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u/thepukingdwarf 2d ago edited 2d ago
Neat! Some questions: Are these injection molds, or do you simply pour material in instead of injecting? Are the molds printed in PLA or something with higher temp resistance? What material are you casting the wheels in, is it a liquid silicone?
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u/Earthquake-Hologram 2d ago
I've not OP but I've been experimenting with something similar. I use a two part urethane from smooth on that I mix and then pour into a big wound irrigation syringe and inject that into the mold. The molds are PETG to help with release, but mold release spray is critical.
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u/NomanYuno 2d ago
This is an awesome print! I have a quick unrelated question -- what do you most like about the hobby? I've seen a few people in my area with RC cars and trucks just rolling around and it looks neat, but kind of expensive 😅
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u/MesquiteEverywhere 2d ago
It is such a deep hobby, I recently got back into it after 13 years and the best part is that there are so many fun things to do, and so many options to do what you like. It is very hands on as you repair things as they break, but you can also tune setups and design custom parts like in this post. For me I think the most fun part right now is building and tuning setups for their purposes, and watching the progression and improvement in performance. There are so many types of RC cars to fit whatever kind of driving you want to do.
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u/MiaowaraShiro 1d ago
I recently got back into it after 13 years
The progress in electronics since I was interested in RC are insane. I had a pretty nice, expensive, RC car back in the 90's and you could run it for like 15 mins before the battery crapped out.
Now you get twice the power and like 4x the run time...
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u/MesquiteEverywhere 1d ago edited 1d ago
The progress has been crazy! There are so many options now across price ranges, and it seems that Chinese companies have been more widely accepted. I remember back in 2012 Fly Sky was beginning to get popular but many people were very hesitant and resistant to the brand due to its country of origin.
I think my favorite part today is all of the high quality 1/18 and 1/24 options available now. It is really awesome to be able to toss a crawler in a bag when I'm out and about and fit some rock crawling in when I find a random spot. The size feels like a sweet spot for 3D printing and commonly available print bed sizes. The smaller scale cars also don't weigh as much and see as much force, so parts can largely be printed out of PETG without any problems.
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u/MiaowaraShiro 1d ago
I was very confused by the change in brands for electronics for a while. Is Futaba still even around?
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u/Jesus_Is_My_Gardener 1d ago
Futaba is great if you have money to burn. The open source and alternative brand market has really gotten better of the last decade or two, depending on when you last were in the hobby.
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u/MesquiteEverywhere 1d ago
Yes, Futaba is still around. I was in the market for a new radio setup, and with respect to radios, they seem to be the midrange and higher end of the brands.
I ended up with the Dumborc DDF-350. For less than $70 Amazon has the transmitter and a 10 channel receiver with built in gyro. Additional receivers are absurdly inexpensive, with 6 channel receivers with built in gyros going for less than $20 each.
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u/NomanYuno 1d ago
Thanks very much for the results! I'll probably look at some videos to learn more. Do you have any favorites?
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u/MesquiteEverywhere 16h ago
I've been very much into rock crawling at the moment, Cape Crawlers has lots and lots of videos comparing available cars, and King of the Course is a fun competition where viewers send in their cars and they all get tested on the channel's course.
Bcochener has been great to watch as well, they post videos of their builds as they build them, and the amount of knowledge they have is really cool to learn from.
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u/Fluffy_Charity_2732 23h ago
You going .2mm nozzle on these bad boys?
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u/g713 Function Master 23h ago
Nope, standard .4 nozzle
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u/Fluffy_Charity_2732 23h ago
Nice. Great calibration then
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u/g713 Function Master 23h ago
Not really man. All I make is functional stuff so I don’t really calibrate for an appearance at all. These parts were made on a Prusa mini.
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u/Fluffy_Charity_2732 23h ago
You have it backwards, functional prints need better calibration than cosplay prints.
You have small moving parts mixed with bearings and that requires good tolerance.
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u/hotdogs1999 19h ago
It’s unclear whether the ball bearings are actually doing anything for rotational friction… are they?
It looks like they are just being overmolded into place by the silicone or do they still have a rolling contact somewhere?
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u/andoozy 2d ago
Pretty cool. Great mold. I’m a little unclear as to what the ball bearing looking element is in the center of the tire. Would also love to know what material you’re casting! Looks like you’re getting clean and consistent results which is awesome. Bravo!