Aluminium sheet suppliers and/or cutting services?

[Origineelreclamebord]

Hi everyone,

Recently I've been looking to make a custom chassis plate for my DEX210 - I've got a nose plate from the Exotek carbon chassis kit, so I don't need a kickup.

So I started looking for a company who could cut a plate for me in aluminium, but 2.5mm is a bit of an odd thickness to stock for cutting services. So plan B is to supply your own sheet of material... turns out that's quite difficult too.

Now I can take the easy way out and go to Fibre Lyte for a nice carbon example. However, for the bumpy tracks I run on I found the weight of the DEX210 helps a lot to make it stable. In other words, ideally I'd need an alu plate.

So the question that I have to you is:
Does anyone know a place (preferably in Western Europe) where I can have a chassis plate of 2.5mm alu cut? (In 7075-T6, 6061-T6 or 6082-T6 alloy - unless someone has a suitable alternative alloy for these).

Thanks in advance for your help

[maxxjod]

Hello,

You could try -

http://www.dmslaserprofiles.co.uk/

or

http://cirrus-laser.co.uk/

I use both of these companies for various one off prototypes and production batch items, might be worth contacting them and see what they say?

[mr. ed]

Are you sure 2.5 mm is what you want? Seems a bit thin to me.
Maybe you could go for 4mm fibegerglass enforced epoxy (GF10).
That 'd make it a bit heavier than 2.5mm carbon and nearly as stiff. If it does give some flex, at least it will get back to flat; unlike aluminium

[Origineelreclamebord]

@maxxjod: Thanks for the links, I'll contact them

@mr.ed: Pretty much all aluminium chassis' on 1/10 buggies are 2.5mm - some are even 2.0mm (like on the Schumacher K1), and the same counts for carbon. The only car known to me to buckle alu chassis' is the Centro (C4.1) - not surprisingly when you don't have sidepods or another type of bracing to restrict longitudinal flex.

I'm well aware Aluminium doesn't work for all parts on the car - such as suspension arms and shock towers - but for this job I think the specific alloy+hardening combinations are an excellent choice: It is way stronger than Carbon Fibre or GF (this refers to strength, not it's ability to flex), it puts weight low down in and close to the centerline of the car - the weight helps calm the car down, the position of the weight is helpful for the CoG and prevents the necessity of stuffing adhesive weights all over your car.

[mattr]

Have you tried the nearest equivalent imperial or gauge thickness?
Think 10AWG sheet is just over 2.5mm and 3/32 or 7/64 sit either side of 2.5mm.

We used to do this a lot in the aero industry. Manipulate the tolerance band so we could use either imperial or metric sheets......... depending on which was cheaper.