Adapter hub for RC toy to make a side paddle wheel boat.

thingiverse

This hub converts a differential drive Battle Wheels radio controlled toy into a side paddle wheel drive.\nThe end of the original toy's hex shaft has a screw hole. To print this hub without support, I added a guidance dimple for drilling through before inserting the screw.\nI made the 4 paddles from polyethylene margarine tubs with their curves facing backward. The paddles bend to protect against impacts on obstacles but spring back into shape afterwards. They turned out to be 73mm long by 53mm wide, varying in size due to my indifference.\nThe minimal boat I built using closed cell packing foam easily pulled itself onto the small ice chunk and clawed its way over to the other side of our melt-water puddles. My fearless 7-year-old tried it first :)\nWaterproof your electronics before trying this as the paddles fling water quite high. The arched roof I made with the plastic window from the original box was not enough when the thing flipped over completely.\nPrint Settings\nPrinter Brand: Solidoodle\nPrinter: Press\nRafts: No\nSupports: No\nResolution: Does not matter\nInfill: 25% worked well\nNotes: I have only printed this in ABS. Experiences with other materials are welcome!\nThe slot size is worth trying some coupon prints for as it turned out that the smooshed extra on the bottom layers sliced into the polyethylene enough to hold very securely without any hardware.\nI provided a test jig for the hexagon sides that was good enough for me, but I might enhance it to print the sizes next to the holes later, with the sizes in mm being:\n5.5\n5.94444\n6.38889\n6.83333\n7.27778\n7.72222\n8.16667\n8.61111\n9.05556\nPost-Printing\nRemember to drill out the screw hole where the dimple is on the hexagonal side!\nHow I Designed This\nI opened Open Scad and iterated a few times to find the correct size for the hexagonal hole in ABS.