Details for building a 1/6 Scale Radio Controlled Tank.

Wheels and tracks.

For the road wheels I have chosen some wheels from a childs bike stabliser.

These are rubber tyred the right diameter and correct thickness and the centers are almost scale also.

Both the drive wheel and the rear idler are going to be made from wood , the tracks will be friction drive so there will be no teeth on the idler just a rubber tyre.

Pros:- You will get the size you want - they are light - easy to make more if they become damaged.

Cons:- Time consuming both to construct and finish to a acceptable standard.

Tool choices are either:-

Bench saw [ I have a 10" but it scares the sh*t out of me !]

Jigsaw not accurate enough and hard work !

Router [ I did not have one at the time]

Bandsaw [ I do not have one]

The first thing I did was build a jig so I can get repeatable results. Picture shows the jig I use to cut wheels on my bench saw and also it goes on my drill press to allow the drilling of holes around a wheel.

The center spindle is a 12mm bolt as used for the axles etc .To cut a wheel a sacrificial piece is used [ the straw coloured square ] to which 2 pieces of plywood[ the wheel blanks] are pinned. This assembly is slowly turned on the jig whilst the saw is raised until both the blanks are cut. The sacrificial piece should really be even bigger as this protects your hand from accidentally dropping onto the saw , the guard has to be up otherwise it fouls the rotating blanks. The square edges are good as they help you to grip the piece as it is turned , also stand to the side of the saw as all the sawdust and corners that fly off all go forward. Really to do it safely it is a 2 man job.

 

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The parts for a Drive wheel can be seen here.

A:- Is the sacrificial piece that goes on top of the blanks to protect your fingers !

B:- A with 2 plywood blanks attached

C:- B after it has been cut on the saw

D:- Is the 12mm Axle bolt

E:- 

1 Outer ring cut from one blank

2 One blank with style holes drilled

3 inner cut from same blank as 1 [ waste not want not !]

4 Parts 1-2-3 assembled into a wheel 

Only another 26 to go !

Well my father came up Monday , and we spent from 10:00 till 14:00 cutting wheels !

The picture shows on the back row the blanks for the outer road wheels 3/8 plywood one for the wheel rear and one for the rim and center to give it some style.

The middle row shows the 3/4 plywood for the inner road wheels these will just be disks with no style at all.

The front left are the front idlers these need gluing together and spokes adding where the pencil marks are.

To the front right are the rear drive wheels these need gluing together and the rubber drive surface adding.

Tip

Always cut more parts than you need 10%-20% then grade all parts cut as either A [good] B [ok] C [hide somewhere!]

Then ensure the A's are the ones on show the B's can be put somewhere not to obvious and hope the C's are in the 10%-20% !

Tracks are probably the hardest part to build making them strong enough is difficult and  problems like shedding a track can be very hard to resolve.

So what to do ? Well read this!

http://www.rctankcombat.com/articles/track-systems/

Then select the one that suits your skills and budget !

I have chosen the TTS system [Tyng Track System]:-

http://www.rctankcombat.com/tanks/T005/

really I  think it wants renaming the Tedious Track System [ sorry steve !]

The track consist of outer tread parts , just MDF with a 10 degree slope on all faces.

Inner tread pieces also MDF which have the teeth attached sandwiched around a length of treadmill belt.

The inner piece has loads of pencil lines on it showing where to put the nails for the teeth so when I am sawing off the individual treads I do not saw through the nails. 

To make the inner pieces I took to 2 lengths of 1/2" square hardwood [ as this tank has 2 teeth per link ] and nailed and glued these to a piece of MDF the width of the track link with the long sides chamfered at 10 degrees.

The whole piece was then run through the saw 4 times [ one cut for each tooth side ] at 30 degrees to take the square edge off the teeth.

Then I built the jig shown opposite to run the above track pieces through it has a 10 degree slope so I can cut both long sides of each track link by turning it over once per link.

First with it the right way up I align it with the cut slot in the base and put a 10 degree slope on one edge , then turn it over and move it up to the stop I can now run a 10 degree slope on the other side and a link falls off the end ! 

The Hetzer needs around :-

87 treads per side +10% for bad ones = 95

both sides = 190

both inners and outers = 380

2 nail per tread for teeth  = 380 nails

3 nails to join all together = 570 nails

The picture on the left is the jig required to nail the treads to the treadmill belt.

The outers have glue put on them and then they are put into the jig except for the last space on the left [ not shown in the photo but left empty], then the belt is laid on from the right. The inner are pre-nailed and glue is put on then also then they are lined up with the pencil marks and the lower treads and nailed through.

The resulting track is lifted and moved to the left , the last link on the right of the track is put into the empty space on the left of the jig this ensures new links are the correct spacing with the rest of the track.  

This picture shows the outer and inner side of both the tracks at the point where they will be joined.

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This gives some idea of what it will look like with the rear idler and two drive wheels , searches on Flea Markets and car boot sales have not turned up any more Kids Stabilizer wheels yet so I may go with the wooded ones shown in the photo. 

This shows quite well the amount of flex in the track and how tight a radius it can go around

Joining TTS track systems need a Government Health Warning

1) You need more than one pair of hands - second pair should belong to someone over 18 and deaf [ see 2]

2) This must not be done in front of minors - the swearing involved would get you a small prison sentence [ see 1 ]

3) Do not do it having consumed any alcohol - preferable not in the last 48 hours.

Left is the jury rigging required to get the joint into the link jig.

This is how the joint looks when in the jig and awaiting the links glued and nailed over it , 8 in this case with the vertical cuts at each end of the splice arranged to be under a link.[ well that was the plan anyway !]

Don't forget the golden rule measure 12 times and very apprehensively cut once remembering at this point you can render a couple of weeks work useless if you get it wrong ! 

Well this is what they look like on !

                              !!! Yes !!!

The rear is ready but not yet glued on the front is on the top awaiting the towing eyes that can been seen on the rear part.

The rear idler is done ok , the front is currently just a mock up using both the inners as the new outers have been ruined by incorrect drilling and so I will need to make some new ones.

The picture on the left shows the inner parts for the drive wheel.

The items on the far left came from the kids toy I got the KCM's from [ 12v Motor Cycle ] and keyed the motors to the wheel.

I cut them down to end up with the grey piece shown at the bottom of the second column , the middle piece is a hardwood spacer used to maintain 1/2" gap between Hull and track and is slotted to key into the grey piece.

The large plywood wheel is the drive wheel this will have a rim on it to increase it's width to 1/2" and then a rubber tyre will be attached.

These wood bits will be nailed and glued together , along with the spacers needed to keep the 2 drive wheels the correct distance for the track teeth , to make a single drive wheel.

This will spin on a axle going thro both KCM's and retained with a Seeloc pin and washer at both ends. 

This is the make up of one of the road wheels.

The top shows a made up wheel.

The bottom shows the bolt every thing rides on with a washer at the bolt head then the wheel [this one has a rubber tyre made by gluing a band cut from a car inner tube ] and the bush will be glued and screwed to the wheel.

Then a washer and a pin will go through the bolt followed by yet another washer this will pass through the hull and be secured with a lock nut.