I have been trying to come up with a more functional alternative for the NinjaFlex dampers in my suspension design. (They just weren’t soft enough)
As I was changing batteries in one of my kids toys I noticed the little conical springs inside the battery compartment and I knew I had the solution! I can now say that this design works FANTASTIC!
Updated design is available at:
https://pinshape.com/items/17983-3d-printed-openrc-f1-front-suspension-updated-v2
or http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1455120
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YGE2oiwUV90
Do those fit in the rims with those socket head screws? Clearance on the already tight fit of the rim, might mean you need to use low profile tires?
Also another potentially stupid question. I don’t know if this might be an ABS vs PLA thing (because I haven’t worked with PLA much) but why not just print the suspension arms to be thinner and wider to provide the flex (and keep the same strength) you are looking for. On my ABS car, the suspension arms already a have a lot of flex, and in ABS it would be simple to make them more “flexy.” I’m more interested in the grip a rear suspension would give…
@Dragos_Ruiu The screws don’t interfere with the wheels. The wheels don’t go that far into the center of the car.
Second question: My suspension arms are printed out of ABS. If the arms were thinner and more flexible I wouldn’t think they would last long. In my experience when 3d printed things flex they break quickly.
I would also like to do something with rear suspension. The problem there is that I would need someone (like Daniel, hint-hint…) to help me modify the body pieces to create the clearance necessary to allow the axle holders to move. If anyone wants to collaborate on this, I’m willing to work on it.
Are you sure you didn’t have the same confusion as when I first built the car, you put the bearings in the wheels not on the axles. If you put the bearings on the axles first, the wheels wear down after about 3-4 hours of run time and become wobbly. The flange on the rims goes on the inside of the bearings between the axle/axle-holder and he bearings, not between the bearings and the hub caps (which also causes the flange/ridge to rub and fuse against the hubcap/locknut with high speed driving!!!) i.e. The wheel rim shallow side is on the outside of the car for both front and back to have the wheels operate well, You can assemble the wheels in the front inside out, but it will cause all sorts of operating problems, as I discovered the hard way.
As far as the rear suspension goes, I just got a tamiya, f104 pro version 2 kit here, and have been studying it, and I think that it would be possible to add an inboard shock (2 1 vertical, 1 sway) suspension arrangement like they use with a rear suspended plate with the motor and drive gear on it - perhaps on a subframe plate contained inside a slightly (1cm) wider rear engine compartment. I also think their ball bearing differential design could be translated into a plastic version (using steel ball bearings), but I have ordered some spare driveshafts and differentials to see if I can just use the F104 differential directly. I’ll post some pics once I’ve assembled it. I’ll probably try to build a hybrid front suspension that uses f104 kingpins (sans circlips, which I despise with a passion usually reserved for bad Java code, mounted in plastic holders at the end of the current traditional arms which I think provide a nice amount of flex) and f104 front axles/wheels and their springy front suspension for the same bastardized mashup car.
@Dragos_Ruiu Just to clarify your comment on the front wheels and clearance with the suspension screws, I used my rubber tire adapters and standard size F1 tires which are narrower than the rear. I threw out my original front wheels because the grip was poor, so in order to test your theory I would have to re-print them. I’ll take a look.
@Dragos_Ruiu I believe you are correct. It doesn’t look like the original wheels will clear. I narrowed the wheels (rims) by 6mm to fit the standard tires.