ASSEMBLY AND THE BIG REVEAL
Phase 3 of the series concerns the actual assembly, which, in theory at least, should be identical to the assembly of the Daniel’s design at its original scale. In practice, it was considerably more complex, due to the fact that Joel had to create 4x replicas of not only the car itself but also all the hardware that holds it together. And 400-percent-scale screws and bearing packs are not exactly off-the-shelf items. And since Joel’s show is called “3D Printing Nerd,” he was committed to 3D printing as much of the car as possible—including, as it turned out, the screws! Because the threads don’t scale up, he had to tap them to match his printed jumbo screws, and he printed bushings in the exact dimensions of the wheel bearings, figuring the inherent low friction of the PLA material combined with the weight of the vehicle itself would overcome the marginal increase in friction.
Joel created his giant-scale version of the Openr/c F1 car for the 2018 Midwest Reprap Festival (MRRF), which meant he had to ship the components to the event and save final assembly until he was on-site. And who better to help him with the heavy lifting than the designer himself, who was also in attendance? The final video chronicles that assembly at the show (in slightly accelerated form). The car goes together almost without a hitch; due to the precision of the printed parts, they fit together perfectly. Looking at the assembled car, the magnitude of this project really hits home. With its sheer size and all the crazy colors, the first impression isn’t so much that of an RC car as the world’s fastest, coolest-looking Power Wheels ride-on toy!