Clark, Glad to see your getting back to work. On the wheels, I mainly use a power miter saw when doing them nowadays. I find it a bit safer.
Steve Tyng On Jul 4, 8:48 pm, Clark Ward Jr <[email protected]> wrote: > I've been lurking for a while, and built a few tank hulls, but have > stalled at that stage. Mike Mangus (SV-015, with a Merkava building) > knows this well, as he's visited my shop for model warship build > sessions and seen them. And, given me encouragement to get a freaking > tank done. And so it went on for quite a while. > > This morning, I was meditating in the shop, and looking at the two > sets of tank motors (a pair of EV Warriors and a pair of 450W > Kollmorgens), and I began to ruminate on exactly why... WHY... have I > stalled on my attempts thus far? Are there not an M60, M4A3E8, and an > M113 hull sitting in the shop? What's the holdup, I asked myself. And > while it shames me to admit it, I found that my honest answer was: > I've been afraid of build the drivetrain. Silly and embarrassing, but > there it is. So, with the answer, I meditated on sources of this fear > for a while, and decided that it was a stupid thing to get stalled on. > Sitting at work and doodling different suspensions and wondering how > all of it would fit together does not get me on the field of battle. > I came in and went to where I was certain that the muse would strike: > Steve Tyng's T005 build. After an hour of studying it and checking my > M113 plans, I went back out to the shop and commenced to cutting a lot > of wood, and glueing a lot of wood. I built a variation on Steve's > wheel-trueing jig for the tablesaw (I had tried to do wheels on the > scrollsaw... not so good). While the wheel blanks were glueing up > under clamps, I cut a crap-ton of treads for the track (not sure how > well poplar will wear, but it'll do better than NO track), and got the > first piece of treadmill belt in the track jig. At the end of the > day, I am tired, but invigorated, and more importantly, I am done > being stalled by suspension and track and wheels. My suspension is > going to be identical to T005's, which seems to have done well enough > on the T-34. I have two halves of a roadwheel, freshly cut on my jig, > and a number of treads with guide horns (and more without). Below are > a pic of the wheel jig, and of the wheels themselves. Steve, thanks > for the inspiration and well-documented build! > > Note: Using a variant of the wheel-trueing jig to cut wheels from 7/8" > thick x 4.5"square block makes MUCH sawdust, but is not to hard once > you have the radius set right. Also, I cut the holes in the pre-wheel > blocks to fit the sleeve bearings that they will rotate on in action, > and used an axle bolt to rotate the wheel on as it formed. > > ps: My tracks are 2.5" wide, with a 1/2" guide tab in the middle, and > the two halves of the roadwheel are 7/8" each, leaving enough width to > have up to 1/8" of space between each inside edge of the roadwheels > and the guide tab. Is 1/8" too much, or should I take it down to > 1/16"? I don't want the tracks to slip off easily, but I don't want > it so tight that they jam. Any advice from the cognoscenti is > appreciated. > > pps: With 1.25" tread length, 1/4" thick, is 1/4" enough space between > treads, or should I go to 5/16" or 3/8" spacing? My drive wheel is > going to be around 3.5" diameter, and the idler is a little bigger at > 3.75" > > -- > Clark in Georgia > > DSC00966.JPG > 144KViewDownload > > DSC00970.JPG > 143KViewDownload -- You are currently subscribed to the "R/C Tank Combat" group. To post a message, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] Visit the group at http://groups.google.com/group/rctankcombat
