Rango - Build diary

**daveimi** · 26th February 2014, 20:14

Wow this is impressively technical!

**Mega Masher** · 27th February 2014, 06:27

Wow, that looks awesome!

**Ellis** · 5th March 2014, 20:30

Thanks guys^

Had a bit of a pause there as I take care of some unrelated stuff, but tonight saw the completion of the nylon wheel-cores. The rubber is regular bike tyre, picked because the tread has a nice pattern :P. The bushes are "oilon". This is a bit of an experiment. I would have used bronze, but the wheel shafts are 7075 aluminium, and I'm not sure the alu would appreciate it. I have regular nylon on standby should the green stuff flop. It's just nylon with oil (surprise!) mixed in at some point during development, the idea being it's truly self lubricating.

The pulley(s) aren't attached, just sitting in the pockets in the wheels to do this latest incarnation of pretendo. They will be bolted to the nylon.

edit: couldn't resist trying to get the tyres to stay folded in place long enough for a pic!

**Gabe01** · 5th March 2014, 21:20

I'm loving this build, your skills have improved exponentially

**Eventorizon** · 5th March 2014, 21:32

That thing looks angry! Its like a cross between a 4x4 RC car, a bull and an anvil!

**Mega Masher** · 5th March 2014, 21:32

Wow, that thing looks evil (in a good way!)

**Flag Captured** · 5th March 2014, 23:03

Very nice, shame you can't mount the batteries internally and just stick a bit of armour over the top, it'll look like someone's thrown a mutant rock crawler into the arena! Looking forward to seeing this run with the mini drum too, an impact at speed with that spinning to is going to wreck havoc, I'm sure...

**Upstart** · 6th March 2014, 08:44

very impressive!! Can't wait to see it drive.

**Ellis** · 14th March 2014, 19:28

Another slow patch there... need to get in gear!

The drum machining is now organised and will start next week. Discs have been cut and are with Jeroen (machinist). Taper roller bearings for the drum also ordered. These will be held evenly between the bulkheads with spacers and the slightest of preload put on them, like 720.

I recently made the wheel drive shafts. These are 14mm diameter 7075 aluminium with an m6 thread in each end. Can see them in this pile of stuffage:

(I have cats!)

Have also made the 20mm HDPE sides:

The armour supports as well as the wheel shafts are counterbored 5mm into the HDPE. With the front and back on, I'm hoping this will be rigid enough. As-is, in hand, it feels very stiff, but of course spinners can exert a bit more force than human hands. :P

A few with both sides bolted on for a sense of scale:

Will probably make the back plate next, which is the weakest side of the machine, being just 12mm HDPE. That is still thicker than Tormenta 2's thickest, but as you can see in the pic with T2 for scale, the 10mm on the nearest side got a 4cm long slot put in it in one blow last year, eek!