Milling the Chassis

The 25.5 pound chunk of stock! The Chassis started out this 25.5 pound chunk of aluminum measuring 17x7x2 inches. The final weight of the finished chassis is 2.66 pounds! This page shows the block go down to 5 pounds in 12.5 hours of machining.

The First cut with the Big Daddy Fly Cutter! I started out by squaring up the block with this giant flycutter.

Such a great tool! A close up of how much material this tool can remove.

Squaring up the sides I used a smaller flycutter to face the sides.

I squared the ends with this 1 I squared the ends using an endmill.

The first cuts to rough out the bottom Next it was time to rough out both sides of the chassis.

The chips pile up fast! First I hogged out all the material on this end, nice pile of chips huh?

This chunk is already lighter Then I hogged out the center to start to form the battery pockets.

Almost done! Then I hogged the other end, you should see the pile of chips on the floor!

The bottom is now roughed out! A last cut along the outsides of the battery pockets and the bottom is roughed out.

The band saw is a great tool I used the bandsaw to cut away the excess material to form the wheel wells.

Finishing the outside contour Finishing the outside contour with a 1/2" end mill.

Swiveling my vise to 35.5 degrees I swiveled the vice to blend these angles with the same tool.

This hole is for location and easier pickups I bored a tooling hole directly on center of the length and width to use for future pickups.

Gotta start somewhere Next I started to rough the top of the chassis by tracing the outline of the pocket to verify my numbers and for a visual reference where to cut.

slowly but surely I milled from the center out, gotta start somewhere?

The top pocket is now roughed This picture shows the hogged out top pocket, this Chassis is getting lighter.

Laying out the battery pockets I traced the outline of the battery pockets with the endmill and then roughed them out.

One down, one to go This picture shows the first battery pocket roughed out.

The roughed out battery pockets This picture shows both of the battery pockets roughed out. At this point the 25.5 lb chunk weighed about 5 lbs.

A final fly cut across the top Previous to this opp I left everything slightly oversized to allow the materials stresses to be relieved. This is where I start to mill to size.

Finishing the battery pockets Finishing the battery pockets with a 3/4" end mill.

I put a .030 X 45 degree chamfer around the finished battery pockets Here I chamfered the battery pocket edge .030"

This cut will be finished on the sinker EDM In this opp I cut as close to the corner as I could and the rest of the material will be blended later on the Sinker EDM.
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A final fly cut to whats left of the bottom Here I start to finish the bottom with a flycutter.

The vise is swiveled 45 degrees to finish these chamfers I rotated the vise 45 degrees to finish the battery pocket chamfers, these pocket walls are from 1/8" to 3/16" thick.

The sine plate is set to 8.867 degrees I tipped the part at an 8.867 degree angle on a sine plate to finish these outside edges of the battery pockets.

This cut is cosmetic and will be well worth the hassle

Radii for the top I finished the milling off with some radii for the top and bottom sides of the chassis.

Radii for the bottom There it is, ready to be EDMed! check out the next page to see the Chassis get EDMed!


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