by Florida_Slotter » Fri Nov 02, 2012 4:19 pm
Okay, we won't be going back to Flip Wilson days.
Ted Sookochoff, aka "Tsooko" and I have been keeping in contact during my recovery period. Recently our discussion got around to "Jaildoor" type of slot car construction that was widely used back in the 60's. I got to thinking and came up with the idea of using the brass rod and some piano wire to make a chassis. Making the cutouts for wheels and such is so much easier then having to cut it away from a brass plate. So I got to work.
Fortunately I had some bits and pieces lying about, so I grabbe one of the fine FF50 motors that Kihm of Slot Car Express, some tires & wheels from Ranch-Design, a lexan body from Ranch-Design as well as one of their guide flag kits. Once I got started, the car almost fell together.
Brass is just so much easier to work with then piano/music wire. It's softer, easier to cut and much easier to solder. But it also will fold up a lot easier. But if you use at least a single run of this wire, it makes the chassis a whole lot stiffer and durable.
I made a 'loop' out of 1/16 piano wire that had an inside dimension of .460. This allows the FF50 motor to lie between the rails. Then I added some 1/16 brass rod to add weight to the center section of the chassis. I was going to go with just a fixed guide mount, but what the heck, we used drop arms back when this techonology was the latest and greatest. So I just had to build a drop arm on this chassis. It only moves down about .035 and that's all it will ever need.
The body I am using is one of Ranch-Designs lexan Porsche RS Spyders. The Carrera GO Porsche RS Spyder will also fit the chassis, so I have a choice.
Hopefully I will get it on the track in the next day or so to see how it runs. But it's easy to build and makes a great base for doing just about any chassis you might want to build.
If the testing proves the validity of this design, I will be doing a step by step process of building your own.