Sacrilege, heresy, burn the witch! (How to cut a chassis?)

[Dr. Robotnik]

Well I am going to be getting to grips with some imagineering projects for the next couple of weeks as all my stuff is packed up and I will be homeless from Sarturday (fingers crossed my new home will be available very shortly).

So I have been toying with what to do to my scrappy runner RC10 to smarten it up when I return...



http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1937

I have been coming around to the idea that if you can't beat them join them. I would like to chop the chassis, nose plate and motor mount. I don't feel this should be to bad as they are all bent and someone has made a complete hash of modifying it already.

My question is how do I cut down the sides best? Do you think old school racers actually milled them? Or do you think some sort of dremel was used? I can't see a Dremel having been used as it would snap to many cutting blades...but also I can't think how to mount the chassis on a milling machine to get the effect either...

Any ideas what would be the best method?

Apart from vintage racers here's my forum inspiration:-

Siebenelch's RC10 from his excellent thread :-http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=1726



Asso_man's chassis and nose plate



From the light weight chassis thread:- http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2329

InetRC's motor mount from his MIP Legend thread :- http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=624

[Tadracket]

Wow dude. Those are cool. I really should spend more time checking out the threads on this forum I missed. You could make a "T" bracket that is about 4 inches long and drill holes in the top plate to match some of the chassis holes. Bolt it in and use the down leg to mount in a milling vise.

[mrlexan]

I personally have always wanted to do what Daryl Lane did on his...... it is posted somewhere around here, I'll see if I can find it. I really dig it.

Back in my day, I did what the top photo shows with a dremel. I don't have pics, but I remember it came out pretty sweet. I did go through a pack or two of the cutting wheels.

The second photo was definitely milled and if I still worked at Roush, I would be doing the same thing (sometimes I wonder why I left, but then again.....)

Good luck on the home front.

[mrlexan]

Here we go:

[Dr. Robotnik]

Thanks for the suggestion Tad, that's sort of how I was thinking of mounting the parts, by bolting them to something else then gripping that in a vice. The problem I had been trying to get my head round was how to mill the very thin sides down into the super low profile, profile. Do you think I could come down onto the thin bit or would I have to come from the side? I just wouldn't want it to bend mid, cut you see.

Ooooohhh, I forgot about that A&L one. Nice one Mrlexan.

I would have to go for the super low profile type though because and the main reason I would do this is someone hacked some cut outs into the side for a bunch of switches and the holes they made are not square or symmetrical so I wanted to cut them out entirely. I don't think a geometric shape in the sides would cover them either...

Depending on how mental I feel on the day I could go for something like this:-



from the scans archive RC10 4wd race pics http://www.rc10talk.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=1257

[Mr. ED]

I wouldn't use the cutting tool on the dremel to get there if you just want to lower the sidewalls. The aluminium has a ferocious tendancy to suddely grab the wheel and snap it everywhere. (I once had half a wheel ricochet straight onto my safety goggles. If I hadn't been wearing them I'd be one-eyed now.)
I'd use the sanding drum. Takes longer but the finish will be better too.

[badhoopty]

that would take forever with a sanding drum.

i would just drill holes in the corners/edges of your cuts (drill the holes in the scrap area you are cutting away), then connect the holes using a fiber cutoff wheel on a line drawn from hole to hole. with some patience you will get nice long cuts with perfectly radiused corners from the drill holes. then just clean up little edges or round things out with a sanding drum.

definitely wear safety glasses...

[Dr. Robotnik]

I'd use the sanding drum

Lol. Were you serious? I'm not that much of a n00b

[Asso_man!]

I've used a large file to cut the rear of my "RPM black tub", it was a long job but the result is very good. Now it's not the same than cutting a whole chassis...

[Mr. ED]

I'd use the sanding drum

Lol. Were you serious? I'm not that much of a n00b

Actually I was serious, yes.
How thick is the alu tub?

I've grinded stuff before and it works really well: because of the larger diameter than drill bits etc the speed at the grinding surface is much larger.
I used the grinding stone also but the alu got stuck on and it is cheaper to replace sand drums.

[wyldbill]

if you are going to use dremel discs use the heavy duty fiber reinforced ones vs. the standard ones. the heavy duty ones are thicker, and slightly larger, they are more forgiving than the thin ones that come in most of their kits.
cut off wheel tip, if you need to get into tight places i always save worn down and almost used up discs and re use them to get into tight corners. i have a zip lock bag with used heavy duty discs for this reason.
i lightened lots of parts with triangular shapes and they helped out a bunch. i have old losi jrx rear h arms that have been lightened with small triangular patterns they weigh considerably less than stock and are still strong as stock arms. triangular is the way to go!

[olderacer]

dremel makes metal grinding bits. the ones that i have (and used successfully) are drum shapped and i have two different sizes; one is 1/8" dia. the other is 5/16" dia. i tried taking pictures, but the bits are to small to make out any detail. they work well. they're all metal so no breakage occures (still go slow and be careful). after i grind with these bits, i use a sanding drum or hand file or sand paper to get the very smooth finish. dremel also makes metal cutting wheels. they look like small metal cutoff wheels. both the wheels and the grinding drums have drill bit like flutes all over them. i've never seen these bits offered in a dremel kit, but they are available sepparately wherever dremels are sold. the fiber cutoff wheels are great, but they are a bit scary whenever they are used to saw metal or graphite. i've done it and so has plenty of others. but making smooth curving cuts is a challenge with the cutoff wheels. thats when i go to the metal grinding drums. whatever you choose good luck and be safe.
john

[justinspeed79]

I would cut the bulk of it out with a reinforced cut-off wheel then use the sanding drum to finish it up.

[Dr. Robotnik]

I'd use the sanding drum

Lol. Were you serious? I'm not that much of a n00b

Actually I was serious, yes.
How thick is the alu tub?

I've grinded stuff before and it works really well: because of the larger diameter than drill bits etc the speed at the grinding surface is much larger.
I used the grinding stone also but the alu got stuck on and it is cheaper to replace sand drums.

I was just kidding about with you mate I guess my sanding drums aren't up to par because they struggle with marking metal...