Carpet Racer 1:32 Slot Car body on an RC chassis

created on

Monday, 04 March 2024

Stefan Trucker

edited on

Tuesday, 06 January 2026

Projektlaufzeit

2018

Konstruktion Produkt Entwicklung 3D Druck

From a young age, I was fascinated by radio-controlled cars and always wanted them to be smaller yet faster. In 2000, I found a carpet racer at a model-making fair that had the body of a slot car and a carbon fiber chassis. Unfortunately, it was a DIY project, and I only ever got limited enjoyment out of it. When I started exploring the limits of 3D printing, I had the idea to finally make the little racer as fast as it had always been meant to be, naturally including an upgrade to LiPo batteries.

Modifications

Magnetic Body Mount

Originally, the body was fixed in place with a pin attached to the body using a small piece of silicone tubing. To do this, a hole had to be drilled into the beautiful body, and there was a piece of silicone tubing in the middle of the hood, which I didn't really like the look of.

The goal was to find another way to fix the body, and a way had to be found to close the hole again.

New Center Chassis for LiPo Batteries

To safely mount lithium batteries, I developed a new center chassis so that the two individual LiPo batteries could be securely stored, leaving enough room for the receiver and speed controller.

Werbung

New rims and tires from the 3D printer for ideal grip

Originally, the little racer was equipped with foam tires mounted on aluminum rims using double-sided tape. I had to mount the tires myself back then, and there's a trick: if you wet double-sided tape, it loses its stickiness, making it easy to put the tire on. As soon as the water evaporates, the foam sticks like glue. The tires performed very well on low-pile carpets, but the car tended to roll over easily due to the high center of gravity and the good grip. The tires also held up quite well on hard surfaces, as long as they weren't too slippery. The idea of printing air-filled tires myself could really make additive manufacturing shine, since solid rubber tires are easy to cast. As a first step, I looked for the softest TPU filament I could find, which at the time was Recura's TPU 70. It's an extremely difficult material to print, but with slow settings and a lot of patience, it can be done without any problems.

Verwendetes Equipment

SJT S1 mein erster Modularer 3D Drucker

Da ich beruflich schon über 5 Jahre mit 3D Druck zu tun hatte und privat auch schon mehrere Jahre einen günstigen China 3D Drucker hatte, aber einfach nicht mit der Leistung zufrieden war, aber auch keinen Drucker kaufen konnte, der all meine Anforderungen auf der Wunschliste abhakte, begann ich meinen eigenen zu entwickeln.

Fusion 360 - Autodesk

Autodesk Fusion 360 ist eine cloudbasierte Komplettlösung für 3D-CAD, CAM, CAE und Leiterplatten, die Konstruktion, Simulation und Fertigung in einer Plattform vereint.

OrcaSlicer

OrcaSlicer ist ein moderner, quelloffener Slicer, der deine 3D-Modelle (z. B. STL, OBJ, 3MF) in G-Code umwandelt – also in die Anweisungen, die dein 3D-Drucker benötigt, um Schicht für Schicht das Modell aufzubauen.

Entwickelt wird OrcaSlicer von SoftFever und der Community. Technisch gesehen ist es ein Fork von Bambu Studio, das wiederum auf PrusaSlicer und letztlich auf Slic3r basiert. Mit anderen Worten: OrcaSlicer steht auf den Schultern bewährter Open-Source-Giganten, bringt aber eigene Verbesserungen und Funktionen mit, die über die Basis hinausgehen.

Reparieren und Modden des LRP Shark 18 RC-Car

Der LRP Shark 18 wurde von mir Anfang 2000 gekauft, als ich noch zur Schule ging und war schon damals mit einigen Umsetzungen nie zufrieden. Dank 3D Druck konnte ich die Macken ausbügeln und Ersatz- bzw. Tuningteile drucken, die man nicht mehr nachkaufen kann und die besser funktionieren als die Originalen.