The reason I bought 3D chassis in the first place was because I didn't want the hassle of making a scratch chassis: a 3D printed one appealed as a quick shortcut. Poor design.Īll of these problems are surmountable: the warped chassis were oven baked flat, the Olifer chassis' motor pod mounting holes carefully elongated, but the flaws really shouldn't have been present. That's not a lot and doesn't notice too much if undersize wheels are used, but with the original wheels and tyres fitted, they sit forward in the wheel-well and look horrible. Its greatest problem is the position of the rear axle, which is almost 1mm too far forward. I also thought I'd try an Olifer chassis, via Shapeways, for a Monogram Shelby Cobra Daytona. That's a fault of Shapeways' manufacturing and no reflection on the quality of CG Slotcars's design, but it's annoying nonetheless, especially given the ever increasing cost of Shapeways stuff. Those two, however, arrived badly warped. Consequently I've been happy to buy more from CG Slotcars, including two further Lola T70 chassis this week. I was extremely pleased nicely made and designed and a perfect trouble free fit onto the shell's mounting posts. One of my early Shapeways buys was a chassis by CG Slotcars for a Monogram Lola T70. As buyers, we have to trust that it's designed properly, but as most designers/sellers have limited ranges, there isn't the safety net of a good reputation that a well known brand might have, so I thought it would be worth sharing my experiences and hoping others will do the same. This week I've received 3 chassis from Shapeways, all with problems, and it's occurred to me that anyone with a working knowledge of the software used to create the print files can design a chassis, stick it on Shapeways and sell it to us. I came reasonably late to the party but have now bought several, with varying degrees of success.

3D printed chassis have been around for a while now and more and more of us have started buying them.

3d printed slot car chassis