NWP Chassis for CanAm Class - now in 3D !!!
Since The German White Point company stopped producing their simple, but popular chassis, I have been makinga small production of a carbon- and grp-reinforced resin chassis to keep the Danish WP CanAm class alive:
The worst hurdle was that a minor brain damage due to a too stressfull working life, made it difficult for me to learn new stuff (short time memory not too good) :-( I am reasonably skilled in Corel Draw and wanted to get that step further.
The good news is that it seems that daily Reiki and WuJi Gong excercises have helped me in this field, so today I actually succeeded in drawing a new replacement chassis in 3D. It also helped that the chassis is not too complicated :-)
July 15th, 2012
Just received the first 3D manufactured chassis from Shapeways. It looked great :-) - just a little rough on the surface, but the material is strong and durable.
I have made a trial assembly and found out that the motor holes has to be moved a bit upwards, but the rest was perfect :-)
I just moved the parts from one of my CanAm cars and everything fitted perfectly - including the body mounts.
I have corrected the motor holes and the chassis is now available from Shapeways:
Shapeways nwp2-chassis
aug. 2nd, 2012
Here the Carbon strand is clearly seen in the white resin. The bottom in reinforced with GRP cloth, and the chassis need a lot of cleaning up before its ready to race. Also the holes for the front axle has to be drilled.
The finished chassis with the handmade motor plate and the guide tongue, which is sourced from the US.
The chassis with the 18V Black Carrera motor, sigma gears and alu wheels with foam tires. A simple but fast racer, which is extremely cheap in operation. My team won a 10H race with a similar car. A new set of tyres and the car was ready for the next race - cheap :-)
But its pretty time consuming to make the chassis and I was looking for an alternative. I had to be simple in layout like the original and not too expensive.
For some time I have looked at the recent development in Rapid Prototyping (I actually saw it live first time in 1992) and the concept of making a prototype, uploading it to a web based company (like Shapeways etc) and adding it to their on-line shop for everybody to buy, sounded real nice in my ears :-)
The worst hurdle was that a minor brain damage due to a too stressfull working life, made it difficult for me to learn new stuff (short time memory not too good) :-( I am reasonably skilled in Corel Draw and wanted to get that step further.
The good news is that it seems that daily Reiki and WuJi Gong excercises have helped me in this field, so today I actually succeeded in drawing a new replacement chassis in 3D. It also helped that the chassis is not too complicated :-)
Specifications:
Wheelbase 1: 94mm with 4 x 6mm holes for oilite or ball bearings
Wheelbase 2: 100mm with 2 x 3mm axle holes in front
2mm clearance with 23,5mm dia wheels
Length: total 125mm, sides 115mm
Width 46mm, main chassis 30mm
For Black Carrera or Bison type motors
Price and availability: TBA - target price is €35/$45 + postage
The first prototype is ordered and I should receive it in 14days time, then it need some testing before being released for sale.
The short wheelbase fits Lancer McLaren M6, Truescale McLaren M1B(C) and similar bodies, while the longer wheel base fits the longer Lancer 1967 Lola T70 Mk III.
Shameless add:
If you need body mounts and weights, I have made a small production of the Neckcheese WP Weight kit with 2 grp body mounts and 4 x 4,2g brass weights, that can be mounted in 3 positions on the body mounts. Fits both standard White Point chassis, my NWP1 and the new NWP2 chassis.
hmmmm - actually a nice day :-)
July 15th, 2012
Just received the first 3D manufactured chassis from Shapeways. It looked great :-) - just a little rough on the surface, but the material is strong and durable.
I have made a trial assembly and found out that the motor holes has to be moved a bit upwards, but the rest was perfect :-)
I just moved the parts from one of my CanAm cars and everything fitted perfectly - including the body mounts.
I have corrected the motor holes and the chassis is now available from Shapeways:
Shapeways nwp2-chassis
aug. 2nd, 2012
Strangely the black material is white inside ??? weird.
But it is extremely tough and were difficult to saw and drill.
Tried to boil the part for 10 min - without any change in the material - impressive.
Only disadvance is maybe the rough surface, but its for racing not exhibition and strengt is the most important factor.