Making a carbon fiber rc10t chassis the Competent way

[JosephS]

It’s been about long enough since my last chassis. Since I ordered my sons rc10t re-releases I thought I should make some chassis for them.

I seem to be getting better year over year. Hopefully I can make something meaningful to them. As well if the tooling comes out well I’ll have my oldest make a chassis.

I’ll re-read my previous threads but I already know I need to build new tooling to make a quality chassis.

I am fully sacrificing a nose plate as well as well as chassis that was in good condition to begin with.

This is of course to put off the current build even further. I should be building an edinger I collected parts for years and can finally start on. So here is what I did instead

Sanded to get things flatter

Sits flat on the tile

Using bondo and release

Previous attempt notes here
https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?p=540329#p540329

Relevant Notes here
https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=113&t=48258

The T3 chassis at the end of this thread
https://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?t=47048&start=60

turned out well and fixed a few issues I was having with the April build. It was a good runner without being overbuild. Did well considering the steel pole I ran it into a full throttle.
though this was a direct pull and not cast from tooling.

Looks like the resin ratio should be less than 1:1
I never solved the issues with wrinkles in cast parts, though on the 2 part made from direct pulls the inside was smooth. I think the wrinkles are partly caused by excess resin.
The wrinkles make the part NG since the finishing is excessive.

I don't have any gelcoat. Given the summer temps. I am not sure that I can use it without waiting for fall.

8 layers of plain weave 3k 5.7 oz fabric should be about 2.1mm thick
Switching to west system from US composite resin. I am also switching to a ultra slow cure resin. It is supposed to be more rigid on full cure than the faster set ones.

[JosephS]

Nothing shows off what you missed in finish better than clear coat.

I think I made good progress. The chassis is flat, the area between the nose plate and the chassis are filled.

I also evened out the sides so the metal lip is smooth.


The clear coat should provide a mirror smooth surface for the tooling.

[JosephS]

Mounting up the tool to an acrylic blank
And waxing

2 coats of clear

2coats of paste wax of 5

Clay was used to fill the nose and tail as well as to form a bead around the chassis

The width of the nose and tail were widened to that the tooling would not curl or round in those areas

The height of the wall was increased with clay to reduce rounding near the top of the chassis.

The rear bulkhead stay has been a challenge to mold and will continue to be. May just build a wide bulkhead and use shim/washers to build the gap.