We have lots of people who ask for contact information for the shop and website, either be at race events or even at the shop, I usually just scribble the URL and Phone on a paper, but now that we have some sponsored drivers, the need for business card was growing, so today i ordered some

Here is the design, on the back I left a space for the person who gives the card to put his or her name.

Looks good .. I think

Popularity: 37% [?]

I was one of the “very small” sponsors at the Neo08 .. we also advertise at the Neo-Buggy site .. so as such I got to send some banner to the event

Phil (Neo) told me I could send up to 3 meters by 2 meters, but by the life of me, I could not figure how it would be used, so instead I did 7 feet by 3 feet .. the normal size to go on the side fence of a track.

I was really pissed when I arrived at the Neo and saw 3 SIIM banners that where 3 meters by 2 meters on the back wall, towering above all others and very visible .. yep, i was kicing myself .. thats OK, now I know better and next year I will do them that big.

Anyway, looking at the Neo pics today I finally found some with our banner in the background .. yeah, I’m pathetic .. but I was proud of being able to advertise there

Our banners in the Background

See the nice SIIM banner above ours (being obscured by the crowd) .. thats what i’ll do next year

Popularity: 33% [?]

Yesterday we received the Banner we will use for the Neo08 race in Harper Adams.

RC NUT is a sponsor (a small one), so we get to put a banner on the track for the 4 day event, I got the banner from colourbanners.co.uk .. very reasonable prices .. and looks great

Popularity: 29% [?]

Last week a customer at RC NUT asked me if I would take this old Helicopter as a trade in for a M.A.S.H. Counter rotating Heli.

I offered him £50 for trade, today we settled for £60

And here it is, it’s a beast, size 60 I believe .. and it’s NITRO

I have no idea what is really worth, since it’s quite old, but with a little bit of TLC I will make it into a show piece at the shop, it’s so big that size alone will impress visitors.

Or perhaps i’ll just take it apart and rebuild it and see if it will fly again .. either way, I think it was a good deal …

Popularity: 43% [?]

On March of last year, Ash from BMM posted a howto on modifying the SMD box to work with the Losi 8IGHT-T

Since then, it’s been countless times that I have had to dig for it to help somebody on the various forums that ask how to do it, so I decided to just post it on my forum, this way I know how to find it in a Hurry .. this is Ash’s (Ashalak ) guide, not mine.

Firstly you need to remove your motors and starting assembly from underneath the starter box, this is easily done by removing the 3 screws as shown:

Once removed you will note that there is actually a second set of three holes on the underside of the starter motor assembly, you need to re-attach the starter motor assembly with the three alternative three mounting holes. This moves the motor assembly more into the centre line of the starter box which helps align the starter wheel much more accurately with the centrally mounted engine in the 8T.

Next we move on to adjusting the guides, first of all the front guide needs to be positioned all the way down toward the edge of the box, and then tighten up the two screws securing the bracket to the lid:

For the rear guide we need to completely remove it in order to remove some material from the underside, this is best achieved with either a very sharp hobby knife or my personal favourite method - The Dremel! The section which we need to remove is the small plastic lug on the underside of the guide, you need to remove this lug entirely ensuring that you make this area entirely flat in relation to the rest of the guide:

Finally you can re-attach the rear guide onto the starter box lid, however you are only required to mount the inner most securing lug on the underside of the lid. Don’t forget to put the nuts in on the underside of the guide for the mounting pegs as you will be required to remove the guide completely again to do so. With the rear guide secured with only one lug slide the guide all the way back and align the whole in the top guide, with the hole in the rear switch mechanism on the starter box. Rather than having an individual screw for securing the lid to the mounting switch, we need to use a slightly longer screw to mount through the rear hole in the guide and into the hole in the switch mechanism:

The final step is simply adjusting the front and rear mounting pegs on the guides in order to secure the chassis. You are also able to move the complete starter motor assembly forward or backwards in relation to the opening in the chassis, this is easily done be loosening off the three screws shown in the first step and positioning the wheel so that it is central with the flywheel opening. Here is what everything should look like when setup correctly:

Hope this helped!

it sure did

Popularity: 85% [?]

I sold a Fioroni Turbo Sliding Clutch to George about 4 - 5 days ago, upon receiving it, he reported that when he mounted it, the flywheel jammed to the engine and would not turn, and even worst, he now could not remove the flywheel nut, when he turned it, the shaft rotated with it and the flywheel remained in place.

Since George is a bit inexperienced, I suspected perhaps he forgot to put a collet in, I was further sure of that when he seems not to know what a collet is ..

To avoid damaging the engine, I asked him to send it to me and i’d take a look, well, it just arrived today…

Here is the beast, it’s quite a large engine, the Hong Nor RTR’s comes with them by default .. I can only imagine how insane a CR Buggy must be with one of those, anyway, back to the topic on hand.

You can definitely see how tight the flywheel is to the engine, I am at this point 99% sure the collet is missing (or is just way to small), I noticed George had done some superficial damage to the flywheel (some mole grips perhaps) .. I wanted to avoid doing further damage to it, so it was time to pull out the big gun … the piston locker

Now, I am ashamed to say so, but I actually never used one of them before, so I puled one off the shelf, it’s a good toll to have in my pitbox anyway ..

For those who dont know, this is how it works, you screw it into your glowplug socket, the protrusion on it will sit nicely on top of your piston head, preventing it from traveling upwards, therefore locking the piston and allowing you to tight or un-tight a flywheel with no need to use any mole grips or anything else on the flywheel itself, or in this case, since the flywheel had no grip, be able to remove the nut .. period.

I must say, I was pleasantly surprised at how easy having the piston locker makes the whole ordeal ..

And voila .. once the flywheel was out .. the problem was quite visible .. indeed there was no collet

A whopping £2.99 later, and a nice new Hong Nor Collet (or taper cone as some call it) was in place

And there you have it, the flywheel is safely tight in place, and a nice gap shows between it and the engine, it turns just as it should … the whole repair costed exactly £2.99 and took 15 minutes … no sign of any damage to the engine, and the scrapes George did on the flywheel are just cosmetic .. in a few weeks of using it with the starter box, you wont seem them anymore

What did I learn from this ordeal ?, stop busting your behind with zip ties on the top of the piston or mole grips on the flywheel, definitely get a piston or crankshaft locker .. well worth it.

Popularity: 38% [?]

Today I took a 2 Hour drive to visit The Hobby Co .. the distributors of Tamiya, Italeri, Carson, and a few others, they invited us over for a little bit of relations mending .. to show they are a “nice company” and the bad experience we had with the rep should not put us off … O-K

Paul (Racing buddy) came along with me, we where quite excited to check out the distributor’s place and see what great toys they might have, and of course, what products I should consider for the shop.

I must say, their building was quite nice, but not a single indication that it’s them, no signs, no name at the door, nothing .. I guess they dont want people knocking at the door and asking for repairs

Overall it was a pleasant experience, I was trilled to check the Tamiya 1/14th Big Rig trucks, they where quite impressive, and there where a few other bits and bops that looked “nice” .. but in general, I was not trilled… there was really nothing new, neither there was any one product I felt the need to pull the credit card out for.

So .. we will of course stock the Tamiya plastic models and paints, and some of their on road electric cars, not sure if we will bother with any of the Carson RC line, they also sell Ninco slot cars .. it looked interesting, perhaps something to consider in the future .. but for now, it’s Just Tamiya and Italeri.

Popularity: 24% [?]

While cleaning my workbench, I found 3 shims that looked to be the exact size of a shaft … I have no clue where I got them :p

So I try it on the CB screw .. and sure enough … it fits !!!

I ended up by only using 2 .. but now it’s PERFECT !!! .. it’s ultra-smooth and no more worries of the CB freezing up

now if I could only remember what those shims are …….

Technorati Tags: 8IGHT-T, 8T, Fioroni, RC

Popularity: 46% [?]

For some reason my 8T keeps on eating bearings, I setup the mesh properly and by the book, but still, it’s a new bearing every meeting or two.

Also the CB temperatures go quite high, so I was logging for a vented CB instead.

After allot of reading, I decided to try the Fioroni Turbo sliding clutch .. it just looks so simple and hassle free

So I bought the following:

• FIO-OT-FR51 Fioroni Turbo Sliding Clutch Flywheel + Nut
• FIO-OT-FR52 Fioroni Carbon (Black) Turbo Sliding Clutch + Clutch Shim
• FIO-OT-FR36 Fioroni Replacement Sliding Clutch Springs (6)
• ENA-K6501-13 K Factory 13T HD 1/8th Vented Clutch Bell

Also got a King Headz 8/8T extended motor mount.

So first things first, the CB came undone on the last race, so time to get it out

And a record this time, both bearings are gone, probably when one failed, the CB moved and killed the other one …

I kept the 8T collet, and proceeded to install the flywheel … nothing exciting there, but look how different it looks …

This is how the shoes look, it’s a very simple design, also, extremely easy to install (and quick .. a major plus if one is in a hurry between heats)

I used the 3 springs, so the clutch engages at higher RPM .. which means a faster sprint out of the starting line, I just hope it wont be too much of a push coming out of the corners, but we shall see, it’s uber-easy to remove a spring if I need it anyway

And here it is on the flywheel .. no messing around with clutch tools and funky springs .. Just slide it in and you done.

The large shim goes here

And last, the vented 13T clutchbell … it looks really nice …

Here I an into some problems … the shaft of the V-Spec is not long enough, so it recesses into the front bearing by a little over 1MM, so every time I tighten the CB screw, the whole CB would frozen .. after asking aroudn fro some help, it was evident I needed a shaft extension, the screw that comes with the 8T clutch does have a recessed washer with a small extension, but it was not enough .. I took the whole thing apart and tighten the flywheel as much as I could, that gave me another 1/2 MM or so, which was enough to make the 8T C B screw/washer work .. but I am not yet 100% happy, I am trying to find a shim that is the same size as the shaft to work as an extender.

And yes, I do have the OFNA Clutch/Nut shim kit .. but the shaft extenders there are too big, it would need allot of shimming and probably hit the fuel thank anyway.

But regardless, it works for now, and sure enough it spins nicely.

Last step was to setup the King Headz engine mount

I did set the engine blocks on the reverse, to push the engine forward 2MM .. that was enough to make this CB line up nicely with the spur gear

And that’s it … now I need to clean the engine (yes, it is dirty .. I know) … and I will test the whole setup next week at SpeedWay RC track …

I am really excited over this setup .. I just love the ease of maintenance, I might also try the teflon/glass shoes (FIO-OT-FR53) if the carbon ones prove too aggressive .. we shall see ..

Technorati Tags: 8IGHT-T, 8T, Fioroni, LST2, RC

Popularity: 62% [?]