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I'm going to use this thread to show my small things that I've made...

This morning I was listening to some tunes (Deep Purple) and looking at an RC10 bulkhead that I had"cut" for the Factory Works trailing arm conversion kit. Since the wing tube holes are sometimes, not used... I thought, why not fill the empty spot with a "cap"? A little bit of Titanium "bling"?

YES!

NICE!!!

Yes, never miss an opportunity to incorporate titanium into your builds. Well done. I read a post recently that reminded me that 1/8" titanium rod is available through online sources like McMaster Carr. Think I will buy a stick or two and make some hinge pins and shock shafts. Also thinking about looking into a left hand 4-40 thread die to make some ti turn buckles. I have an old-school runner (actually, my original RC10) that I'm trying everything within reason to make as light as possible without breaking the bank. "Simplify, then add lightness." - Colin Chapman

Anyway, great work Nomad. Feel free to post more small things you've made. Cheers!

I get most of my metal from www.onlinemetals.com Their shipping charges suck but they cut to any size length for you and the quality is outstanding.
I've got some more things in the works, just waiting for a new drill bit for tapping 4-40. Ti can wear one out!

Yea, I recently rebuilt my ProSC 4x4 around an aluminum pan chassis (to replace that awful factory “rubber” one) and I purchased the materials from onlinemetals.
“Ti can wear one out.” Oh yea, I was gonna ask you about that. I’ve never worked with that material before; so, it’s pretty rough on tools? I will certainly keep that in mind. Perhaps the additional hardness over common cr steel will make it more suitable for high-wear parts like shocks and hinges. Thanks!

Yes, high tool wear. I only use solid carbide machine screw length (stubby) drill bits and carbide turning inserts.

Okay, that helps to explain why ti parts are so expensive. Fortunately, for the parts I'm planning to make, I won't be doing a lot of drilling or lathe turning -- assuming of course that the rod material's surface is smooth enough to be polished and used for a shock shaft. Guess we'll see.

Early morning start on the lathe with some Ti...

These are tranny to motor plate spacers and top shaft cap for my upcoming RC10 B1M mid motor build. I have one more spacer to make but going to wait until I get the kit to do it.

it machines kind of like a very hard aluminum. but the biggest issue is that it will work harden, so make cuts deliberate with no tool rubbing. For the little bit of Ti work I do, I use very sharp HSS.

Threading is quite difficult. I looked into buying a die or threading the material, for the price of tooling, and the time it takes, lunsford offers a great deal on turnbuckles. For hinge pins, since no threads, very easy and cheap to make with raw material.

Lunsford manually rolls his threads for the screws on a 60’s era thread roller. Awesome to watch looks like a steam locomotive arm and wheel and you just kind of put your hand into it and hope you aim correctly

Damn, those look sweet!

Really nice work, Nomad. You have some skill with a lathe.
And thanks for the info, jwscab. I think I will focus on making non-threaded parts like hinge pins. I'd rather not invest in special tools or risk ruining the thread dies I have. Thanks again for the advice.

XLR8, Thank you kindly.

My lathe is a table top model, totally manual. No CNC, screw feed or any automated features. I do use a dial indicator to index while cutting grooves.

This morning I cut some groove in some nose tube braces. This is done in keeping with the design of the motor spacers featured above.
Careful thought has applied, only going 0.025" deep.

This is how I start out to make something, after the thought pops into my brain. Some things always change as I get into it!

Drawing not to scale

NomadRacer wrote: ↑Sat Nov 04, 2017 8:07 am

Those look great! You could do the rear ones on your up-coming B1M build as well