17th-Feb-21, 10:32 PM
#44
Game of two halves, Brian...
It kicked off with 3D chat and a question regarding the relative strength of mass produced bodies verses 3D printed bodies. No difference seemed to be the general consensus. The chat then morphed into an appreciation of all that is good and not so good with current 3D body design. It seems it is still an evolving art form, and if you can find yourself a good 3D CAD designer for bodies, don't let go of them; "There are good CAD files for bodies, and there are bad CAD files for bodies". Steve has found a good one in Spain, Alan found a bad one in Columbia, and Paul has still to work out how to get his new printer out of the box. Steve showed off a Lotus 30 body he just printed and was in the process of painting...
BOOM...up pops a picture of a hand crafted Lotus 30 that Chris had prepared earlier...all I see are beautiful wheels!
Steve continued with his explanation of what 'good CAD' looks like, and how it can be made stronger by adding glue, at which point Paul shows off a 3D printed carbon fibre Ferrari 250 LM body which looks very light...
"How light Paul?"
"I'll get my scales and tell you"
BOOM...up pops a picture of a hand crafted Shadow Can Am car that Chris had prepared earlier...with really stunning wheels!
The half time entertainment was meant to last 15 minutes and involve an in-depth discussion on the benefits of front wheel drive slot cars.
"None"
To fill the remaining time, we had our regular quiz. Everyone has to shout out their favourite slot car product, and whoever holds up the most examples is the winner. Petrucci won...again!
Fast Alan kicked off the second half with his collection of fast cars, the main principle being to put a motor in them that's far more powerful than you need so you don't have to worry about fine tuning the chassis or picking an optimum gear ratio because whatever you chose, it will still pull wheelies off the start line in fifth. So all Fast Alan has to do is concentrate on not hurting the marshal at the end of the main straight. Then someone asked whether the racers on the chat balance their wheels...
BOOM...up pops an actual wheel balancing tool that Petrucci had prepared earlier...with just a couple of plain hubs attached.
And the grand finale was a grand knowledge share on what can be balanced on a slot car, and how it can be balanced. Tyres, hubs, motor armatures, and basically anything else that rotates on a slot car. Once again, the scale might be 1:32 but the detail and effort that has gone into this from any of the chatters was jaw dropping. And out of all that came the details of a motor that any true slot car racer should be using if they want to call themselves a true slot car racer.
"19.6 grams"
Game of two halves, Brian...
It kicked off with 3D chat and a question regarding the relative strength of mass produced bodies verses 3D printed bodies. No difference seemed to be the general consensus. The chat then morphed into an appreciation of all that is good and not so good with current 3D body design. It seems it is still an evolving art form, and if you can find yourself a good 3D CAD designer for bodies, don't let go of them; "There are good CAD files for bodies, and there are bad CAD files for bodies". Steve has found a good one in Spain, Alan found a bad one in Columbia, and Paul has still to work out how to get his new printer out of the box. Steve showed off a Lotus 30 body he just printed and was in the process of painting...
BOOM...up pops a picture of a hand crafted Lotus 30 that Chris had prepared earlier...all I see are beautiful wheels!
Steve continued with his explanation of what 'good CAD' looks like, and how it can be made stronger by adding glue, at which point Paul shows off a 3D printed carbon fibre Ferrari 250 LM body which looks very light...
"How light Paul?"
"I'll get my scales and tell you"
BOOM...up pops a picture of a hand crafted Shadow Can Am car that Chris had prepared earlier...with really stunning wheels!
The half time entertainment was meant to last 15 minutes and involve an in-depth discussion on the benefits of front wheel drive slot cars.
"None"
To fill the remaining time, we had our regular quiz. Everyone has to shout out their favourite slot car product, and whoever holds up the most examples is the winner. Petrucci won...again!
Fast Alan kicked off the second half with his collection of fast cars, the main principle being to put a motor in them that's far more powerful than you need so you don't have to worry about fine tuning the chassis or picking an optimum gear ratio because whatever you chose, it will still pull wheelies off the start line in fifth. So all Fast Alan has to do is concentrate on not hurting the marshal at the end of the main straight. Then someone asked whether the racers on the chat balance their wheels...
BOOM...up pops an actual wheel balancing tool that Petrucci had prepared earlier...with just a couple of plain hubs attached.
And the grand finale was a grand knowledge share on what can be balanced on a slot car, and how it can be balanced. Tyres, hubs, motor armatures, and basically anything else that rotates on a slot car. Once again, the scale might be 1:32 but the detail and effort that has gone into this from any of the chatters was jaw dropping. And out of all that came the details of a motor that any true slot car racer should be using if they want to call themselves a true slot car racer.
"19.6 grams"
I love puttering with gears
![[+]](https://slotracer.online/community/images/bootbb/collapse_collapsed.png)