Century Swift CNC Motor Mount
Written by Ashley Davis Tuesday, 29 August 2006 00:00
Motor MountThe following is a review of the Century CNC Motor Mount upgrade. First let's look at some photos of this upgrade item.
Build Quality
There is very little to assess in terms of build quality with regard to this component. There are no moving parts it is just a straightforward CNC aluminium motor mount. However, the machining is very nice and I found nothing to complain about.
Comparison to the stock part
The CNC motor mount directly replaces the plastic mount in the Swift kit. It really uses all of the mounting points for the plastic part it is replacing. In terms of advantages that the CNC motor mount provides there are only two that spring to mind. Firstly the CNC mount adds some rigidity to the frames as it does not flex at all. The stock mount does have some flex in it. Secondly the CNC mount does act as a heat sink for any motor attached to it but I do not expect it to function particularly well in this regard.
Build
This part is a very straight forward one for one swap with the stock plastic items. Swapping the motor mount whilst straightforward does require quite a bit of disassembly in order to get the old mount out. Essentially the main shaft has to be removed in order to get the mount out. One element that is worth mentioning is that this motor mount is thinner in profile than the previous stock plastic part. Therefore care should be taken that the correct length of screws is used to mount your motor once you have changed over to the CNC motor mount. Potentially screws used with the plastic mount may be too long when used with the CNC mount. I also noticed that there is much less room on the underside of the motor mount and that the set screw that holds the pinion onto the motor shaft can bind on the motor mount. Make sure that you are using a nice short set screw that doesn't stick out from the side of the pinion.
Flight Testing
This isn't a performance part that it is easy to assess in terms of performance gain. The CNC motor mount does add some rigidity to the side frames and therefore some accuracy may be gained in flight. I cannot claim to have noticed any difference over the stock plastic motor mount. I did notice that the motor mount does get quite hot in line with the motor temperature and therefore my theory on it acting as a heat sink his sound. Although I still think that the motor mount doesn't act very effectively in this regard.
Conclusion
This upgrade doesn't fit into the category "bling". It does effectively stiffen the side frames and it does act as a heat sink for the motor (albeit a rather inefficient heat sink). Certainly for anybody looking to add some rigidity to their side frames this upgrade is worth having. It is worth noting that having more rigid frames can help with excess vibration and this should be considered when investigating what upgrades to install.
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