Wire EDM Chassis

[SammyXp]

I'm building a 2.2 for my nephew and decided to design a new chassis for it...

At the same time, I let one of the machinists here at work wheel one of my crawlers and got him hooked so he wants to build his own. He suggested we machine my chassis design on a wire EDM (massive electric current passes through a thin wire that literally "burns" right through the metal). These are three 1/8" plates stacked on top of each other. The cuts are so perfect, it almost looks like one thick plate!.

(Sorry about the lame cameraphone pic. I'll take better pics tonight.)

 

[racerx]

Looks cool, but getting the motor as low as possible is key to making it perform well. Great start though!"thumbsup"

 

[SammyXp]

Yeah, this is as low as it gets without going with a laydown design. Might tackle a laydown chassis next.

 

[racerx]

So does this machine cut the holes too?? If so that thing looks better than laser cut parts. Is there any cleanup of the parts after cutting?

 

[supercrawlerfreak]

chassis looks great man"thumbsup"

 

[4stAir]

i run a stealth in that position on my g/f's truck and it works awesome i really like that design."thumbsup"

those wire cutters are pretty damn sweet arent they?

 

[SammyXp]

So does this machine cut the holes too?? If so that thing looks better than laser cut parts. Is there any cleanup of the parts after cutting?

The holes are popped ahead of time, so the wire can be fed through. They actually went pretty quick on these cuts (because it wasn't work-related). When you slow a Wire EDM down, the cut can literally be near-mirror finish! It's so cool to watch.

Here's a better pic, by the way...

 

[Norcal crawler]

How thick is it?

 

[supercrawlerfreak]

I think he has 6 chassis plates there"thumbsup"

 

[revin9k]

wow!...that second pic is much better at showing the smooth cuts...nice!

 

[TLTCrawlin]

Your sig disturbs me.

BTW chassis looks good!

 

[SammyXp]

They're 1/8" thick 6061 Aluminum. They do look like a single 3/8" piece of aluminum, though, huh? Can you imagine that? haha

 

[loanshark]

Are you planning to sell them? and how much, and what type of tranny is in there?

The holes are popped ahead of time, so the wire can be fed through. They actually went pretty quick on these cuts (because it wasn't work-related). When you slow a Wire EDM down, the cut can literally be near-mirror finish! It's so cool to watch.

Here's a better pic, by the way...

 

['83 chevy]

its a stealth, and my uncles got an EDM they are really cool

 

[SammyXp]

No plans to sell them, right now. The Wire EDM machine time was a favor. 83 chevy's uncle might be able to cut these for us, though!