TOPIC:

Four letter word. On a sandwich.
I'm really reconsidering my relationship with thread lock.
Four broken titanium screws and a rather useless aluminium gearcase :



Cudos to the Hudy hex driver though, having grip enough to snap these.

I've had the same problem om my 501X. The Titanium heads just twist off.
I concluded they are not worth it..

I've come to the same conclusion today.
Tamiya hex heads at least, won't be buying those anymore.
Besides this, disassembling them only once makes them look ugly.
Even with the best hex driver held under a perfect angle...

Still have a nice stash of various Phillips heads (not only T brand) though.
Too much of a titanium fan. No more thread lock combo in any case.

Oh yes, the diffuser will need that bend after all. Spur needs slightly more room.
Something I'll be doing when there's very good light around.

I wrote:

The lower image is what can be seen on the instructions - the darker area.
But with a straight line (so far) and not a bend in it. The white upper part has been cut off.
I may stick with this if it fits. Being a perfectionist, getting near perfect symmetrical sides is sort of a must.
Feels a bit less flimsy too...

SAD In french we call that electroerosion The electrical destruction between 2 materials like glass fiber and stealth or aloy. They are a one built screws.

I may try to drill them out at some point. Of course then they'll be hard as rock and not buttery like with torsion applied.

Troublesome as well, but not unsuccessful - getting the lines on the diffuser right :



Waiting 'til that rain floats over to our island neighbours and then put a bit of paint on it.
No way you can cut this thing and keep it scratch free (so it's lightly sanded)...

Edit - not exactly to 'instructions' spec but I'm quite happy.
Could have easily messed it up completely with that hobby knife and ruler.

Lacking patience to wait on that rain front to leave. And buienradar.nl isn't of much use when it's drizzling.
So I'm painting by the doorway. You surely get an idea of it's aerodynamic properties when you put a hair dryer on it!

GRRRRRRRRR!!!! A rainy long week end....

I plan to run this car but probably not any time soon.

Then again, the forecast is starting to look more promising.

I'll run it only once with the Acto-Power though. And put some protection foil or something underneath.
Too awesome to mess up... and I think brushes aren't that easy to come by these days.
After that, it'll run with a similar motor - a 17x2 turns LRP Challenge.
Probably a bit faster even and cool as well. But not quite as excellent as that blue gem.

Guess what? Titanium hex heads.



Last four I had. Better to scuff these than anything else.
Holes were retapped first and no thread lock was added though.
Only ever so minimally screwed down. But look how ugly they are already...
If they fail again (Hulk will be angry), I should still be able to remove them with some pliers from this gearcase :



The beefier foot of the casing made it necessary to cut off the edge the diffuser.
Not the greatest match apparently (even think it needs some more tweaking).

Unfortunately I think I have to conclude Tamiya titanium is just bad quality. I have disassembled the Square screws (the other hexes above that go through the battery holder) a bunch of times and they are still in much better shape.

Now discovering that the Zen diffuser isn't that great of an item either.
The predetermined holes don't line up at all. The place where the spur goes is off too.
Something I've seen before. Probably material that just shrinks too much after molding.
Nonetheless is does look rather nice. And it not being perfect makes it okay to run the car with :