TOPIC:

Well, the simple fact all the parts have been assembled together into Fusion360 does help: Parts are working together easily, as they are interfaced together by design... I'm pretty sure designing the parts independently would have generated more issues...
 

Today, I finished the Nichimo Spirit FF parts clean up


I will only need to find some o-ring seals for the rear shocks, as the ones I have with me are not of the proper size and one of them is basically dead...

Toric joints are an issue for both Samurai and the Nichimo...
Not sure where to find them yet:
- Internal diameter 8, external diameter 10, Tore diameter 1 (3 per Samurai, 2 for the Nichimo)
- Internal diameter 10, external diameter 12, Tore diameter 1 (1 for the Nichimo)

EDIT : Found on Amazon, will probably have enough for the next 10 years
 

Nice!

After the wing and wheels from the Samurai, I received a red cocoon from Belgium...


The delivery was made at the time of my lunch. I was just going to start eating when it happened. I did finish my lunch in about 10 minutes, I believe... I still had some time during my lunch break so I put it to profit.


First was to get all the parts out of the cluster.


It's the first time I used intricated design. I must report some failures:
- the axis I used for the internal gear and the bevel gears was too thick of half millimeter. Clearance for the small bevel gear and the internal gear was about .25 mm. Not good. It should have been .3mm or more as per the design guidelines. This mistake is mine. I corrected the stl.
- I had some wires intricated in order to prevent things moving too much or breaking while they sand blast it. A wire of 1mm or 1.5 mm is not an issue, really (although they mention 3mm section in the guidelines). But sometimes, the .3mm clearance is not enough. I had .5mm between the wire and the roof support, and it fused. I sent them a mail to get some clarification, acknowledging the fact my print was not only to print things but also to test their printing capabilities



That being said, this is not much an issue, I took my mini drill set, and drilled the parts requiring adjustment. Fixed.

Next, I put the roll cage together with the chassis... I guess anyone in my case would have done this test...


Later on, I had to fix as well my differential case:
- the recess for the axis of the central bevel gears was missing .1 mm or less. I guess it is a tolerance issue, as my design was the right measure. I'll still extend it in the design for the case I'll reprint it.
- I had to use sand paper on the surrounds that goes in the bevel gear as there is a small tolerance issue. I'll increase the diameter inside the big bevel gear


Beside this, it works. It's not set with the screws, but I test fitted it.


And I also checked the overall content of the gearbox...


Again, it meshes . I will need to put all the bits on a table for a pictures before starting the build... Stay tuned

Very interested to see how strong and durable those 3D printed gear teeth are.

Well, it's printed Nylon.
Original gears are in Nylon, I believe.
The mod is .8 for the internal gear, and 1 for the bevel gears. One reason the small mods are wearing is heat. When you run, the temp is increasing in the gears. Small mods pinion will tend to melt (Marui Hunter Idle gear is a clear exemple of this). With bigger mod, there is more material, so you need more heat to melt it. I will use dry ptfe lube for this. We will see. I would have got them printed in polycarbonate with an even higher melting point if it was available for MJF or SLS printing process but is not the case yet... To be honest, I'm quite curious as well. I know some people running cars with SLS Nylon printed gears, but none have a feedback yet on the life of those gears... Time will tell

Yesterday, before going to bed, I launched a print of rims in red PLA.  Those rims are based on Nichimo original design in a single part, and are adapted to "easy to source" 2 inches tires (with Hotshot tires in mind for my car).

This morning, the print was at 44%, and it finished within the afternoon.


They are not perfect, and there is still a bit of post processing to do on those.


I also printed hex hub to go with this rims.

I'm sure to had these wheeles on a holiday buggy.

I almost forgot I ordered this some weeks ago


The last bit (aka the missing body mount) arrived today...

Well, there is still stickers missing, but I'm not sure yet if I'll put Nichimo Stickers on my own Nichimo... I may want to do something different, as it is different anyway