So after one season of battling, and some rocks, I noticed my Derf's stuffing tubes, made in the traditional brass manner, had taken a bit of a beating, had broken their struts loose, there were cracks in the skegs, and the tubes themselves had taken a bend. So I did the logical thing, I ripped them out. In small pieces of course. Originally I was going to just make new brass ones, and do what I could to stiffen them up and build better skegs. (If at first you don't suceed, try again) Hovey had a better idea - why not go stainless steel. So I acquired some. Hovey cut it down, then turned down one end to slide into the traxxas gearboxes. He opened up the interior a little, enough to press-fit the a set of oilite bushings. .735" OD stainless tube, with 0.65" walls. If these bend or break I've got a bigger problem... See how nicely Hovey beveled the edges leading up to the prop hub? Well maybe you can't, but I can, and it is awesome. Thanks Hovey!
now for extra fun, you can grease up the tubes when you epoxy them in.... if done right you now have stuffing tubes that are readily removed as necessary for maintenance and replacement (or just chaning prop position)
Hehe, the things you can make with a lathe. If only my mill worked half as well. I really doubt those will ever need replacement. Anything that hits those hard enough to dent them will break a lot of other things as well.
it is more the bushings than the tubes (and the option to play with lengths easily) you always have the option of never removing them .
Hrm, well, with the pressfit on those bushings, theyre going to be hard to get out. We tried to pull one yesterday when we realized we needed to take the tube length down a little more and ended up having to cut it out.
exactly. so if you do need to service them, remove the whole tube to work on it. either way, the stainless tubes should be nicely robust
Actually all you need to tap a bushing out is a slightly bent shaft. It goes in straight and then hits the edge on the far end. I didnt want to bend a good stainless shaft yesterday, but if mounted I wouldnt hesitate. I tapped then in by hand so they arent that tight in there. Done it plenty of times in the past.
