A boxed RC car costs less than you’d think. One printed from scratch costs more, takes months and breaks every now and then. Naturally I went for the second.
Threaded inserts
February 2022. Before any assembly, the parts need preparing: printed plastic doesn’t hold screws for long, so every hole gets a brass threaded insert, pressed in hot with the soldering iron. There are dozens of them. It’s the best way to spend an evening and the worst way to keep your fingers unburnt.
Suspension and steering
Then the chassis, in lime green, and the suspension arms in light blue, with real blue aluminium shocks. A servo handles the steering, the little motor that turns the front wheels on command.
March 2022: the chassis is complete, with suspension at all four corners and the mechanics in place. Seen from above it looks like a colourful skeleton.
The tyres
The final twist: the tyres are printed too. In TPU, a flexible filament, with a sculpted tread. They flex, they grip, and they’re green. There’s a reason nobody sells green tyres, but I like them.
