I hate waiting.
In recent weeks I've ordered a car, parts, a body and sundry other things. So far its only the car that has turned up, but as I need the parts and body to complete it I am sitting here twiddling my fingers on a computer keyboard.
I will never fully understand why freight time around the world varies so much when ALL international mail goes by plane! We can fly to almost every country in the world in 18 hours or less, yet a small parcel can take 3 or 4 weeks! Its bad enough that the cost of express freight has been steadily increasing to the point where I can no longer justify the extra expense. What I REALLY don't understand is how companies decide on freight cost.
I recently bought a Tamiya RM-01 from a guy in the U.S. Part of the deal included express freight which came to $56 - for a COMPLETE car kit still in its box.
At the same I had to order some option parts for it from TQ Racing. The parts were very cheap (grand total of $8) and very small, easily fitted into a small padded bag available for the post office. Yet the express freight cost according to TQ was nearly $80!!!!!!
There is no way that this sort of freight cost can be justified when you compare the size and weight of the 2 examples. I've never experienced a time when something small was MORE expensive than something large.
Anyway, when all my parcels arrive I will have a new RM-01 1/12 car ready to hit the track. Just hope Christmas doesn't get here first!
Thursday, 21 November 2013
Sunday, 10 November 2013
Race Day Report - 02/11/13
I should write these things much sooner after the event - less chance to forget stuff
Another good club day this one. New track layout and the usual crowd of racers. Numbers were a little lower than previous and, unfortunately, I was the only one there with an F1 but they were kind enough to set up race for me to play around in while everyone else had their break between rounds. This meant I could get some idea of lap times but I was doing most of my own marshaling, though I did get a bit of help here and there. Best way to not need a marshal is not to crash, but not always easy advice to follow.
I was surprised at just how much I was looking forward to strapping on an F1 body onto the 109 and having a run. I think my recent interest in 1/12 has helped satisfy the "Le Mans" thing and with an RM-01 on the way should stay that way. I'll admit I did have a bit of a mental "hissy fit" over a few F1 based things recently, but a bit of sanity has returned. I'll stick to running a 200mm car as long as I can and if the time comes to run a bigger event I will probably just have to buy myself a narrow car. SpeedPassion anyone?
Personally, I haven't had much success with a narrow 109 - I know others have, but for me it just isn't nice to drive and seems to be a setup black hole. Honestly, given the current frequency and level of competition, I don't need the angst.
With no one else to race there isn't much to report on. I was trying longer side links on the rear but if they make a difference is hard to say. Certainly, if the various 1/12 and F1 threads are to be believed. it SHOULD make a difference, but on the F109 I certainly couldn't say it did. This is, possibly, due to the link mounting locations which are much further back on the chassis and pod than compared to other cars. On a 1/12 car, as little as 3mm difference in the mount locations can have quite an effect on handling, but this is on a car with the pivots and the rear link locations inline. This is not how the F109 is setup with the pivots and link locations being around 30mm apart. This could also be a possible reason for some of the F109's set up idiosyncrasies.
Actual lap times were comparable to the 17.5 tourers, with my best being around 12s and the tourers doing around 12.3s. Consistency was all over the place as the car was a big handful, with a very loose rear end compared to other race nights. Whether this was because of lower track grip, the link changes or the fact I was running VERY old tyres (which I only realised towards the end of the night) I can't really say. In the end the transmitter battery bought my meeting to an end (damn lipo and their flat discharge curves). Probably should've charged that one - its only been a couple of months DUH!!
In a couple of weeks I am off to Brisbane for a night of racing and hopefully there will be some F1's there. Maybe I can keep my record of finishing last on every trip intact?
This project has hit a bit of a wall because of ride height issues. I simply can't get enough to fit "typical" 1/12 size tyres. I am working on it but, as usual, it all takes time (and $$$). So a Tamiya RM-01 is on the way so I can at least dip the toe in the water properly and see if I like the class!
Another good club day this one. New track layout and the usual crowd of racers. Numbers were a little lower than previous and, unfortunately, I was the only one there with an F1 but they were kind enough to set up race for me to play around in while everyone else had their break between rounds. This meant I could get some idea of lap times but I was doing most of my own marshaling, though I did get a bit of help here and there. Best way to not need a marshal is not to crash, but not always easy advice to follow.
I was surprised at just how much I was looking forward to strapping on an F1 body onto the 109 and having a run. I think my recent interest in 1/12 has helped satisfy the "Le Mans" thing and with an RM-01 on the way should stay that way. I'll admit I did have a bit of a mental "hissy fit" over a few F1 based things recently, but a bit of sanity has returned. I'll stick to running a 200mm car as long as I can and if the time comes to run a bigger event I will probably just have to buy myself a narrow car. SpeedPassion anyone?
Personally, I haven't had much success with a narrow 109 - I know others have, but for me it just isn't nice to drive and seems to be a setup black hole. Honestly, given the current frequency and level of competition, I don't need the angst.
With no one else to race there isn't much to report on. I was trying longer side links on the rear but if they make a difference is hard to say. Certainly, if the various 1/12 and F1 threads are to be believed. it SHOULD make a difference, but on the F109 I certainly couldn't say it did. This is, possibly, due to the link mounting locations which are much further back on the chassis and pod than compared to other cars. On a 1/12 car, as little as 3mm difference in the mount locations can have quite an effect on handling, but this is on a car with the pivots and the rear link locations inline. This is not how the F109 is setup with the pivots and link locations being around 30mm apart. This could also be a possible reason for some of the F109's set up idiosyncrasies.
Actual lap times were comparable to the 17.5 tourers, with my best being around 12s and the tourers doing around 12.3s. Consistency was all over the place as the car was a big handful, with a very loose rear end compared to other race nights. Whether this was because of lower track grip, the link changes or the fact I was running VERY old tyres (which I only realised towards the end of the night) I can't really say. In the end the transmitter battery bought my meeting to an end (damn lipo and their flat discharge curves). Probably should've charged that one - its only been a couple of months DUH!!
In a couple of weeks I am off to Brisbane for a night of racing and hopefully there will be some F1's there. Maybe I can keep my record of finishing last on every trip intact?
Thursday, 24 October 2013
F109 to 1/12 Conversion
This all came about because of a slightly unexpected desire to run 1/12 at the QLD Titles. It was more a case of timing than anything else as I could only attend one day and with the current Qualifying format excluding anyone that cannot attend every day, I had to pick one of the demo classes being offered, F1 or 1/12. While I have more experience with F1, it was being run on Saturday and I couldn't organise to attend on the Saturday, so 1/12 became "it". There was only 1 problem - I didn't own a 1/12 car, or any 1s batteries, or any 1/12 tyres etc etc.
However I DID have a lot of F1 foam tyres and a spare F109 car sitting around not doing anything. A bit of research online, downloading the appropriate rules and a bit of measuring and I became convinced I could turn the F109 into a 1/12. This would allow me to use the majority of the F109 rear suspension which would make things infinitely easier. Of course the practical was far more involved than the theory..
First thing was getting the car to 170mm. On the rear this was a 2 part approach. Standard F1 tyres are 45mm wide, but 1/12 has a max tyre width of 38mm. The obvious answer here was to cut down the F1 wheels and tyres as this would take 14mm out of the width straight away. I decided to cut 10mm off each tyre which would get the rear to 180mm. This did mean a little bit less tyre on the track but I felt this was acceptable.
The 2nd part was to narrow some of the rear axle components. On the non-diff side this was rather easy as there is a 16mm spacer on the original setup. At first I thought of cutting this down but in the final build I used a bucket load of shims which allowed me to adjust the width to perfectly match the diff side.
The diff side took a bit more modification. This is where the power tools came into play, mainly my dremel. The original diff part has a hub which includes the grub screw which allows it to be tightened onto the axle. As luck would have it, this hub was about 5mm thick, so grinding this away would net me the extra space I needed to get to 170mm. Some careful work with the dremel and then with sandpaper and a flat surface gave me this result -
OK, I am not going to win any prizes for beauty, but it was flat and straight and that was the important part. Of course the next puzzle was how to attach the axle? Gluing was the obvious answer so after little reading on the different epoxies and I purchased a high strength epoxy that was also readily available. Even the common 5 minute epoxies have a breaking strength of around 200lbs/in2. It was also interesting to read about the different way's of gluing aluminium. Like a lot of things on the net, it can be hard to find a consensus, but overall, gluing aluminium with epoxy is, usually, quite successful. After all, they do glue airplanes together with it.
The main issue I encountered was with air not being able to escape easily from the joint. I had thought it could be an issue and had put some groves in the carbon shaft but it turned out to be only just adequate, but still required being held firmly together until all the air had escaped and the epoxy set to stop the axle from popping back out from the trapped air. So far, with the limited track time I've been able to get, it has stood up well to 10.5T, single cell.
In the end I didn't quite get the rear width to 170mm, ending up at 171mm but this is still within the rules.
Rear axle complete it was time to modify the rear pod. The original F109 pod/bottom plate has the link mounts a long way back near the wheels. With the wheels moved in 5mm these mounting points no longer work. I had to move the mounts forward to clear the tyres. It ended up being a move of 25mm. I tossed up between buying some pre-made carbon fiber sheet or making my own fiberglass sheet. Since the rest of the chassis was fiberglass I chose the latter, though if I make another version I will go the CF option. I again did some research, finding the most useful info on a model helicopter site. I went the simple route of woven mat and polyester resin (if I did it again I'd use epoxy resin). I did get the number of pieces of mat wrong and ended up 2.5mm thick rather than 2mm. This just meant I had a chance to try out my new drill press with a milling bit from my dremel in it.
Obviously, the link mounting location on the main chassis also needed to be moved the same amount to maintain the rear suspension geometry, but this was very easy.
The front was a far more complicated job. While F1 and 1/12 tyres share a common set of dimensions they have different offsets. This allows a 1/12 car to have a wider front track which should, in turn, mean it has better rear grip. I wanted to retain the use of F1 tyres and this led me to investigate several different front end designs from very simple to very complex. Originally, I used pieces from the standard F109 front suspension, cut and then attached to pieces of CF. This was attached to the chassis using threaded steel spacers, not unlike the TRG F1 cars. Camber and caster was adjusted using a layout similar to this, also attached to the chassis using threaded steel spacers. However, this proved heavy and impossible to adjust equally, despite, literally, hours of measuring showing the suspension was square and equal from side to side. My suspicion is that there were too many joints in the mounting system and it led to an error rate that I couldn't overcome. Fortunately no pictures of this front end survive.
In the end I followed a path traveled by another scratch builder I read about and purchased the Tamiya RM01 suspension. Not without its faults (soft plastic, no adjust-ability), this old school style front suspension is easy to mount and takes all standard F1 pieces. The only extra parts I needed were the RM01 suspension shafts to mount everything correctly. I mounted it to another piece of CF, ensuring a 170mm width, and mounted that to the chassis. Its not perfect but its straight, square and on the track the car goes in a straight line - when the servo-saver lets it. It's also about 50grams lighter than my first attempt. There is now a stiffer version of the suspension available from Tamiya if it proves necessary, but I also hope to re-develop my own front suspension in the future.
The servo is mounted using double sided tape. The F109 has a lot of holes in the chassis and this prevented me from drilling any holes for servo mounts. I use a very good quality tape used for installing aluminum windows so there haven't been any issues there. The servo saver is another issue altogether. I've tried using the F109 servo horn on a Tamiya servo saver but I don't get a consistent center. I am assuming this is a fault in the servo saver and I've purchased a Kimborough to replace it. I've also wondered if there is a possibility the servo is misbehaving using 3.7v and a booster, but one thing at a time.
The front bumper came with the RM01 suspension. Some quick work with a drill and bits out of my spare parts box had body mounts done for the front - the rear uses the standard F109 body mounts. Mounting the body turned into a total farce however. I was under the impression that all 1/12 cars were built around the 170mm most advertise and that fits to the rules. It turns out I was wrong and bodies are made in both "narrow" and "regular" widths. I made the mistake of buying a narrow body which is designed for a car running less than 170mm. I have no idea which car/s that might be as none advertise themselves as less than 170mm. It was suggested that I try some heat to modify the shape around the wheel arches but this also turned into a massive fail. I ended up with something I could drive around the track but I wouldn't put much faith in it's performance.
With the cancelling of 1/12 at the QLD Titles, I had to wait a few weeks for a regular club meet for the car's first proper shake down. There was no class to race it in so I used some breaks in normal racing to do some runs. Unfortunately, the tyre choice was next to useless on this particular surface, but I could test steering and tweak etc. Except for the steering servo and the lack of grip it was very good. I made a small change to the springs all 'round and I found some improvement but the tennis court surface we race on doesn't offer much grip to foam tyres.
This means I am moving on to version 2 of the car much more quickly than first anticipated. I've ordered some Jaco tyres and some bits and pieces to allow me to fit them. It means making a new rear axle and I've already started work on that. I am hoping to have it ready before the next club day and I am hoping to take it down to Brisbane the next time I go, but its next year I am hoping to be more serious about it.
However I DID have a lot of F1 foam tyres and a spare F109 car sitting around not doing anything. A bit of research online, downloading the appropriate rules and a bit of measuring and I became convinced I could turn the F109 into a 1/12. This would allow me to use the majority of the F109 rear suspension which would make things infinitely easier. Of course the practical was far more involved than the theory..
The 2nd part was to narrow some of the rear axle components. On the non-diff side this was rather easy as there is a 16mm spacer on the original setup. At first I thought of cutting this down but in the final build I used a bucket load of shims which allowed me to adjust the width to perfectly match the diff side.
The diff side took a bit more modification. This is where the power tools came into play, mainly my dremel. The original diff part has a hub which includes the grub screw which allows it to be tightened onto the axle. As luck would have it, this hub was about 5mm thick, so grinding this away would net me the extra space I needed to get to 170mm. Some careful work with the dremel and then with sandpaper and a flat surface gave me this result -
The main issue I encountered was with air not being able to escape easily from the joint. I had thought it could be an issue and had put some groves in the carbon shaft but it turned out to be only just adequate, but still required being held firmly together until all the air had escaped and the epoxy set to stop the axle from popping back out from the trapped air. So far, with the limited track time I've been able to get, it has stood up well to 10.5T, single cell.
In the end I didn't quite get the rear width to 170mm, ending up at 171mm but this is still within the rules.
-Rear axle complete it was time to modify the rear pod. The original F109 pod/bottom plate has the link mounts a long way back near the wheels. With the wheels moved in 5mm these mounting points no longer work. I had to move the mounts forward to clear the tyres. It ended up being a move of 25mm. I tossed up between buying some pre-made carbon fiber sheet or making my own fiberglass sheet. Since the rest of the chassis was fiberglass I chose the latter, though if I make another version I will go the CF option. I again did some research, finding the most useful info on a model helicopter site. I went the simple route of woven mat and polyester resin (if I did it again I'd use epoxy resin). I did get the number of pieces of mat wrong and ended up 2.5mm thick rather than 2mm. This just meant I had a chance to try out my new drill press with a milling bit from my dremel in it.
 |
| Next time, maybe some black colouring? |
Obviously, the link mounting location on the main chassis also needed to be moved the same amount to maintain the rear suspension geometry, but this was very easy.
In the end I followed a path traveled by another scratch builder I read about and purchased the Tamiya RM01 suspension. Not without its faults (soft plastic, no adjust-ability), this old school style front suspension is easy to mount and takes all standard F1 pieces. The only extra parts I needed were the RM01 suspension shafts to mount everything correctly. I mounted it to another piece of CF, ensuring a 170mm width, and mounted that to the chassis. Its not perfect but its straight, square and on the track the car goes in a straight line - when the servo-saver lets it. It's also about 50grams lighter than my first attempt. There is now a stiffer version of the suspension available from Tamiya if it proves necessary, but I also hope to re-develop my own front suspension in the future.
The servo is mounted using double sided tape. The F109 has a lot of holes in the chassis and this prevented me from drilling any holes for servo mounts. I use a very good quality tape used for installing aluminum windows so there haven't been any issues there. The servo saver is another issue altogether. I've tried using the F109 servo horn on a Tamiya servo saver but I don't get a consistent center. I am assuming this is a fault in the servo saver and I've purchased a Kimborough to replace it. I've also wondered if there is a possibility the servo is misbehaving using 3.7v and a booster, but one thing at a time.
The front bumper came with the RM01 suspension. Some quick work with a drill and bits out of my spare parts box had body mounts done for the front - the rear uses the standard F109 body mounts. Mounting the body turned into a total farce however. I was under the impression that all 1/12 cars were built around the 170mm most advertise and that fits to the rules. It turns out I was wrong and bodies are made in both "narrow" and "regular" widths. I made the mistake of buying a narrow body which is designed for a car running less than 170mm. I have no idea which car/s that might be as none advertise themselves as less than 170mm. It was suggested that I try some heat to modify the shape around the wheel arches but this also turned into a massive fail. I ended up with something I could drive around the track but I wouldn't put much faith in it's performance.
With the cancelling of 1/12 at the QLD Titles, I had to wait a few weeks for a regular club meet for the car's first proper shake down. There was no class to race it in so I used some breaks in normal racing to do some runs. Unfortunately, the tyre choice was next to useless on this particular surface, but I could test steering and tweak etc. Except for the steering servo and the lack of grip it was very good. I made a small change to the springs all 'round and I found some improvement but the tennis court surface we race on doesn't offer much grip to foam tyres.
This means I am moving on to version 2 of the car much more quickly than first anticipated. I've ordered some Jaco tyres and some bits and pieces to allow me to fit them. It means making a new rear axle and I've already started work on that. I am hoping to have it ready before the next club day and I am hoping to take it down to Brisbane the next time I go, but its next year I am hoping to be more serious about it.
 |
| F109 next to F109-12 |
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