Custom parts

[adult_squid]

What kind of machinery would i need to make custom rc parts out of aluminum and nylon? like A arms and shock towers

Would a cheap lathe work? Im not trying to mass produce anything just trying to make stronger parts for me. thanks

[KawadaKid]

It would require a mill or some kind of injection mold for the plastic parts. Its not going to be cheap.

[lerningdriver]

you could make custom parts from aluminum pretty easy actually if you knew what you are doing, but nylon is really just too much.

the biggest thing you will need is knoledge, you need to know how to use the machines and how you want to make the part and exactly what's the process in making it. but you could manage without a mill if your doing simple stuff like a flat chassis.. a-arms will be harder to do.

[bigmike216]

I have quite a few threads in the nitro forum of my various aluminum parts i made. I made one with a cnc mill, and the rest with a bandsaw, and an assortment of files. The ones made by hand turned out just as good as the cnc one, and it was more rewarding :) You can make aluminum parts quite easily with a bandsaw and set of miniature files :)

http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167547

http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167071

[adult_squid]

those are nice
if you wanted to make a arms how would you

[Upstate Bob]

I have quite a few threads in the nitro forum of my various aluminum parts i made. I made one with a cnc mill, and the rest with a bandsaw, and an assortment of files. The ones made by hand turned out just as good as the cnc one, and it was more rewarding :) You can make aluminum parts quite easily with a bandsaw and set of miniature files :)

http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167547

http://www.radiocontrolzone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=167071

What grade aluminum did you use for the chassis and how much the stock cost? Just curious how financially reasonable this type of thing is. The place around here that sells metal is pretty pricey...

[Spoon37]

whats wrong with a hacksaw, file and drill?? :p

unless you want to cut custom gears or machine ultra precise parts out of solid billet alu there is little need for a lathe or mill.

It depends what you need to make of course, but just making a few bits and bobs out of alu or nylon/g10/lexan/delrin/other high performance plastics aint hard....

what I'm saying is you dont need expensive tools to make custom parts.

;)

[RC10tee3]

i totally agree with ^^^^Spoon37^^^^

[adult_squid]

yeah Ill make them with those tools but
would making a arms with those tools be too inaccurate
if not could you tell me how

im not being sarcastic i really wanna know how

[Maxxcrazy]

For aluminum, only use 6061 and 7075. Anything else won't hold up to the abuse. Also for plastics, thick lexan, nylon or delrin are good materials

[bigmike216]

I didnt make my chassis, i just de-anodized my stock one. For the rest of the parts, 6061. If i were to make a chasis i'd use 7075 for that.

[crank throw wei]

whats wrong with a hacksaw, file and drill?? :p

unless you want to cut custom gears or machine ultra precise parts out of solid billet alu there is little need for a lathe or mill.

It depends what you need to make of course, but just making a few bits and bobs out of alu or nylon/g10/lexan/delrin/other high performance plastics aint hard....

what I'm saying is you dont need expensive tools to make custom parts.

;)
Well,the most important thing,IMO,is a heigth gage.While all the power toys make for easy work,putting straight,and precise lines on you part to cut/file/drill to is critical! A drill press is also required for anything like control arms with long holes that need to be straight.

[cretin]

well, if you want to make parts to sell, a cnc is probably the only way to go. since you only want to make parts for yourself, the caveman style will be fine. that's what i do. my dremel is the fanciest fabrication tool i have. to be honest, i'd be ashamed to have people see me fabricate parts. i'm no troy trepanier.

[Spoon37]

yeah thats true - I do have a drill press (and vice) that makes life alot easier, but like I said it depends on the parts to make, with my drill press and vice I can make A-arms using thick sheet alu cut to shape(yes, by hand)and then secure it in the drill press vicer and drill the holes into the sides.

but like I said it depends on what you make - stuff like shock towers, flat chassis plates, skids etc are easy to make with the simplest of tools.

I will admit the more stuff I make the more I want more toys to use, right now I am looking at bandsaws which would give me much better straight line cutting.

problem is I see it as like an incremental scale for the hobbyist, simple tools like hacksaws are cheap, a few of these and you can get by, something fancy like a drill press is not much more than the cost of a few hand tools, a bandsaw is yet more(depending on size, features etc), a lateh even more and a mill starts pretty high and goes even higher for the top CNC machines.

my point is for most of us these are toys to help us make our own bits a lil more accuratley, so I dont think there is a need to tell a guy to spend $3000+ on precise machine tools before he has even picked up a hacksaw.

manufacturing is a totally different thing, as stated then you need CNC machines so that having been told how to make one part it can do the exact same part over and over and over - its overkill for a hobbyist tho, where a simple mill is like the ultimate tool...

dont get me wrong, if you have the money by all means get any of the tools I mentioned, but I would recommend starting simple and working up to more advanced tools, I concede that a drill press is pretty vital tho.....

;)

[adult_squid]

thanks guys