# Sideways



## mowyang (Mar 24, 2008)

Back in the early 70's, I sketched out an AFX-based car I wanted to build. This was in the so-called "brass wars" days, before the magnatraction craze hit. Full brass pans were the thing, so I thought it made sense to move chassis weight around outrigger-like.

Never did build the car, but a few years back I made a Fray-tjet version:

















Runs OK, but not as well as a regular Fray car. But that's ok. Saved me from trying to sneak it through Fray tech!


Mark


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## Bill Hall (Jan 6, 2007)

Too cool Mark!

Ya cant tease us like that ...knock it apart and give us a few more pics...Please!

I'd like to see some detail of the re-indexed brushes and what appears to be cups.


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## bobhch (Apr 22, 2007)

That is mowyang-tabulous!!!! What an idea 

Bob


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## JordanZ870 (Nov 25, 2004)

Oh, this chassis is just too cool! :thumbsup:
Like Bill said, more pics please!


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## win43 (Aug 28, 2006)

"......and now for something completely different......." Cool idea


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Man, this is a great idea! Can you imagine a cobalt magnatraction with a little bit different pickup set up? I mean, something similar to the LL M chassis, but with a pancake motor? 

cool beans man


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## AfxToo (Aug 29, 2003)

Very interesting indeed. I cannot envision a reason why it would improve performance. I would imagine that with sufficiently strong magnets you would get some "interesting" behavior when the car slid out and you were left with only one magnet over a rail. If the shoes maintained contact the car would probably remain "hung out" all the way around the track.

This design does demonstrate ways of reducing the complexity of the chassis electricals substantially.


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## NTxSlotCars (May 27, 2008)

Still a great idea. I really like the change in design.


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## 22tall (Jul 28, 2002)

Very inventive. Mark, you should post your process for slamming chassis sometime.


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## videojimmy (Jan 12, 2006)

you so crazy mang!


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## mowyang (Mar 24, 2008)

Bill Hall said:


> Too cool Mark!
> 
> Ya cant tease us like that ...knock it apart and give us a few more pics...Please!
> 
> I'd like to see some detail of the re-indexed brushes and what appears to be cups.


OK, guys, here ya go! 

In these two pictures, you can see how I took a second chassis and arranged it sideways on the other. Taking a trick from my slammed tjets, I ground out the inside of the first chassis to about half its normal thickness, with the exception of a small rectangle surrounding the armature hole and the location of the new brush tubes. That portion remained at the stock thickness. The bottom of a second chassis was smoothed out and thinned to half its normal thickness, and a rectangle was cut out to receive the rectangle from the first chassis. The front and rear ends of the second chassis were lopped off, leaving the pockets which hold the magnets. The two chassis were glued together using JB weld, which seems to be holding well enough. The brush tubes are Super II parts. I soldered a small length of wire to the side of the tubes, then bent them at a right angle so they could be soldered to the pickup hangers. I also trimmed a bit off the bottom of the brush tubes to clear the hangers.

















A stock gearplate clamp wasn't going to work, so I made some wire clamps to hold the gearplate in place. They fit into holes drilled in the sides of the chassis. To hold the idler gear, I cut down the sides of the clamp and bent them to fit under the gearplate. I filed small indentations in the bottom of the gearplate give the new mini gear clamp a place to hold onto.

















There you have it. Sideways? Maybe twisted is more like it!

Mark


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## sidejobjon (Jun 3, 2010)

Bump I did not see this. Mark this is cool. How does it handle?
SJJ


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## mowyang (Mar 24, 2008)

Fray cars handle really well. Modern tires have lots of grip, but they still slide a bit in the corners. With strong magnets from Dash, Fray cars also have just a bit of magnetic traction helping them out. 

Using a Fray car as a reference point, the sideways car doesn't seem to be any better. Granted I haven't equipped my car with the best parts available. If I did, I expect it could be the equal of a Fray car. 

Though I haven't seen the negative magnetic effect that AfxToo mentioned in his post, moving the magnets to the side of the chassis does take the magnets away from the rails, so one of the factors that helps a modern Fray car handle so well has been removed. Another disadvantage with this chassis is that it requires a big, wide-shouldered resin body to clear the magnets, and that hurts handling.

Fun car though!

Mark


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