This is a build I did a while back.

Hi this is a build I did a while back for the bitpimps end of the year contest. It all aluminum, based on a 1/64 RC Muscle Machines donor. I cast the chassis and and selected parts copied from the donor in aluminum. I nearly burned down the garage with my home made charcoal foundry, and I nearly dumped melted aluminum all over my feet.

Here's the highlights:





The body was molded from a diecast and cast in aluminum:


I couldn't decide whether to paint it or polish it so I made two bodies:

did it move what motor

Dang bro!!!! That thing is sik!!! Great job bro!!!!

brushlessmicrodude wrote:

did it move what motor

Yeah it runs, well, ran... it has the sock motor from the RC Muscle Machines cars but it was more than enough to move it. Even in the metal it was lighter than the stock Muscle Machine. It needs a new board right now because I shorted out the first one not thinkning about how the aluminum would conduct electricity. The second board I coated in liqui electrical tape and it worked great until I decided to show it off. A frind is a scout leader and wanted to inspire the kids...well I took it apart to show the insides and must have puled back the liqiud electrical tape and it shorted out too. WhenI do get around to fixing it this time I'm thinikng of coating the board in lucite.

Thanks for the compliments.

how fast

Probably not too fast with an aluminim chassie, and body LOL! And the battery doesn't look too big!

probably you put an xcelorin i will do 20 mph

I'm not sure how fast, but it is a little faster than a Zip SE but for something that fits i the palm of your hand thats not so bad. It handels well for a 1/64 scale car... the next one I build will be a wire framed super light-weight lexan bodied beast. I'm thining of using watch batteries and saving the weight and size. The fastest bit I've seen so far is in the 15mph range, I've been thinking of building a bit just for a top speed run. At 1/64 scale 20mph would be the equivolent of 1280mph. I think I may even try to build a working differential. Humm? I thought I had this out of my system but this has me planning a streamliner in my head...

cool cant wait to see it

Did you build that foundry from one of Lindseys books!!?? I think I have a copy of that somewhere LOL! I love those books!

So it works!

Very cool SW!

I've been working on a bit project lately too. Stretched a bit chassis for a true 1/64 scale diecast Mustang and will vac form the body from the diecast. I have one test-shot body pulled but the pull quality is lack luster so I will pull a few more till I get it right.

I saw this a while back on Pimps, I couldn't believe the work that must of went into to that - I didn't know you then...OUTSTANDING!!!!!

Mark

hey, here's an idea for power, use capasitors, idk how muc you know about them and depending on the draw and a few other factors you may be able to use them if you're worried about wieght tho they can be big, but also very powerful, if i had the $, i'd try to setup a bank to run my 1/10 trucks, i've had access to a bank that ran a venom fireball at good clip for around 40 seconds, about about 9v and then 80 seconds at 6v or so, and that all cost like $30 or so, tho you can get much bigger/morepowerful, so yeah random project idea....

plus they charge super fast

the lug

I think the foundry was originally in Dave Gingery's build a metal shop from scratch series ...so yeah, Lindsey actually. It's not quite the same as the books version, but with a little hillbilly engineering it's pretty cheap and easy. Also a little scary.

The vac-u-form stuff is a lot of fun too. If you don't care about a little extra weight and want better detail you can cast the body with either alumilite or smooth-on resins. The stuff is amazing, I got a sample set and did a copy of my hand for a Halloween prop one year, it made such an accurate replica that it picked up my fingerprints.

Lug, the speed idea is interesting, but the part I never mentioned here or on pimps is that after the initial run or two I realized that the handling is crap. It's either a matter of too much weight (it is heavy) or somethings not quite straight enough...honestly it's probably a little of both. I don't think adding power would be a good idea...now, when I build my tube framed mini late model I'll think about making it too fast.

BTW Mark, did you catch the sprint car build?



It's not as involved but it came out pretty good...unles you actually want to run it, it was way, way too top heavy and rolled really easily. Sort of like a real sprint car.

Build thread here.

When did you build this!!!!!?????

It's awesome!!! :-) Did the chassis start out as a Q-Steer buggy?? And I gotta ask ya, where did you get the scale rear wheel/tire combo!!!? They look AMAzing...nice body and decal work too!

I wish we could get some kind of a bit-build contest thing going over on Pimps this summer just to see some 1/64th scale activity.

My guess is with summer in full swing, everyone must be focused on outdoor larger scale fun.

Roger on the Dave Gingery stuff, the idea of making a machine shop out of a charcoal foundry was always a mind-blower to me, facinating reading material even if you never get around to building the stuff.

Did you use "green sand" for the molds?? I don't get how that stuff stays together to keep the detail but then again, I've never seen it before.

Yeah and I give you major props for being brave enough to handle molten metal like that LOL ;-)

I have one of those Aluminate mini kits but never got around to molding anything yet, I should just select an easy project and try it, it's still in the package but it's getting old!

Great stuff SW! Boy...if you and I ever got together, we could easily start the whole neighbor hood on fire LOL!

I did it back in the early part of 07, it was based on a Muscle Machines RC, they are just a little bigger than a Zip Zaps car.


Your basic Muscle Machines Micro RC:






The body and tire doner was a 1/50 scale Andy Hillenburger diecast, it donated the perfect Hoosire tires

...just add A little creative hacking:






If I ever have the time and room my dream is to build the entire home foundry and machine shop, the use the set up to build my own replica of a 1957 Ferrari Testarossa:



I'll probably wimp out and use a perbuilt motor/transmission but in my dreams I build every part of the car.

I used black sand for the casting because I have a friend who works at the Wendel August Forge and does custom casting, he was coaching me through the whole process...he got me some sand from the forge that they were replacing, but with a bunch of filtering through a wire strainer I was able to get more than enough.

I did come close to burning down the garage, and since I didn't have the proper safety gear I was lucky the molten metal didn;t end up on my feet...that wouldn't have been good at all considering it went about and inch deep into a hardwood floor in a matter of seconds.

One thing that may prompt you to use the Alumilite sooner rather than latter is the stuff absolutly has a shelf life...I don't remember how long it is, but I remember the guy on the phone from the factory telling me not to order large amounts to store.

I kind of burried it in the last post but the build thread link is here:BUILD LINK

If your around this part of the counrty next week I plan on setting a neighborhood on fire...Oh heck, just watch the news you'll see.

Very cool Mr. Sidewinder! And I'm a big fan of the Ferrari - I'm always oogling the 1/32 scale Testarossa slot cars!

Naturally, having one in RC scale would be cool and I think I have an HO scale Testarossa body somewhere so one in bit-scale is certainly possible!

Unfortunately, sales territories are changing here at work so I'm loosing Ohio - I had intentions of packing the bolink or buggy on one of those driving trips to Ohio to see if we might hook up for some fun during my trip but it may not be in the cards now

I thought of posting a "forum get together" thread to see if it would be possible to plan a forum "weekend bash party" somewhere central to where everyone resides - Ohio might be a good location, maybe in the fall. What do you think? I was thinking a combined RC Addicts/Bit Pimp bash party.

Mark

MarkM wrote:

Very cool Mr. Sidewinder! And I'm a big fan of the Ferrari - I'm always oogling the 1/32 scale Testarossa slot cars!

Naturally, having one in RC scale would be cool and I think I have an HO scale Testarossa body somewhere so one in bit-scale is certainly possible!

Yes indeed it is:





This is how I found out about Alumalite. I wanted a couple of copies of the Cobra body but didn't want to try to cast them in aluminum, after nearly burning down the house it seemed prudent to wait for summer so I could use the forge outside So I resin cast a few copies, one had bubbles in it and as I began sanding I realized how close the Cobra was to a Ferrari 410/412 or a 56 TR Scaglietti. So I decided to play with it.


A get together sounds like fun, I imagine we'd all have to work around some scheduling issues, but I'm game.

Mighty nice job on the cosmetic surgery - from Ford to Ferrari that is. I'll have to see if I can find my HO Testarossa body - if you're at all interested, I would be happy to send it you if you wanted to make some resin copies, I think it was a kit so the parts are loose and would be easy to copy. I have a Jag D-Type in HO kit form as well.

Nation-wide get-togethers are difficult to pull together over the web but it sure would be fun! I think eventually you just have to pick a weekend and a venue and say this is it - if you can come, great!

With the economy the way it is, some folks may not be able to swing the travel expenses too but I may post a thread just the same.

Mark

WOW that thing is tiny how much didi it cost you to build that little 1/32th scale lolz

Actually that one is somewhere between 1/64 and 1/72 scale... oh, I'm guessing $30-$40 for the Ferrari and maybe around $150-$200 for the aluminum Cobra. But most of the Cobra expense was in the equipment. The donor car was $8 on clearance, and the diecast body I used for the mold was around $6.

SO really it's probably around what you'd spend on a good 1/32 scale slot car if you wanted to race it.