RC Wheel Cleaner Parts - DIY

thingiverse

Using any suitably sized plastic container (plastic ammo boxes work great), you can make a DIY wheel cleaner for 1/10 and 1/8 scale off-road vehicles. Once printed, take a 90mm length of 4 or 5mm steel rod or threaded rod and heat set it into the end of each axle by about 20mm, leaving the remainder poking out. Also find a spare 5mm allen key (if you've made any flat pack furniture like me you'll have hundreds of these lying around!), cut off a 30mm section, and heat set that into the 'drill bit adapter'. Taking your plastic container, you want to hot glue a scrubbing brush to the bottom of it, then hot glue a section of jute 'welcome mat' to one side of the same box (for cleaning the sidewall of the tire). Now measure the tire you want to clean and take the radius of it, subtract 5mm from that measurement, and drill a hole in your box that number of mm above the bristles of the scrubbing brush, in the side of the container. Ensure the hole is the same size as the relevant axle you'll be using (there are two axles, 12mm hex and 17mm hex). In the opposite side of the box drill a 5mm hole for the steel rod to poke through. Make a set of two holes like this for each wheel size you want the cleaner to clean. To make the crank handle, use a 50mm M4/M5 bolt with a plastic straw or any kind of tube around the outside, and screw it approximately 10mm into the smaller hole of the crank, to make the tube section free spinning. Please refer to the images and it should all make sense. Note I used two brushes and no welcome mat in my box as it was wider than an ammo box and the brush takes up more space on the side to compensate. Fill the box with water/cleaning solution to just over the bottom brush level, and spin the wheel by hand using the crank, or with a drill using the adapter. Keep the speed slow, and experiment with the direction for best effect. Some pressure sideways on the axle is needed to keep the hex engaged with the wheel itself while turning. If you find this useful, please consider buying me a coffee via Paypal dynofiend@hotmail.com