Dnanos bad for old people
 

I had purchased a number of hop up parts last time I went to Hobbytown. I got the gyro, bearings, Kyosho dif etc. I installed of it right away but left the front bearings aside. Well I needed to tighten up the dif so I sat down to work on it. I step up the dif to #3 setting and decided to follow through and install the front bearings. Boy! is this thing small. I have a magnifying headset and I still have a hard time seeing everything. I'm also deathly afraid of dropping any thing on the floor, it would be a goner. I can imagine trying to work on this things in a less than optimum environment. With my eyes, I would lose a lot of parts.

Well, the effort was worth it. I used this mop thing my wife bought at the OC Fair to clean the floors. I have hardwood flooring and it's somewhat slick but very smooth. With it clean though it worked pretty good for the Dnanos. I wasn't getting the crazy spin outs. I had a blast setting up cones and trying to drive around them. I can see that I would need a fairly large track to be able to go full throttle. I was doing a turn around in the kitchen and coming back I could floor it for a split second before I had to let it up in order to make a wide sweeping turn otherwise I would hide the wall. I anxiously await Lornecherry's possible mat concept. I definitely need something that I can setup and remove quickly.

D'Nano great for old folks ....
 

I could tell you that I wear 2.50 reading glasses and am blind in one eye and can't see out of the other. And that once I hit five-oh last year, my eyes and stock portfolio seemed to be tied to each other. And then there was the 1-hour quest for a lost front suspension spring, that ended up still being on the kingpin; I just couldn't see it there.

A magnet and a magnifier set are a must. A young, tweenaged, inquisitive daughter that likes to find stuff on floor helps immensely also.

On a more serious note, I just finished building a well-lit workshop -- what a blessing that has turned out to be for my marriage, as the kitchen table can now be used for eating. Remember to disassemble/assemble over a shoe-box top, so little parts are always contained. A white box-top helps you see the parts easier.

I have a new tweak that enables you to disassemble the front wheel and locking pin/axle to clean out the front end -- without disassembling any of the front suspension whatsoever. I'll try and post pictures below and describe -- but I'm not sure if I can shoot decent pictures without a macro lens though.

And yes, there will be a senior's discount should I decide to sell the rubber/EVA roll-up surfaces :), which is looking more like a possibility, considering the factory minimum order is about $3500 of the stuff and there's also the threat of divorce should I fill-up the garage for more than a day or two with anything but a full scale car.

Old people's retirement area (my new workshop)
 

http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/9309/workshoph.jpg

Tire testing and research

http://img40.imageshack.us/img40/1361/tiretesting.jpg

Front end tweak - no more knucke disassembly
 

http://imgcash2.imageshack.us/img197...suspension.jpg

Use a Dremmel tool to reduce the size of the rear most front knuckle pin. (You can see how far I shaved it down in the picture).

Be careful not to scratch the pin. You only need the pin to protrude a little from the metal steering bar. You can then pop the pin out easily to swivel the front wheel around and get at the axle screw in the back of the front wheel. This mod allows you to continually clean the front knuckle/axle and bearings without disassembling any of the front suspension components.

Less disassembly=less chances of stripping the front suspension screw holes. A worthwhile mod -- I can now clean out the front bearings in less then 5 minutes, since I only have to remove the two wheel screws.

Nice little tip there Lornecherry!

Being that I am young age of 22 you think that I would of picked up on that tip there. Heres something funny about me also. I was trying to install bearings into my Dnano. Anyways I thought that I could use my Skylines knuckles on my Modena tried and tried to put the front suspension all back together but it just wouldn't work. The in my stupidity yes I did call myself that, I said its probably best to use the Modena's knuckles.

I didn't read the instructions so I guess being young also has its disadvantages too.

Completely useless information!

Hi there!
I am 46 :) and I start having problems working with very small parts, the Dnano front spring being the ultimate challenge and if ever these will fall to my carpet floor i would normally feel bad.
But do you know what? I don't care :) I made myself the ultimate tool:
http://www.nanospeeders.com/mini6z/images/magnet.jpg
These are basically 4 office type magnets taped together. They are foldable so I can put them in my Dnano parts box and to top it all, it will magnetize my screwdriver. Until now I never lost any screw, a spring or any mini RC metal part. It is just a matter of scanning the floor slowly and you can hear a click when the part hits the magnet ;)

@Lornecherry: cool tip but on my Murcielago the knuckle would disassemble without this mod, I just need to steer to the max left or right and it clears away.

I guess I have to post in old guy thread too:p I'm 43 this month and from the very beginning of dNano'ing (we call it "diddling" which is a slightly different version of 'fiddling") I do all of my work in/on a cafeteria tray. Go to your local fast food place and long-term "borrow" one when they're not looking :) Those plastic trays are great huge size for spreading out toolbox and sub-assemblies and they have a nice lip all the way around to catch parts that try to escape.