RC10Talk - The Net's Largest Vintage R/C Community

Inspired by GoMachV's Sandy build, I have started into a 3dsets "Landy" build.

https://3dsets.com/product-category/3dprintable-models/3d-printable-car-models/landy-4x4-lineup/

The kit (pickup or hardtop) runs $40 for the stl files (or straight g-code if you print on Prusa) and it comes with a pretty thorough 110 page build guide. One great thing about this particular vehicle is that there are LOADS of free and for-purchase add/mod .stls all of the interwebs for it.

You will need A LOT of 2 and 3M screws, and bearings, and the build guide tells you exactly what you need. You can certainly source these yourself, or the easy route is to go to www.rcprinter.com and order a kit specifically for your vehicle. A screw kit runs about $35+sh, and screws and bearings about $63+sh. By my math, I will need about 405 fasteners, and 38 bearings, so about $75 shipped isn't all that bad for the simplicity of one stop shopping. Quick note, rcprinter is out of Canada, so figure in shipping time.

You will also need a couple of belts for the gearbox if you go that route, some shocks, some standard 1.9 tires, motor and electronics.

Couple of Pros off the bat.
Everything is split up to print on a standard 200x200mm bed, so a huge printer isn't needed. Note: I did have one "plate" of parts that was a little bigger than my bed settings, but I could have cheated those a little if I wanted.
No added supports needed. They have supposedly tested this out left right up down, and any support needed is already on the parts. So no guessing.
There are two versions of a transmissions to run: gear or belt drive.
The diffs can be made either open or locked. I am going to run locked in the rear and open up front.

Up front ................ the number 1 thing you have to have with this build is patience! And this is not my thing, but I am getting used to it, slowly. Depending on the complexity of the "plate" you are printing at the time, and your particular settings, each print is 12-40+ hours for the major components. I am trying to set up my prints to maximize a 24 hour print, so I can remove parts, and start again, once a day.

My first group of parts. Enough to start building the chassis. Please forgive the sloppiness on the rear fenderwells and floor. That is left over aquanet from not cleaning the bed in a LONG time. I am cleaning it well between all prints moving forward.

Super cool! I'm just starting in on the beetle while I wait for a few small items for my Sandy. I think I may purchase the Rancher at some point. It's pretty addictive!

2-3 days more printing leads to new parts. Neat little trick they used on these fender grilles. Instead of designing the grid into the part, they just made it solid and have you print it at 50% infill, in a grid pattern, with 0 top layers. Next is on to the belt driven gearbox.

morrisey0 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 8:30 pm
Neat little trick they used on these fender grilles. Instead of designing the grid into the part, they just made it solid and have you print it at 50% infill, in a grid pattern, with 0 top layers.

have you printed any parts with their built in support structure yet? Im on the VW now and when I saw the final print for the front part of the roof I thought there was no way the support would come off. Weird angles and the way it wrapped around the curve etc... easiest removal ive ever had. They did a killer job at making the prints work. I did find one part that is wrong in the bed ready files, a 10 hour print for the motor mount that is missing the hole for the motor to fit in lol. Oops.

GoMachV wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 9:08 pm

morrisey0 wrote: ↑Wed Mar 15, 2023 8:30 pm
Neat little trick they used on these fender grilles. Instead of designing the grid into the part, they just made it solid and have you print it at 50% infill, in a grid pattern, with 0 top layers.

have you printed any parts with their built in support structure yet? Im on the VW now and when I saw the final print for the front part of the roof I thought there was no way the support would come off. Weird angles and the way it wrapped around the curve etc... easiest removal ive ever had.

Your experience would be the opposite of mine, as their built-in support has been my only complaint about the kit so far. The fenders printed vertically, so they supported the arch, and to remove it literally took channel locks, and left a pretty rough edge that had to be worked a bit. They also put support around the gas cap area, and in the process of removing that, mini screwdriver slipped and scratched the body. But not printing those bad boys again!

I guess I do have another complaint, or maybe just an observation. This thing is HEAVY! It is going to end up almost exactly the same width and wheelbase as my SCX-10 based hard-bodied Bronco, and my guess is that it is going to weigh twice as much as the Bronco when it is said and done. Granted, it will have a full interior, and full inner fenders, and a couple of other things the Bronco doesn't, but I don't know how the little outrunner is going to move this thing.

Yeah mine is super heavy as well, and same concern with the outrunner haha. I printed some of the parts with more infill that required thinking I wanted the strength but if I did it again I'd be using their recommendations

Sorry to hear about the supports on yours. Ill see about some pics or video on the back half that should be done tonight.

These look like such fun to build I may have to have a go a little later in the year , wife's 50th in April then off on holiday so money is tight for now .

These fully printed RC's are fascinating - no doubt about that.

I recall when Traxxas entered the crawler market with their TRX-4 Defender. They were criticized by some for going with a lexan body over a more highly detailed hard plastic body with a full interior, etc. But keeping the weight low is important for performance so they chose lexan and today, Traxxas makes some of the finest, highly detailed lexan bodies available anywhere.

I wonder if it's possible to print a mold for vacuuming forming lexan?

For a short run or a one off you could do it, but the tool is typically heated otherwise the lexan would cool too fast before it fully takes the shape and that would be pretty tough with a printed tool.

Belt driven trans / transaxle; pre and post. A bit of post work as the gear shafts came out ~10.06mm, and the bearing inner races are ~9.93, so a little filing was needed. One day I am actually going to fully calibrate my printer, but that day isn't today. And these modern cameras put some much detail, light, and shadow on objects up close that it makes thing looks worse than they really are. The lines seen on these pics are nowhere near that noticeable in the real world.

Notice the nut "pockets." Another ingenious part of the design. 90% of the hardware on this transmission is metal to metal. Only five screws are in plastic.

Trans looks fantastic! How does it spin? Take some break in?

I've learned a lot about calibrating that has really changed the way I think. Calibration cubes are a joke. Once you calibrate the steps accurately with a caliper or however you can most accurately measure the actual movements then you can move on to tuning the extrusion. For the longest time I was adjusting steps to make the end product the right size when it was the extrusion that was simply too high. Basically pushing too much filament making the whole part larger- inside holes small and outside edges too large. I wish there was a good tutorial that walked you through the calibration step by step but teaching tech is the best Ive found so far and I have a hard time supporting him as he is simply copying others work and making it his own.

GoMachV wrote: ↑Sat Mar 18, 2023 3:04 pm Trans looks fantastic! How does it spin? Take some break in?

It spins pretty well by hand, with no obvious bad spots. I think there is just enough play in everything that with speed on it, everything will find its happy place pretty quick and stay right there. Looking at the illustrations of the geared transmission, I am happy this belt version is an option. I don't know if my printing would be within tolerance for that guy to run smoothly. The belts give a little wiggle room I think.

Printed driveshafts and ends overnight, and woke up with some spaghetti. They print vertically, and a couple of them have a very small footprint, so they broke loose. The ends were complete by the height they broke though, so those got done. Printing again now with an extra layer of hairspray. If they break off again, may try a raft on them.

As I am doing things a little out of order to keep the printer constantly going as much as I can (and trying to sneak in other prints for other projects), the linkages got done a couple of days ago. After linkage install, we leave mechanicals and go into interior, which seems completely out of order, but who am I to argue. Puts off axles though, and those are the parts that scare me the most.

Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..................

These drive/axle shafts are not going as planned. I have never really had adhesion problems with this bed/adhesive/filament combo at all, but these guys are testing it, and I am failing. If you get into this build, and you get into the "shafts" parts plate, I would delete the window and the shaft ends and save them for another plate. Then remember that you have to double up the axle parts as you need them for both axles. I would then print them with a raft to try to hold them to the bed. Even using this tact, I am still short 3 shafts. Then said screw it and loaded some new brown filament in the printer and started to print some interior parts just to make me feel better. Hopefully over the weekend I can finish up most of the interior, then move on to axles.

It's the 3D printing gremlins. Sometimes they just take over at unpredictable times.

I hate trying to print multiple items at the same time as if one falls then it screws the lot , I'd far rather do a part at a time .