3D Printed Leaf Springs on a 1/25 Scale RC Trans Am 🔧 Will They Work? 

This has been a fun little side quest for me. I played around with leaf springs awhile ago but after getting so many requests recently to make some that work with the MA10, I've once again been trying to make them work. Should be a fun little project for me, and hopefully you all as well. As always thanks for watching everyone! 👍

I had a gold one back in the day. Building a RC one is probably the closest I'll come to owning another one.

Lovely video! We have recently started 3d printing with PU filaments and I think that a mix\match of materials like cf reinforced nylon and polyurethane could lead to great results on a rc model!

Leaf springs primitive, warts and all. I wish would be embraced by R/C hobbyists for the onroad car chassis, not just the scale diesel trucks and crawlers. Not an expert but historically leaf springs played a big part in production cars in North America and it would be really cool to see some vintage stock car, and street stock, traditional hot rod drag racing to go with the no prep. What your doing is awesome in a smaller scale. Your builds are amazing.

Oil filled shocks would also be a nice experiment to try. I guess you could also just add some weight in the back and use stiffer leaves.

Leafs on 1:24th have always been a pain (matching them, getting the length, adjusting and doing the ends) espesh, using the spring from the inside of a mini tape measure/clockwork toy. Maybe you could combi? 3D ends and shackles for the sprung steel. Gr8 vid, btw.

U have the general lee!,paint this like smokey and the bandit😤🖤

It's awesome seeing you attempt to tackle leaf springs for small scale rc's like this! I've been playing with the idea of trying to figure out how to create a scale (ish) leaf spring setup for my scx24, but I honestly don't think I know enough about solid axle suspension geometry to do it myself.

You can always design an extremely soft leaf spring and then design a shock absorber that has a coil spring inside to make it more adjustable.

Aluminum cans are greats for leaf spring strips.

I love this idea/project. I think you’re on the right track with adding coil springs to your design as the 1:1 applications get some assistance from the shocks. I would imagine you’d only need springs long enough to have it sit in the stance you want. I’m sure you’re experimenting with a bunch of ideas, you got me thinking of possible solutions for the sag issue. The quickest would be to try and add additional leaf(s) especially since you have more room in the new axel mounts. I’m also not sure if ABS or PETG is an option as I understand it’s more flex friendly than PLA, though I’m not sure if they’d be stiffer. I look forward to seeing how this evolves at the end!

I like the white and gold don't see that often

Very nice 👍

That looks like the real deal

yep, need more tests with another plastics like petg, abs or some other variants...

Ninja flex might work well. This kits going to look great though. One of my favorite cars

Great video! Nice to see a ma10 specifically made for leafsprings. I made my own leafsprings for a revell 69 mustang. I know the pain of every spring being to stiff lol. A freaking scx24 is a boat anchor compared to these little styrene models. Long story short I used a spring out of a little tape measure. Cut it up into leafs and hand made all my own brackets. Your set up looks way easier and looks like it works way better lol. I know those 3d parts like to sagbut having to replacing them 30 times over would still be easier than what I did for mine lol. I too enjoy the challenge of these little models, but I'm going to let the 3d printer do the hard work next time keep up the good work 🖒

I definitely think using a hidden coil spring as the actual suspension. And use a pair of dummy leafs as more of track locators

You might think about making them a few mill shorter or moving the shackle mount a little further back. It looked like the shackles were laying down against the chassis. That doesn’t allow the suspension to compress like it should.

I like this. I need a kit. Plug and play.

You should try printing over piano string. Just add hollow point in the center of the spring end to end, enter a stop point during printing. Insert piano string. Then continue printing.

"What's the Fun , if you don't have to work for it." - such and Engineer. (Says the Civil P.E.) Great video.

Try adding a little weight to the chassis to lower ride height. Brass works well.

Yep I must be crazy I'm just converting a 1/6 toy grade RC F350 Super Duty pick up into an Excursion with custom metal floorpan and solid axles from a 1/8 crawler. Been at it for months now! 😱 love the channel buddy just wish had the cash and skillset to run a 3d printer!

Use the metal coil that retracts ID. Those things that holds your work ID that has a string attached to it..you can pull it then it retracts. That metal spring/coil that is inside.

I think a box style wide body would look epic for this build

Hey in 1978 they actually used a fiberglass composite mono leaf on the back of the corvette

Take a look into the orlandoo hunter m01 military truck it has leaf springs and u bolts. 32nd scale rc and they are soft. Great work with 3d printing too.

I’d love to have 3D printer skills like this, I’d absolutely make a RC dodge stealth

if Paccar had success with there composite leaf springs I really believe you can also with your 3d printed ones

Might need a traction bar or latter bar if it twist the spring, wheel hop

Have you thought about ever building a 1/24 scale crawling truck?

Smokey and the Bandit

For your own use unroll a coil spring and integrate in the mold.

Paint the shell black, but keep the gold bits

Have you tried battery strips? They're very thin and springy

Try sheet aluminum? Or 3d print with a less dense aluminum,/metal strapping for like ac units?

Hey, have you ever thought of making a 1/24 truck.

Leafs rule

Hey! I was wondering if you could make an off-road/ rally type car? Like a Chevy s10, or something like that?

Did you get my question? What happened to your 72 Chevy Pre runner?

What if you made the first Leaf that connects the body to the rear end out of your 3D printed composite and the additional leaf out of spring steel

Would it be possibly to design a standard sized tub the has a full driver and seat molded as 1 hollow piece? To then hide the electronic pack inside the drivers body while still having a proper depth floor pan?

I'd imagine that carbon fiber filament might help with durability of the leafs.

you can use the springs from a cheap push and pull toy cars

dawg please give tips on how to make a model kit into a rc

Do you make rc parts for 1/16th scale cars also?

I dunno if it would work well or not, but put a little channel into the leafs and use very light weight piano wire?

How about piano wire. Comes in different diameters. Create a channel on top side of spring to lay wire in. If I calculated correctly, wouldn’t this car weight around 134 lbs at scale?

OR ORRRRR use the inside of a retractable tape measure...that spring/coil metal is a bit thicker. Let's us know if that works, for you. I haven't had the time to do.

How did you get an exact copy of the body into cad?

Consider gold wheels