Why FLM Fast Lane Machine is Awesome

Why FLM Fast Lane Machine is Awesome

As we all know, things break in RC, however we also know FLM has one of the best parts warranties in the business.

Over Labor Day, friends and friends kids came over with RCs in hand. Obviouslly the ramp went up and the parts started breaking. In a fluke hit, my own FLM Ultra-Pede III went down not with a broken FLM part, but with a 3mm bolt snapped off flush in the carrier.

I called FLM and had a no-charge replacement in hand (plus shipping) within a couple days. Awesome customer service Fast Lane.

StampedeProject.com Ultra-Pede III

Ultra-Pede III

Of course you can’t be StampedeProject.com without the most kick ass Stampede in existence.  This is my third Ultra-Pede build but this one is miles above anything previous.  The Ultra-Pede features a complete 1/8th scale sized Extended FLM Traxxas Stampede chassis with tweaked billet Revo shocks, billet links, an all steel drivetrain, Traxxas 2.4Ghz TX/RX, and Traxxas digital waterproof servo. 

I have a Hitec Titanium ultra-torque servo ready, but the Traxxas servo won’t die. The last two items are about the only thing “stock”.  The body is a nearly indestructable abnormally heavy 2mm thick Proline Crowd Pleaser body I found over the years. No 550 or 540 is not enough power.  

My Ultra-Pede is powered by a 4S feed Neu 1512-1Y ⅛ scale motor with a 32P pinion spur gearing that has more power than any other Stampede on the planet... it’s the most powerful motor you can fit with minimal modification on a Stampede.  

To keep the tires from flying off I used the Pro-Line Short Course 2.2” beadlocks with Fatirons or M2Ks. Totally insane, but it is, without a doubt, the most durable and powerful Ultra-Pede ever assembled.  

Losi Super 8

Losi Super 8

This originally was the RC Car magazine featured How-To brushless conversion of a Losi 8 that I did after the 2007 Ihobby show... Losi kept the other one I converted. It was powered by a 1512 Neu motor. I almost sold this recently because I just don’t run at the track any longer and the low clearance just didn’t run well in the grass around my place.

I kept this RC instead of a Duratrax ST - The Duratrax was an 1/8th scale buggy with truggy tires and was a huge blast, but parts replacement was an issue. Only in August of 2011 did I realize I could do the same with the Losi 8 and now it totally kicks ass after just adding some Pro-Line Truggy tires No wheel adapters/extensions needed and there is not tire rubbing.

On the next wheel replacement I will go for ½” offset wheels, just to give me a bit wider stance. The gearing required a smaller 12T pinion and an upgrade to a 1515-1Y Neu motor... with 4S it can power flip itself, handles like a dream, and is definitely a unique sci-fi looking RC with the Buggy body.

How to: Use a Stripper

How to: Use a Stripper
by Tony Arnold

After this How-To you will know how to use a stripper... such as Easy Off Oven Cleaner... ;) In this case we are going to show you how to strip some scratched and scraped anodizing that is looking more ghetto than gorgeous. We also know this year will be tight financially so any ideas that can bring new life to used and abused parts at little or no cost is worth a quick How-To article.

For this example, I wanted to do Axial a solid and manage one last article from some first generation AX10 crawler kit parts that were less than photogenic from way to much testing. I of course reached for an easy and cheap stripper to brighten the day... well at least a can of Easy Off Heavy Duty Original Formula. But first, why use a can-o-chemicals vs. sandpaper or steel wool? Frankly put, anything else takes forever and delivers poor results… believe me, I have tried. Yes other strippers will work, but nothing as effective - stick with the Original Easy Off Heavy Duty $3 can.

Here's how easy it was to get from un-publishable parts to stunning gorgeous:

1. Remove all plastic and other attached parts from the aluminum to be stripped.
2. I don't care what the can says... do this entire process outside or at least in the garage.
3. This should be an adult supervised activity. If you are an adult but extremely immature, you should ask for assistance.
4. Put on Safety glasses and rubber gloves - protection is always required when dealing with stripper.
5. Place parts in an old container or in my case a pizza pan that really needed cleaning with oven cleaner - two tasks in one.
6. Spray parts with Easy- Off
7. Jiggle the parts around a bit and re-spray - oooh fun, I always like jiggling.
8. Watch the anodizing magically disappear
9. Wait 5 minutes
10. Repeat 4-5
11. Wait 30 minutes
12. Rinse off parts and hand wash, because when dealing with a stripper you should always want to wash everything afterwards.
13. If some anodizing remains, repeat 4-12
14. Use your favorite metal/brass paste polish such as Flitz and put a shine on your newly restored parts with a couple old rags.
15. The more you polish the shinier the parts will get
16. Enjoy the bright and shiny result... all for only three singles. ;)

[IMG1.JPG]

[IMG2.JPG]

[IMG5.JPG]

[IMG4.JPG]

Upgrading an electric swifter, because stock doesn't suck in this case.

Upgrading an electric swifter batteries, because stock doesn't suck in this case.

I am notorious for not leaving anything stock in our house and our electric swifter is no exception. The NiCad 1600mah batteries totally suck the big one and deliver sub-optimal power to the 12v motor. The result was a light sucking that barely picked up dog fur.



The other thing was run time which was about 2 minutes.

My fix was simply to give that stocker motor some juice to work with by feeding it with a 10,000 mh Maxamps lipo pack. The other option would be to repurpose a Nimh pack to run the vacuum as shown above.

Simple hack. Remove the internal battery and add a deans plug and feed it through a couple strategic cuts at the back seam. Now your swifter is powered via your quick charging and running Rc packs that can be charge on a real charger. I haven't tried a 3s pack yet because the new and improved lipo powered swifter is about twice as powerful and runs literally for a month of Swiffering.



UPDATE - This has been an AWESOME upgrade to our swiffer and I could swiffer a gymnasium with this thing and still have juice left over. As of the middle of January, I am just now recharging my Lipo pack for the first time and it will had 11% of the charge left. Before the stock Swiffer would not even pick up the dog food bits off the floor, but now it sucks them up with authority. The floor has never looked cleaner. Even if you don't want to run Lipo on your Swiffer, I would highly recommend upgrading the NiCd 6 Cell stock pack to a higher Mh 7-cell NiMh pack. This should give you about the same power I am getting with the Lipo pack, but obviously the runtime will not be as long as my 10,000Mh Lipo pack.

The End of RC Car Magazine

The End of RC Car Magazine

It was educational, entertaining, and... well fun as well to contribute to RC Car for over the last three plus years. Sadly the economy claimed yet another business and this time one affecting friends and a great RC industry magazine that told it like it is.

Stephen Bess and team are on to other things now. Stephen is the Senior West Coast Editor of Air Age Media's RC Car Action and reached out already, so perhaps I may start writing articles again, but this time for a different magazine.

Please wish the RC Car team the best.

New Apple Mini IPad picture??

Don't normally do this but the wife just leaned over and showed me the below picture in the lastest issue Nov 2010 Woman's Health mag of an Apple device I have never seen before. The image was used like a stock image and did not talk about electronics. Mags print months in advance so maybe apple was planning on having something released by now... Don't know.

Chances are Monday may be the release date of something interesting.

Castle Black Friday Deals + Garage Sale Additions

Black Friday Deals + Garage Sale Additions

November 24, 2010

Black Friday Sale Starts NOW.

Check out our Black Friday 2010 sale. We are offering 20% off our web page prices on all Castle gear (except ICE and ICE HV, we just don't have enough of those in stock). That includes everything on the Garage Sale page, plus all of our Mamba, Sidewinder, Hydra and Thunderbird controllers as well as our complete line of car motors. (Neu motors are NOT part of this sale, sorry.)



Garage Sale Expanded

We've added our 1/8th scale buggy conversion kits to the garage sale. Pick them up for $25.00 each, plus take the 20% discount if you order by Sunday 11:59 pm!

We've still got quite an outstanding selection of aircraft & heli outrunners at outrageous prices, now 20% lower.

Take a look - we're sure there's something for everybody.



Sidewinder 1/10 Rebate

Don't forget about the $30.00 rebate program for Sidewinder 1/10 ESC and ESC / motor combos. This offer allows retail consumers who have purchased a Sidewinder between October 1, 2010, and January 31, 2011, to apply directly to Castle for their rebate.

The Sidewinder 1/10 system offers great performance in 1/10 vehicles at an incredible price. With the $30.00 rebate, it's an offer that will be hard to pass up.

Stop by your favorite hobby retailer to take advantage of this rare offer from Castle.

Complete details and application form are on the Castle website, please click here to jump to them.



Happy Thanksgiving!

Castle Marketing Dept.

Modifying a perfectly good Traxxas StampedeVXL

Although I wasn't planning on doing any mods toy new Traxxas Stampede VXL there were a couple mods I had to make.

1. Lower the body by 1/2"










2. Add a new body




3. Add the Stampede Project easy pull battery holder modification and grind the ribs from the body tray to square lipos will fully seat.

4. Add the spare rear aluminum bearing carriers that have been rattling around my parts box.

Traxxas Stampede VXL with Upgraded Bug Body

You don't see a lot of bug bodies on Stampede's much, so I though I would give my new Stampede VXL kit something unique.

This was a pretty simple paint job. I masked out the fendors and the roof. Cut out the nuclear sign out of the mask.

The nuclear sign effect was done but layering metal fleck yellow, orange, and then green. Some with the fender cut outs and then scraping through with a exacto a couple times for the scratched effect.

The Hood was done with the same colors, but I used door screen to spray through. After pulling the screen off the hood I backed it with yellow and white. The rest of the body was just shot with black. Turned out great.

Dyeing to Look Cool

Dyeing to Look Cool
by Tony Arnold StampedeProject.com
As published in RC Car Magazine August 2007

Successful Dyeing: Assure all parts are spotlessly clean and have been washed down with soap to remove any oil, otherwise spotting may occur. Liquid dye works best. Use at least 1/4 bottle of dye per ½ gallon of simmering water. Keep the water simmering, stirred, and parts submerged through the process. Allow plenty of time for the dye to work into the pieces. Increasing dye amount and/or soak time will increase depth of color. Reuse the dye - my wife ended up with a couple scarlet red t-shirts after I was done with my parts.

I think we all can agree that basic black chassis parts and dyeable white wheels will forever rule as top part colors, but what if we want to turn some heads? In this case, our house Traxxas Rustler with new dyeable gray Traxxas parts were just begging for some highly durable custom colored cool. A couple key how-to's from RC Car will add a that same custom touch to your ride without a three day clean up process and having your hands look like you just escaped from a freshman initiation prank. To walk through the process, we are going to dye our trusty Rusty with readily available Rit clothing dye. Of course we also have a few little upgrades planned to turn our Rustler into a real head turner and performer.

About Rit Dye
Rit fabric dyes are available in almost every grocery, craft, and superstore around the country and normally cost less than $4 per bottle. This is a pretty cheap and easy upgrade as one bottle will easily dye over 5lbs of parts. Rit fabric dye is first and foremost non-toxic, so the only disposal and handling concerns are where to pour out the dye bath after you are done - I pour mine outside in the dirt. I prefer the liquid dye from a results and mess perspective, as I find the powder dye tends to be messier and needs to be dissolved first.

Getting Started
There are a couple dyeing methods, but the old "stovetop" method consistently delivers the best results because heat can be regulated throughout the dyeing process whether the parts needs five minutes or an hour. Following this method, I grabbed my 4 gallon thrift store pot, dumped in all the disassembled and clean dyeable parts and covered them with an extra 2"-3" of water. Large parts such as a chassis can be flipped in the pot several times during the process, so you don’t necessarily need everything completely submerged. All the parts were pulled out, the pot placed on my grill burner and then the water was brought to a slow boil. Do as many parts as you can at once, however only use as much water and dye as is needed – no since using 3 gallons of water and a bottle of dye for a set of wheels.

Dyeing Tips Dye stains stuff - wear old clothes and rubber gloves. An yard sale pot and cooking tongs is a good investment for use in dyeing and ongoing cleaning. Having an extra bottle of dye is handy when doing dark, vivid colors and/or lots of parts, just in case a little extra color is needed. Only use as much dye as needed, keep a tight lid on un-used dye for later use. Any typical RC nylon or polyester based parts will take dye, Lexan will not. Simmer, don’t boil. Boiling may misshape some plastics. Cover your workspace with a plastic drop cloth or work outside. FYI - Dye will stain tiles, countertops, concrete and decks. Be sure to have wet sponges and paper towels on hand to wipe up spills. Clean containers and sinks immediately after dyeing by cleaning with foaming bathroom cleaner, hot water and powdered bleach cleanser if necessary. Need a custom color? See “Dyeing Techniques” on Rit’s site.

Helpful Suggestions
My furry helper inspected and assured all the parts were clean and grouped together. Thinking about parts retrieval in the beginning is a plus, one of my tricks is to loosely attach a zip tie or wire to groups of parts. My dog thought this was to make them easier for him carry around. This is the point you really want to assure your plastic drop cloth is place and your gloves and tongs are handy, because it's about to get messy.

Getting Your Color On
Once the water started boiling, I dropped the heat to a high simmer or about medium low, slipped on some latex gloves, and then added about a ¼ bottle of Rit dye per ½ gallon. In my case that was two bottles of dye, noting that’s stronger than what is recommended for fabric. Stir, add back in all your parts, and stir again. Occasionally, give the entire brew a careful stir to assure uniform color. No matter how careful you are at his point, you are going to get dye on your hands and your clothes so be prepared.

Cooking Time
So how long do we cook our RC parts? That depends how dark or vivid you want them. Keep checking and pull them out when the color looks good. For lighter colors 5-10 minutes is all that is required. Deep dark colors such as the intensely dark red wine color took an hour. The three keys to getting deep rich colors are using more dye, maintaining simmering water temperatures, and allowing adequate time in the dye bath. Typically I get the color almost where I want it and then just turn off the heat and let things cool down for 15 minutes.

Finishing & Cleaning Up
When the desired color is reached remove the parts using your kitchen tongs or by using the wires and place the parts into a bucket and let completely cool and drain. Keep in mind even though most of the dye has absorbed into the plastic, excess dye from the bath will still stain, so be careful. If you have planned to do custom colors by combining dyes, now is the time to add the next color for the next round of dyeing - as an example I could have added some yellow for an orange dye bath, or blue for a purple dye bath - add in the next set of parts and repeat soaking process.

Once the parts have cooled, rinse them well either in a utility sink or outside to prevent staining. Clean up on most sinks and dishes can be done with foaming bathroom cleaner and abrasive powder bleach cleaner.

Custom Tweaks
Dye and paint are just cosmetic upgrades, but they add individuality and a custom component to your ride that makes everyone take a second look. As you can see the Rustler’s chassis, shocks, steering linkage and drive yokes came out great, but we couldn’t stop there.

Along with an aluminum Idler gear upgrade, we upgraded the power with a Novak GTB 4.5R brushless motor/ESC system and A123 Lithium Ion 2S pack to make the Rustler a lighter and faster runner. RPM set us up with pretty much the entire accessory line up of their tougher and lighter bolt on Rustler upgrades. RPM parts included front and rear arms, shock cups, 2-stage shock pistons (which I am a huge fan of), gear cover, 5x11 bearing carriers plus Boca Green Seal bearings, caster blocks, bumper, and Talon wheels with Losi Red Edge and Step-Pin tires.

To up the tune-ability of the Rustler we upgraded to the mind-blowingly beautiful FLM - Fast Lane Machine $15 front and $24 rear billet machined aluminum shock towers - yeah we know that's a smoking deal. These very reasonably priced parts provided drooling amounts of tuning adjustments that we have always wanted on the Rustler. Adjustable camber links will come on the next round of upgrades, however since a stock link was already in need of replacement, we are giving RPM's indestructible fixed camber links a bashing workout while we fiddle with all the new FLM shock tower adjustments and tune all that power.

Our trusty Rusty now screams custom, looks better than new, and with the upgrades in durability, performance, and adjustability it should surprise more than a few. Amazing what a bottle of Rit dye and a bag full of tricks can do - very cool.

SOURCES: Traxxas www.RitDye.com, FLM Fast Lane Machine www.FastLaneMachine.com, RPM Products www.RPMRCProducts.com, Novak Electronics www.TeamNovak.com, A123 Racingwww.a123racing.com, Traxxas www.Traxxas.com, Losi www.TeamLosi.com

How many RCs has StampedeProject.com Owned

I am sure I am forgetting a couple but this what I remember for sure based on current inventory and articles.

5 - Traxxas Stampedes - all versions

2 - FLM Traxxas Stampedes

2 - Traxxas Bandits

4 - Traxxas Rustlers

1 - FLM Traxxas Rustler

3 - Traxxas Revos - all converted to brushless

4 - Losi LSTII/Mega Baja/Aftershocks

13 - Axial AX10 Crawler Chassis with many chassis

2- Axial SCX10 Scaler Chassis

1 - Losi Mini Crawler

1 - Associated Mini MGT converted to brushless

1 - Shumacher Menace Converted to Brushless

1- FLM HPI Savage converted to brushless

1 - Hot Bodies Stadium Pro 2 Pro converted to brushless

1 - Hot Bodies GTX2 converted to brushless

6 - HPI Wheelie Kings based Crawlers

1 - Hot Bodies Cyclone World Edition

1 - Kyosho Rock Force

1 - Micro Tamiya Hot Shot 4WD

1 - Tamiya Durga

1 - Tamiya CR01

1 - Tamiya Nitrage 5.2

1 - Thunder Tiger EB4 S3 RTR 1/8th Scale Buggy

2 - Super class crawlers one RCP Hustler Chassis and the other was a Geko 2 Pro

1 - Duratrax Raze ST

3 - Yusa 1/8th scale buggies- converted to brushless

2 - Losi 8 - converted to brushless

1 - Losi Slider

1 - Losi Trophy Truck

I thought we were moving and sold a bunch of RC I would have liked to hold onto.

A couple I am sick I sold were:

• My original Ultra-Pede for sentimental reasons
• Hot Bodies Stadium Pro 2 Pro converted to brushless - This was just a premo truck with the best that Hot Bodies offered from top to bottom.
• All my Traxxas Revos - I had the old 3.3 metal chassis and they just ran so beautifully and rarely broke.
• My polished aluminum DNA crawler chassis - not that I needed it, but it was just pretty.

The Stampede Project Squirt-Pede (Practice use - flower watering)

Pretty simple project and recipe for fun.

1 - TQ3 Three channel Transmitter and Receiver
1- Squirt gun of your choice small enough that your RC can carry it
1- Spare servo of your choice (I used a old 2018)
1 - Short servo horn
1 - Package of "Industrial Velcro"
2-4 - Zip Ties

Install receiver on vehicle as usual. Velcro servo to squirt gun, fashion servo horn to a zip tie and that zip tie to another one going around the trigger. Velcro the squirt gun assembly to the body and plug in servo. Typically nets 5-6 foot range. NOTE if you have a smart dog as mine is, he will run in fear as soon as it squirts just once.

Let it be known that all manner of devices will don the Ultra-Pede. Now where is my air horn and paintball gun...

This of course lead to the RWDP build