Introduction: How to Design a Basic Car Steering and Suspension
In this instructables I'll show everyone and my student how to make a basic car suspension in tinkercad!
I wanted to show everyone how a complicated system could be simplified down and anyone could easily design.
Obviously there would be a lot of other factors such as weight of the actual car, but this is a general basic design to show how to make a car suspension and steering and to show how it works!
My Instructable will have multiple pictures per step. Pieces in the previous step will be grey and new pieces in that step red.
I've included measurements to make it easier to describe, at no point do you need to follow these measurements.
Remember to group the shapes after each step, I use the alignment tool very often in this, sometimes I may not mention I used it but I probably have!
If I don't mention any measurements it means I used the standard ones from when I dragged out the shape. When down sizing object, hold shift whilst selecting an object, click on a vertex on the piece and the type in any number, all sides will increase or decrease equally.
Step 1: The Wheel
1. Get the wheel shape from shape generator, 'all'
2. I didn't change any settings with the wheel but you can if you want to.
3. Import a 'hole' cylinder, increase the sides to 64 and make the diameter 50mm (if you haven't changed the size of the wheel)
4. Cut a hole into the rim but don't cut all the way in, roughly half way
Step 2: The Disc
1. Import a cylinder and make the length and diameter 12mm
2. Import another cylinder (or copy the current one) and make it wider but thinner than the last (diameter 20mm, thickness 2mm) this is the disc
3. Then use the alignment tool (top right) to make the wider disc sit in the middle of the longer cylinder
Step 3: Wheel Pivot
To make the wheels turn we need to create a pivot and a beam axle, remember to group the shapes after each step!
1. Get a box and make another smaller one (around 15mm tall, but wider)
2. Align it in the middle (height) and roughly 3/4 of the way into the box, then cut a C shape
3. Get a cylinder (size it down diameter 6mm) and align and cut into the C shape as shown in the picture.
4. Copy this shape and paste this shape, size it down, and align it in the middle of the side of the C, refer to picture. This smaller pivot - ungroup, make it longer and move the cylinder closer to edge (refer to picture) the group all these shapes
5. Size this whole shape down to fit on the disc piece and align the two.
6. Then align this on the wheel and group
Step 4: Beam Axle and Beam Axle Pivot
1. Create a beam of 100mm length and diameter 12mm
2. Copy the previous shape from the last step, this is the pivot for the beam, make its height shorter but make the C shape longer (ungroup it to remove the smaller C shape on the side and to not stretch the cutting hole) then attach it to the beam (remember to align it to the middle of the beam) and you'll need to move the cutting hole more to the edge of the C shape. Then group.
3. Get two cutting cubes at 40* angle to the beam pivot and cut into the beam picot as shown in the picture, make sure the cubes are tall enough to cut through the whole of the pivot, make a copy of the beam pivot for later.
4. Align the 2 pivot holes, then copy the wheel piece to get the original cutting hole (you may have to ungroup multiple times, I also recommend moving it up above so you can ungroup it whilst it doesn't clash with the wheel pivot your keeping) (turn it into a solid shape and this acts as a pin)
Step 5: Suspension
1. Get the spring piece from shape generator 'featured' and increase the turns to 5
2. Add a cylinder and align at the base of the spring, and decrease the height
3. Create a new cylinder and decrease the diameter to 8mm, align it into the middle of the spring and increase the height all the way to the top of the spring.
4. Add a 'tube' piece at the top of the spring and increase the wall thickness to 5, this tube allows the middle pole to go through it as the tube has a hole and the spring can still compress. Also group all the shapes
5. After placing the suspension on the beam in the middle and slightly into it, downscale the suspension to any size but make sure it fits on the beam
Step 6: Making the Other Side of the Beam
1. Simply select all the shapes
2. Copy
3. Then use the mirror tool the (top right looks like triangles) and use the horizontal mirror tool (one parallel to beam)
4. Then group the two wheel sides together (any distance apart)
Step 7: Steering Part 1
This step uses the copy of the beam pivot from step 4. If you forgot to copy, copy the current model and ungroup till you get back to that piece. Save another 2 copies for later again
1. Down scale this pivot so it works with the smaller pivot piece on the side of the wheel pivot. (down size it to a size of 2.5mm height) Save another 2 copies for later.
2. Rotate it -45* or 45* and you'll have to manually align it so the 2 holes line up, this can be fiddly and take time but use the moving measurements (shown in picture 2) to make it easier. (this requires a bit of guess work and plugging random numbers)
3. Make a copy once it is in position a ungroup it to get the the cutting hole and turn it into a solid, this is another pin.
Step 8: Steering Part 2
1. Add the 'cremallera' shape from shape generator all and align it to the middle of the whole wheel system (picture 1)
2. Copy the pivot in the previous step and ungroup removing every cutting piece so its just back to its original cube/cuboid, to line up the cube like i have shown in the picture, use your arrows on the keyboard. Add 5 off them.
3. Copy the cube again and rotate it 45*, you'll need to move this new piece slightly, spending abit to time you can align the 2 pieces so there is no overlap edges.
4. Increase the length of this cuboid to the cremallera, (not all the way)
5. Adding a pivot to the end of the cremallera which is align with the long cuboid, use the pivot that you saved earlier and increase the height and length (remember to ungroup so you don't stretch the pin hole.)
6. Add a pivot to the end of the long cuboid (You'll have to decrease or increase the length a bit, of the long cuboid) remembering to align the 2 holes, make sure the torus ring only moves when align perpendicular to the beam axel), then add a pin.
Step 9: Finishing It Off
1. To finish select the whole thing, copy and use the mirroring tool. The 2 sides should line up perfectly
2. add the shape 'cone metric gear' from shape generator all, rotate it 136* or an angle that the gears line up with the 'cremallera'. This is how the steering wheel changes the direction the wheels turn.
3. You can add details such as a steering wheel and brakes
Thank you very much for following this Instructable, hopefully this is easy enough to understand and not to complicated.
You can check out the file here: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/0p2w4z5CICu-car-...
If you end up 3d printing you'll have to change the pins a bit. And size of the model.