These days I have been working on the designing the final drive assembly for the custom chopper scale model. Initially I planned to use a miniature chain drive, by using a kit from Top Studio (see details in an older post). But while working on Tamiya's Yamaha Roadstar kit, I found out that you can buy miniature belts in various sizes, the smallest one being 3 mm width with 1 mm pitch. They are designed mainly for robotics but would look good on the scale models as well. Check out at SDP-SI for their belts offering.
So with this idea in mind, I changed the CAD project to use a belt final drive. I am going to use the 3 mm width x 1 mm pitch belt and will design the pulleys so the belt length matches the models sold by SDP-SI.
One issue that surfaced when I added the belt and pulleys in the assembly was the clearance between frame and tire; the belt and pulley was rubbing both the frame and tire. I had to widen the frame rear to accommodate the new final drive assembly. It doesn't look so sleek as before but is not bad either. The rear fender will have a cut-off for clearing the belt, but I will not model it in Inventor.
One of the advantages of designing the scale model in a CAD software is that you can find such problems early. When working with metal you need to be precise because unlike plastic, once a part is cut it cannot be adjusted too much.
So with this idea in mind, I changed the CAD project to use a belt final drive. I am going to use the 3 mm width x 1 mm pitch belt and will design the pulleys so the belt length matches the models sold by SDP-SI.
One issue that surfaced when I added the belt and pulleys in the assembly was the clearance between frame and tire; the belt and pulley was rubbing both the frame and tire. I had to widen the frame rear to accommodate the new final drive assembly. It doesn't look so sleek as before but is not bad either. The rear fender will have a cut-off for clearing the belt, but I will not model it in Inventor.
One of the advantages of designing the scale model in a CAD software is that you can find such problems early. When working with metal you need to be precise because unlike plastic, once a part is cut it cannot be adjusted too much.
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