200sxr

I am wondering if anyone has experience with cutting your own hinge pins, sometimes hinge pins can be difficult to come by especially if you use a brand that is not popular in your area.

I have used generic Titanium grade 5 Ti-6Al-4v rods from ebay and they are way to soft for hinges pins and bend very easily.

Has anyone used stainless steel rods, drill blanks or silver steel rods and cut them to suit? I suspect stainless rods and silver steel (non harden) will be too soft and drill blanks may do the trick however if you have specific experience do share!

Clive

I use silver steel. They do bend but no more than the originals. They also tend to be a slightly better fit than the originals and thus cut out some of the play.

I think that drill blanks would be very good but more of a pain to cut them to the correct length. At least you would know that they were either straight or broken. You might find that something else would break more often if the hinge pins didn't bend.

Jim85IROC

iTrader: (1)

Chances are, there are already hinge pins out there that will work with modification. More than once I've bought longer ones and cut them down.

In a pinch, I've used nails too.

fredygump

iTrader: (1)

The drill blank will be your best bet of all your alternatives. But a drill bit may be too hard? Under an impact it will shatter instead of bending.

Another option is buying round stock, cut it to length, and harden it yourself. It'll take some trial and error to figure out how hot to get it and what to quench it in.

You will need a steel alloy that can be hardened, because common materials you'll find are "mild" steel with too little carbon to harden.

bubbaslash

iTrader: (1)

We're running drill blank hinge pins on the SCX-61

werner sline

what rc do you run ?

Roelof

Get some piano wire, it is easy to get and very strong.

rcjunky1

iTrader: (10)

drill rod is just annealed o1, it's still soft. 6al4v is very strong for its weight, but you really need to go bigger for the strength. Steel is still your best bet. Dowels work well, but ill break it hard hits. 17-4ph might work ok as well, no clue what oms use.

rcgod

iTrader: (33)

I use material from McMaster Carr. They sell it in different hardnesses and sizes. Easy to cut to length with a Dremel and cutoff wheel. I have several friends that I've made them for too, and never had any bend or break.

I agree that if you use too hard of a material it can shatter. Instant dnf. I had a stock xb4 hinge pin shatter.

bubbaslash

iTrader: (1)

+1 on McMaster. Fast shipping, great customer service and quality products. While ordering, may as well pick up your shrink tubing, zip ties, etc in bulk and save a bundle too I usually have my order in less than 24 hours

Clive

What hardness do you go for?

rcgod

iTrader: (33)

M2 tool steel.

200sxr

Thanks for sharing your experiences! All my 1:10 buggies are Kyosho and lately I have had a couple of hinge pins snap on me. To me the Kyosho OEM hinge pins are fairly hard, or else they would not snap. I have a difficult time straightening them too, they always break before I can straighten them.