

1" diameter tires front and rear:

 

 

Matching the body mounts to the contours of the body paid dividends during body mounting:

 

 

The body literally snapped in place and self centered:

 

 

Time to start working on the detail parts.

[Pablo]

Matching the body mounts to the contours of the body paid dividends during body mounting

 

Before I even read this, looking at the mounting architecture, this is exactly what I was thinking.

Structurally and beautifully executed         

[Brian Czeiner]

I always love this part of the build the most. I do wish I had your motivation to build at this level.

[Mark Onofri]

Have you ever heard of, or tried wet sandpaper with a light oil for the initial polishing? It's been so long since I found out, about this method, I can't remember where I heard about it.

[dc-65x]

Thanks Pablo, I'll be using the lessons learned on this project on other bodies with similar contours.

 

I haven't used wet sanding with oil Mark. 

 

Ran into a snag on my engine detailing Brian. I used this beautiful fuel injection from Shapways on my previously built handling body McLaren. It is similar to the real cars injection system.

 

 

Problem is that Shapways has restructured their operation and no longer sells finished products. After searching the internet I've given up on finding another one for this prioject.  

 

Sooooooo...................I've pulled the piece out of my handling body version to use on this scale body build. I'll replace it with a downdraft style in the handling body. 

[Bill from NH]

Rick, how about using the one you have to make a mold & cast as many resin ones as you want. Mold making won't damage your original, which can go back on your handling body McLaren.

 

I don't see how the sandpaper & oil would work. Unless you use an ultra-fine grit sandpaper, you'll get a matt, not a polished surface. Before you use your sanded material, you'll have to remove the oil in order to get a strong solder joint. Then your bare wire is exposed to rusting once more.

[SpeedyNH]

bummer about shapeways.