1/16 Scale FrankenDiff

[ddmckee54]

Well, my shipment of donor axles failed to arrive. Apparently the US Postal Service lost my order, they were the last to touch it on October 29th - after that the order apparently disappeared into La-La land. I got a refund on that order and placed another order, this time from a US shipper. That order is supposed to get here Friday.

I did re-make the top die for the U-bolt bending contraption, milled it out of a chunk of 1/4"x3/4" hot-rolled flat stock that I had laying around. There was some improvement, but not as much as I would have liked. However, squeezing the legs of the U-bolt while it's still in the top die closes things up nicely. I haven't threaded the legs of the U-bolt yet, I've just been trying to get as close to a 90 degree bend as I can. Now I'm thinking that the way I'm forming the legs of the U-bolt will just smear those little M2 threads out of existence. I think if I slip some brass tubing over the threaded sections before I bend the legs, that should keep the M2 threads for being destroyed. I'll need to modify the lower die to accommodate the tubing though.

My order of 6mm OD O-rings arrived yesterday. Those are for the equalizer beam pivot brackets, to allow things to flex a little. I don't think I've ever received a package that was as well protected as that one was. The O-rings, all 100 of the little suckers, were in a small zip-lock bag. This bag, and a thank you for your order note, were then put in a slightly larger zip-lock bag and wrapped in a double layer of bubble-wrap. All of the above was stuffed into a bubble-wrap lined shipping envelope, which the US Postal Service actually delivered to me this time.

Since I had to modify both the front and rear differential housings, to give me a fixed location for the equalizer beam and torque rod pivot brackets, I need to re-print the diff housings. Soooo... I might as well change the filament in the plastic-pooping-robot over to black. That way I "shouldn't" have to paint the suspension parts black. I might as well print out enough parts for both axles while I'm at it.

Don