Another point I forgot to address near the end of the video is the use of stainless tube or titanium tube with m4 all thread to make links. This is definitly a better way to go about it as it is definitely stronger and will catch much less on rough surfaces less compared to aluminium links. However doing it this way has a higher material cost and will be more difficult when creating different diameter links. Creating links out of solid rod will always be stronger and will also look much better especially when introducing bends. At the end of the day either techniques works, and yes this technique is more complex and more time consuming but this is my prefered way of fabricating links. Happy Crawling!
Nice work. Very informative. I like how you used a drill motor as a miniature lathe. I also like your tube bender. 2 great tips that will be quite helpful not only for links but also for making tubular frames and such. Thanks for this awesome video. 👍👍
I really like it and will try and build something similar one of these days. I'm currently using ally links with the ends drilled and tapped using my mini lathe. And yes I'm going to use s/steel for the links next time. My only proper crawler is a cheapo modified FTX Ravine ( Danchee Ridge Rock)
If there's one thing I would do different I think I would use a stone or maybe even a file and didn't use the drill power to kind of go over everything instead of using a cutoff wheel that's the only thing I could see to do different you might get a better finish but man this is brilliant
Or you could put it in a dremel and clamp it in a vice...... or use a drill press as a vertical lathe/milling machine. All kinds of ways. Yours is very clean and a bit more precise id think
I respect making your own stuff, but a titanium link in any length and bend only costs $10 from RC Hardcore. Hard for me to justify this effort. Cool video though and inspiring.
Video's super good, until I had to go find others on how to actually get tight bends as this one relies on some random tool I can't actually acquire and don't have a shop to make..
Hey man i recently subscribed to your channel after coming across it on youtube. Awesome content! I was wondering if you could print a set of these link maker/helper for me? They look awesome!
@CRCG thanks, I've just tried your method but it seems my die wouldn't bite the rod. Do I have to use special kind of die for this job? I currently using regular steel die.
Im pretty sure it's just a regular die set, its just off the shelf from my local hardware store. Once you get the ends down to the right diameter, you can taper the tip slightly to help the die set initiate the threads. Some lubricant like cutting oil also helps too. Perhaps the type of steel of the rods also play a part, the rods I'm using are 304 stainless.
I'm using 304 SS, I did set the diameter to about 3.8mm and taper it but still it's hard to initiate the thread. Maybe the die quality is below average, I even tried it on brass rod, succeeded but it's still very hard.
@@CRCG_00 thanks, I've just tried your method but it seems my die wouldn't bite the rod. Do I have to use special kind of die for this job? I currently using regular steel die.
