3d printed c4.1 gearbox

[gazhillAE]

Originally Posted by Tom3012

No

No no no noooooooooo

[racingdwarf]

just talking to a club member today about this, he has a 4.1 needs a new gearbox housing, not had the car long as he bought it second hand, has now found he may as well throw it in the hedge, I think the "no problem, you just need to spent £135ish on a new car" is discusting! Glad I have a vega, told him to do the same least they know how to make a good conversion

I fully understand R&D is hard for a small company, dumping customers like this is not good

And to point out that once you have thrown your old car in the hedge, rushed out and bought the new one from the company that just shafted you, you can then buy the new part for the new car for 6 quid, so you just threw the old car away for what is now a 6quid part..........well it's very luck all us club racers have money to burn eh?

[ashleyb4]

Run it again today no problem's at all!

Ash

[Hog]

Well I'm behind you Ash and I think there's an awful lot of Centro owners who will be too. Good on you for having a crack at it.

So when's the first production run?

[tony12795]

Ash,

Like Jonathan said we had massive problems getting it to last, testing it round Oswestry in autumn is no good, you need to test at big high grip track on a hot day with a fast motor. We could only get it to last for 3/4min before the lay shaft moved.

Good luck though and I hope you get it working.

Tony

[blue_pinky]

If you've got data for doing 3D printing why not get a quote for machining it too? The design might need adjusting slightly to make it easier to machine, but that wouldn't take much.

Machining it from solid will always give you a better part. Better material options and better strength/robustness.

3D printing will not currently compete with proper machined parts mechanically.

Just a thought

[OldTimer]

I have a feeling people might not be wanting to pay £50 plus for a gearbox ?. Thats how much they would be in acetal which is what i made the proto c4.1 gearbox's out of.

3D printing is a cheaper option and a lot less labour intensive, but its making them durable which is the hard part. If they can last a meeting on a hot summers day then thats progress

[blue_pinky]

That was really my point...

Personally, as I work with these types of processes every day with my work, I'd still be very wary of something that structural being made from 3D printing. It might work for less mechanically critical parts, or for short term testing, but not that gearbox in a long term robustness way anyway...as you found yourself!

3D printing will be great one day..and is improving all the time...but currently it is still really only a prototyping (or ornament making) process for most things...and that goes for the bigger industrial printing machines as well...not just the small desktop types.

Just understand the material and process before making promises to potential customers. CML might have got it wrong by not supporting the c4.1 any more, but you could also get it wrong promising people fully working gearboxes made that way

I look forward to being proved wrong though...it'd be a sign of 3D printing actually being that good already, and injection moulding companies needing to start worrying!

[CARB]

additative manufacturing is the capable of making a gear box, but with all this type of process an amount of machining is required, and non of those systems are quick enough.
A quick CNC is an option for metal parts, but numbers is the decider and unit cost.
check this link as it can laser weld titanium to gold powder in to any shape you can design
http://www.renishaw.com/en/additive-...cturing--15239

[Big G]

basically what it comes down to is exactly that. Money and Cost.

When the gearbox was available as a spare it retailed at £39.99 which in all fairness is a lot of money. Compare that to the C4.2's gearbox which retails at £6.99 and you get the point.

CML didn't discontinue the gearbox for the fun of it. They can't actually get anymore made without ordering a large quantity which isn't feasible to do.

[MHeadling]

I'm sure I saw an Ali C4.1 gearbox on the petit Rc site, I think Red Workshop made it

Not sure if it went into production or not?

[Mikey-D]

I totally agree, it comes down to the financial impact.

A replacement gearbox was £39.99, however a new conversion is approx £135, irrespective of the new gearbox being £6.99.

I also didn't throw my C4 in the bin for the fun of it, I did that because I was left with no other option by cml.

[ashleyb4]

It's still in the very early stages of testing nothing will be released or promised without extensive testing this thread was just to show an experiment a group of enthusiasts where trying. It has run for another 25 minutes none stop last night. No problems to report.

Ash

[northmeade]

If someone can send me the drawings or one to draw up I'd like to have a go at making some.

[rowley]

Originally Posted by ashleyb4

Something I've been asked to test things are going really well over an hours run time and no problems so far.







Ash

What printer did you use to print this?

[Hog]

Out of interest what's the most common cause of the "failure" of the original diff housing?

Is it where the screws for the rear shock tower strip?

[rc_penguin]

I don't mind making them out of alloy. But as said previously in this thread they won't be cheap, around £60 - £70 per box for say a small batch of 10 supplied un-anodised.

[wezzer]

Just to keep you all posted on this issue of the C4.1 gearbox we are in negotiations with the manufacturer of said gearbox and trying to get the minimum order quantity down to a more manageable amount without the gear box costing the earth to supply.
As soon as I have some information I will post it up here or alternatively if you wish to drop me an e-mail I will respond directly.
my e-mail is wes@cmldistribution.co.uk

[Hog]

[teapot30]

Originally Posted by steveproracing

Just looked. On centrorc.com they have got the c4.1 gearboxes in stock!
Again still off topic I'm afraid! Sorry.

I have tried to buy one of these... ordered it, went to checkout, paid for it (as I thought), then the order was cancelled... so there were none then (about 2 weeks ago) and are not making any more