green rc tricks!

[Fiero_Man_121]

i more times than not am forced to ghetto-rig stuff to work and wind up recycling scrap stuff, and also look at ways of using alternatives to things that i normaly would toss away. for example i use rubber twist ties in place of zip ties or re-use zip ties. i started doing it from day one because of the very distant location of the (not so local)hobby shop, and because before i had a job i had, at most, 10 bucks on me a month so i was forced to do a lot with very little.

so heres what im asking, post up any trick you have that is either eco friendly (besides going electric:D) or any trick you have that saves money or are cheap one-time investments that go a long way towards saving money for those hobbyists that are on a limited income.

ill start, instead of buying new drive pins everytime you lose a set, use used nail gun nails cut into corectly sized peices.

[Fiero_Man_121]

more:

scrap lexan mud sheilds

using canola oil as shock fluid

using canola oil to put a shine to carbon fiber

old car mats (or old rags) as work pads

using striped circut boards as brackets (it is fiberglass so why not??)

edit: some of these arnt mine. just fyi;)

[Maxx man]

cutting board chassie for a pede... but thats not mine...

[Fiero_Man_121]

its ok if its not yours, its a good idea...

[roadrunnr43]

plastic packaging is free, but you have to buy the stuff inside. it makes great
replacement windows and any thing else you need thin lexan for.

[Maxx man]

use tires till they are bald:D and cut pieces of a waterbottle for new stearing linkedges for micro-t's
4859

[snownitro]

dont buy a new body; instead paint your old body over with white, then you got a new body without spending $25

[Maxx man]

dont buy a new body; instead paint your old body over with white, then you got a new body without spending $25

paint were?

[Fiero_Man_121]

outside, you could also go flat black:D

or you could cut off the whole rear end of the body... and use strips of old flex cuffs as boddy posts:p

[Maxx man]

lol I think you may need to start saving up for a new body lol that half body is kinda weird...

oh and if you rip a large hole in you body use a bandade to fix it:D
4861

[Fiero_Man_121]

lol is all i can say

[Maxx man]

to what the shell with the bandade?

I think its awsome

[Fiero_Man_121]

yeah

bdw i just burned myself so bad on my soldering iron that the skin is still on the iron:eek:

[Maxx man]

ouch!!!!!!! sounds like it hurt

[OldSchoolRC]

here's a little trick i always use - for slower speed cars that are not too hard on the tires, use a wide rubber band inside the rim bead ilo gluing the tires. it doesn't let the tire slip nearly at all, and when the tire wears out, you can re-use the rim. Not recommended for brushless, but i use it on all my scalers, so i can swap out tires whenever i feel like it. :) I think my lunchbox has rubber bands in it from 1993 still.

ilo O rings, i use old scrap fuel tubing to make little o-rings to shim up driveshafts inside the cups.

buy a 12 pack of cheap bic pens, remove the ink and trim them down, and they make decent body mounts or with silver paint, exhaust pipes.

umm....all i can think of offhand, if i look around the workshop, i can probably find 20 more.

[GOAT]

if you need to quickly lock your ball diffput fuel tubing in the plates also use it for replacement slipper pads on the new and old slipper clutch on traxxas vehickles. also if you lose the spring retainer clip use body clips:D

[Maxx man]

lol I use the same thing with the body clip as a shock retainer for my tamiya vanquish:D

[Philderbeast]

I used scrap leaxn from my mini t body to repair damage to the stampede body. Cut a peice to fit where the repair is going, melt it down with a plastic welder or soldering iron. The soldering iron you can form the shape of the body. I used a peice inside and a peice outside. Melted everything together, and used the soldering gun tip to make a new body post hole. It worked for a while, but many brutal jumps later, and it is time to do it again. But I am out of lexan at the moment.

[Maxx man]

lol thats awsome

[Der_Meister]

here's one for ya. it allows you to save some dough and save the planet a little at the same time (less tires in the landfill is saving the planet aint it?)
when your tires go bald, simply de-bond them form the rims. (i actually did this set with an x-acto knife and a lot of time and patents). pull out the foam, turn the tire inside out, reinstall the foam and reglue the inside out tire to rim. (tires shown: losi taper-pin)
i actually saw Brian Kinwald do this in the search of traction back in his days with losi. i tried it in search of saving a buck. works a hole lot better than slicks and lets you get a little more life out of the tires
http://i76.photobucket.com/albums/j6/st_dragn_wagen/RC%20Cars/tire.jpg

[Maxx man]

lol thats pretty cool... do most tires have insides that are textured?

[Der_Meister]

every set of 2.2 off road tires iv ever run has had some sort of "tread" inside like that. i think all the 1/8 scale buggy tires have to. not sure about monster trucks, i would imagine they would.
on road idk about, it would make for some good rally tires if they do!

[Lyric]

ill keep that in mind when my tires bald cause i mostly run on the road anyway

[Maxx man]

ill keep that in mind when my tires bald cause i mostly run on the road anyway

haha I run almost offroad all the time... were like oposites... you run onroad I run off... you like nitro I like electric lololololol

[Lyric]

yea we are kinda opposite maby thats a good thing most people who are opposite get along with each other better

[Maxx man]

yea we are kinda opposite maby thats a good thing most people who are opposite get along with each other better

that is kinda true lol

[maxximizer]

you could clean old air filters with hot soapy water.
or even use the cleaner portion from a K&N airfilter recharger kit.
To save a few more bucks you could go to your nearest shop that sells dirt bikes and get a can of their airfilter oil, works the same and one can lasts a long time. I use some stuff called "PJ1" foam filter treatment spray.

[SilentAgent047]

you could clean old air filters with hot soapy water.
or even use the cleaner portion from a K&N airfilter recharger kit.
To save a few more bucks you could go to your nearest shop that sells dirt bikes and get a can of their airfilter oil, works the same and one can lasts a long time. I use some stuff called "PJ1" foam filter treatment spray.

+1 on this!!

[OldSchoolRC]

Here is some more goofy stuff from the school of old:

If you sell RC stuff every now and again, save your old RC mags and instead of using a bunch of office store bubble wrap, save yourself some $$ and rip out the pages, crumple them up and use them for packing material. Plus, they get an RC in the mail with some nice reading material!

Boiling tires can remove them from old rims so the rims/foams can be resused. Some rims though will not make it through the boil, though most will and BE CAREFUL!

Throwing out that old coffee pot? Hair dryer? Remember, most of these are made of ABS and can be cut and glued like regular styrene. I've made a touring car wing cut out of an old Mr. Coffee coffeemaker, and sliced and diced several old household items to raid the complex curves molded in for some of my projects.

Keep an old motor handy and use it to magnetize...everything! All of my hex wrenches, pliers and screwdrivers are magnetized - I drop far less nuts and screws that way. Plus, really helps hold the screw on the end to get them into a tight place without too much fuss. Just run whatever you are magnetizing over the motor in 1 direction a few times and it will act like a magnet.

[Gwandson]

I have wiped the old paint away with thinner before with good results takes a little while but works even on very old paint then repaint to save money

[Gwandson]

Maybe for the younger guys I never trash a battery when it stops working good before I take it apart and check each cell separately most of the time only one or two cells is bad I then use the good cell to build new packs but only with the same type of battery that has the same mah rateing that is why I try to buy the same types of batteries ep4600 works very well

[Sandman77]

Use old bald off road tyres for on road use/speed runs

[Gwandson]

Everyone usually has some pieces of wood laying around. Cut 'em up and make a car stand no money involved save the 20 bucks for more parts

[Gwandson]

Wd40 cuts the leftover servo tape glue very well or any kind of duck tape glue you need to get off of something

[Bobby]

Use window-screen on the inside of larger body cutouts to keep out rocks and debris.

[greggreg2011]

awsome body talk in here. im not 1 to purchase a new body at all,i love zip ties. unless it is a show car it doesnt really natter what it looks like just how it performs. would put in a green tip but i dont really have any that i know of. i do keep alot of old parts and use what i can here n there

[roadrunnr43]

just as a reminder, nail polish works as threadlocker. and it comes in an assortment of fashionable colors. :p

[40mphallday]

^^ my twuck got an owiiie!!

Hmm.. You can make sure you recycle old battery packs and not just throw them out! Try to find a friend who would want one. :)

[Gwandson]

had a pin lost in 1/8 buggy cva so I took a broken drill bit the same size and put it in there , cut off the excess and rolling again. Just a thought working for now.

[Der_Meister]

that one reminds me. when i broke a wheel drive pin. i simply took the kit supplied L wrench, hacked a pin length off, stuck that through the axle and like magic, free drive pin! works good to, been in use sense 2001!

[Gwandson]

Yeah done that on dogbones before too. Push the broken one out with vise and push new steel pin out of what ever will fit and drive on.

[Hoosier14]

im very prone to ghetto rigging, but cant think of anything to post here