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I have been building custom slotcar chassis using a lot of 3D printed parts. But I had been using purchased aluminum wheels, both back and front. And that has caused a lot of frustration, because finding the right size wheels and tires has been difficult.
For the front wheels and tires I decided to try printing my own. Again. Early experiments had not been successful. But I have learned a lot since then.
For starters I have developed a set of what I call "gauge wheels". I've printed out a set that range in size from 16 millimeters in diameter up to 22 millimeters, by increments of 1 millimeter. I can use those to help set up my chassis.
Once I've decided on the diameter front wheel I need I can design it in my CAD program, then port it to my copy of the Cura 4.12.1 slicing program for the Macintosh. The STL file that produces can be put in my Creality Ender 3 Pro 3D filament printer. I use a TPU (ThermoPlastic Urethane) filament made by NovaMaker. It is a fairly hard urethane, but still rolls nicely. I print with the nozzle at 225C and the bed at 50C. Print speed is 50mm/second.
The printed part integrates both the wheel and the tire. Fresh off the printer it is concentric to about +/- 0.002 inches (+/- 0.05mm) as measured with a dial indicator. After running it on my Professor Motor tire truing machine I can get it concentric to within +/- 0.0005 inches (+/- 0.013mm).
I've designed the wheel so it has a conical taper with the largest diameter near the outside face. This gives me close to the maximum wheel-to-wheel track while reducing the road contact area to a minimum.
The wheel gets a bushing made from brass tubing and spins freely on an aluminum stub axle, so the car has independent front wheels. I have paper appliques of wire wheels to make the wheels more presentable.
The design freedom I achieve in designing and printing my own wheel/tires is a big help in creating custom chassis. So far I'm pretty happy with the finished product.
Ed Bianchi
For the front wheels and tires I decided to try printing my own. Again. Early experiments had not been successful. But I have learned a lot since then.
For starters I have developed a set of what I call "gauge wheels". I've printed out a set that range in size from 16 millimeters in diameter up to 22 millimeters, by increments of 1 millimeter. I can use those to help set up my chassis.
Once I've decided on the diameter front wheel I need I can design it in my CAD program, then port it to my copy of the Cura 4.12.1 slicing program for the Macintosh. The STL file that produces can be put in my Creality Ender 3 Pro 3D filament printer. I use a TPU (ThermoPlastic Urethane) filament made by NovaMaker. It is a fairly hard urethane, but still rolls nicely. I print with the nozzle at 225C and the bed at 50C. Print speed is 50mm/second.
The printed part integrates both the wheel and the tire. Fresh off the printer it is concentric to about +/- 0.002 inches (+/- 0.05mm) as measured with a dial indicator. After running it on my Professor Motor tire truing machine I can get it concentric to within +/- 0.0005 inches (+/- 0.013mm).
I've designed the wheel so it has a conical taper with the largest diameter near the outside face. This gives me close to the maximum wheel-to-wheel track while reducing the road contact area to a minimum.
The wheel gets a bushing made from brass tubing and spins freely on an aluminum stub axle, so the car has independent front wheels. I have paper appliques of wire wheels to make the wheels more presentable.
The design freedom I achieve in designing and printing my own wheel/tires is a big help in creating custom chassis. So far I'm pretty happy with the finished product.
Ed Bianchi
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