Gotta build something

Ok today was one of those days when you have nothing planned but it turns out having a big impact on you. Two things happened today that prompted this an one other thread ( see One Bad Day...but know ahead of time its a little depressing

Ok so I'm in the Radio Shack and there's a kid in there with his father; I'd guess he kid was about 9-10. Anyway, they obviously didn't have a lot of money but it was his birthday (I heard him tell the clerk). He was getting his first Xmods (the are on in store clearence) and was very excited. I heard his dad tell the clerk "I'm glad you put these on sale, he's been wanting one but it was just too much..." Like I said, they didn't seem to have much money.

I was glad they were abe to get this car (the Bumble Bee Camaro) for him, they seemed like nice people. Anyways, it got me to thinking.I know there is a range here of how much money people can spend on this hobby. And, some of this stuff can get really expensive, so here's the plan: I want to build something really cool that stays really cheap. I want to do this to show you can have something that no one else has even if your family doesn't live in the wealthy section of town. I want this to be something that anayone can duplicate with a little pactience.

So fa I have no idea of what the project is going to be, but I do have a few goals:

1. it will not be a zipzap or other way tiny car. I love them and have quite a few...in fact if you look at my post on the aluminium cobra zip that I built a while back You'll see how far I'll go to have a cool micro. Just not this time, it needs to be a little bigger just so it looks less "chea toy" like.

2. It can't be too big... while big is cool it's also going to be a budget buster for this project.

3. It has to be made from new stuff that anyone can get...sure there are builds you see that someone got lucky and found a great deal on something, but thats not something others can duplicate.

4. it will probably be toy grade but it wont "look" toy grade.

5. It should be fun to use... no shelf queen here. even if it only goes two or three mph it has to be FUN!

6. It can't require masters level building skills or special tools... if you are a master builder great! but this isn't being built for you, this is for people who want soemthing cool but can't even afford the basics.

7. This is the biggest hurdel, The budget for the entire build is $25. any more and it would make it too expensive for some, if it can come in cheaper it will, but it will not be more than $25.

Ok, that's the plan... I have to do some reaserch to find the right combo of stuff but if you have any ideas please post them! I'm not thinking this will be easy, but I think it could be cool.

Oh, and I have already decided against xmods (even though I just picked up 2 more today) because even on sale they are $14.97 and that would be a big chunk of the budget, not to mention they can get expensive pretty quickly.

So, any ideas?

The cheap aluminum part; spraypaint!!! You can uuse it to colorize parts n such...

Schwenzo

Good Idea. I think I may have found a good doner...I'll check it out this weekend and keep you guys updated. I think the build may start next week if this pans out.

Cool I can't wait!

I think your hardest part will be finding or makin a board to run this thing. Besides this you can make a fairly cheap car design simlar to a mini-z with plastic. Good luck!

Can the car include donations or no?

i just dont want to sift through all that info LOL!

I may use some doner parts, but I want this to be something anyone can copy so it will have to be donr stuff people will be able to find. I already had on failed experiment...I wa going to post it but it was so boring... basically I found out that one of the cheap Nikko rc boards (3 volts stock) can take a little more juice but cooks when you try 9volts. So now I just need to see how long it can take 4.5 volts. I may be posting the first part soon.

That would be cool if they made a nitro zipzap

nitro 1/16 scale is really small and really cramped and how long are zip zaps 5 in (idk never seen um....) but that'ld be totally revoutionary and the parts would be sooo small and so precie, i'm not saying it can't be done i'm just saying, that it would cost lots...

the lug

wow i've been kinda negative my last few posts sorry about that guys no hard feelings, just other stuff...

and sorry for double posting

the lug

I've wanted to build a micro nitro forever... zipzaps is about the right size. I'd do a sprint car. I even looked into how much a jeweler's lathe would cost (they aint cheap) and a traig milling machine. I think the real problem would be flooding, it would be hard to get just enough fuel into the cylinder without drowning everything.

a nitro zipzap that would be cool i would buy a nitro zipzap but the only problem i see with that other than the amount of fuel in to the cyl is the runtime would be like 1min

well with a small nitro come small fuel usage, i can get like 8 min on my chaos and that only has a 40 cc tank compared to my savages 160cc where i get about 10 min

the lug

i never thoght of that i just thought since everything would be so small it wouldnt last long

yeah true not that i'm saying you'ld expcet 10 min runs but 5 wouldn't be to un achibable maybe

the lug

There was a guy I found once who built what they said was the smallest gas motor in the world. It was smaller than a quarter, and there was a short video of it but I can't find it anymore...it was so cool. I don't know why he didn't take the extra step and put it in some sort of tiny car/truck or boat...maybe even a tiny plane.

that would be cool to do that aa a project

I'd make a mini airboat cuz of the simplicity and easy ability to make.

Schwenzo

A quarter thats sick! A micro zipzap, wouldn't go well with the children

Seriously 12+ only can go up to 4 miles mph ffffffffffaaaaaaaaaaasssssssssssttttttttttt