3D Printed Stainless Steel Outdrives

[lmw94002]

I'm excited to see the results of this too! Crazy what technology is out there now.

[JK Racing]

i only worry about mushrooming of the cups, If I remember correctly, aren't these also made with a brass or bronze matrix? ie, the stainless powder is intermixed with a brass alloy? would be good for wear, just hope they have enough stiffness.

Might be worthwhile to design some cup rings grooves, like you would see on plastic outdrives. very interested to see the results.

Or something like the Outdrive Savers we used on the XX4 with plastic outdrives

[mk-Zero]

Got a pic of how those are assembled with the plastic outdrives Joey?

[JK Racing]

slide right over the top...let me see if I can find a pic

[JK Racing]

Not a great one...

[mk-Zero]

Oh that makes sense. Even with those, I don't think printed nylon ones would survive the brushless/lipo torque and clay and turf traction of today. I think the pin on the end of the CVA would destroy the plastic contact surface of the outdrive.

Let's keep our fingers crossed the printed metal ones hold up. If they do spread i can see about collars for them.

[JK Racing]

Agreed, LRH has good bite, it will put some pressure on them

[mk-Zero]

I will run them on my 10M with the 8.5 and see how they do. Assuming they are accurate enough to even assemble. We'll see.

[mk-Zero]

These have been showing as "In Production" since around Wednesday, hoping they'll ship this week.

[scr8p]

Knock the pins out of the dogbones and use weed whacker line. That what we did when we ran aluminum outdrives on the oval cars.

[Northeee]

Watching this with interest

[lmw94002]

Knock the pins out of the dogbones and use weed whacker line. That what we did when we ran aluminum outdrives on the oval cars.

That's awesome. How often did you change that solution out?

[scr8p]

It would really depend on if you were running stock or mod, but they lasted awhile.

IRS used to sell kits that did the same thing.

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/VINTAGE-RC-RACING-GRADE-IRS-AXLE-PIN-CUSSIONS-147-IRS147/332336656687?_trkparms=aid%3D222007%26algo%3DSIM.MBE%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20140620091118%26meid%3D604cddc6bb2a45a98799f45acd7968e2%26pid%3D100005%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D2%26sd%3D232437056060&_trksid=p2047675.c100005.m1851

The MIP Pucks system is a more elaborate take on it but the goal is the same. Save the aluminum outdrives (and the bones in this case) from premature wear.

[mk-Zero]

The printed outdrives came today.
My first impression: nice!

The outer bearings went on nicely, but on one side it didn't quite bottom out:

I can put a small undercut in the model to prevent that from happening. I think some factory parts are even like that.

This is slightly more problematic. The diff bearing did not fit in its hole, the hole is a little undersized

Likewise, the bearing would not go on this post

I plan to measure how much those two features are off by, then compensate on the CAD model. In other words, if the bearing bore is undersized by .005, I'll make the hole .005 oversize on the CAD model. These two features are only off by a few thousandths each, so I think it's a reasonable approach.

I'm the mean time, I'm going to machine these outdrives to get them to fit so I can test their durability, which is the other big question aside from fit. Once I get them to fit I plan to run them in my RC10M and see how they hold up.

[JK Racing]

They look pretty good, cant wait to hear the results