LOSI LST XXL Conversion ideas

[jpoprock]

WOW WOW WOW! Thank you so much Ray!!! That is awesome!!!! Now I "get it"! I wonder why you chose to cut the piece with the template facing down? Wouldn't it be a little easier if you could see exactly where you were supposed to go? I realize that you're feeling your way thru it, but i would prefer the stock piece facing up so I could see the path.

Also... is it important to wear gloves? Or is that preference? I have a shop vac, but I wonder if you need to buy one of those special dry wall filters for it when sucking up carbon fiber?

I just can't believe how easy this is, now that I've seen it. I'm gonna buy a router table at Harbor Freight now pronto! The next thing I need to work on is the shank. So basically you want to use the smaller 1/8" bits and the shank for small areas, and the 1/4" bit for larger sections. Is that right? I believe that i already have a shank and 1/8" bit for my dremel, but I don't have a 1/4" bit I don't think. I may, since I own a Rotozip tool.

Boy... you've just opened a pandora's box for me!! My wife is going to HATE ME now. HA!!!

Jason

[JThiessen]

Originally Posted by jpoprock

WOW WOW WOW! Thank you so much Ray!!! That is awesome!!!! Now I "get it"! I wonder why you chose to cut the piece with the template facing down? Wouldn't it be a little easier if you could see exactly where you were supposed to go? I realize that you're feeling your way thru it, but i would prefer the stock piece facing up so I could see the path.

Also... is it important to wear gloves? Or is that preference? I have a shop vac, but I wonder if you need to buy one of those special dry wall filters for it when sucking up carbon fiber?

I just can't believe how easy this is, now that I've seen it. I'm gonna buy a router table at Harbor Freight now pronto! The next thing I need to work on is the shank. So basically you want to use the smaller 1/8" bits and the shank for small areas, and the 1/4" bit for larger sections. Is that right? I believe that i already have a shank and 1/8" bit for my dremel, but I don't have a 1/4" bit I don't think. I may, since I own a Rotozip tool.

Boy... you've just opened a pandora's box for me!! My wife is going to HATE ME now. HA!!!

Jason

The reason he was doing it upside down was so that the non-cutting portion of the bit was acting as the guide. If you wanted to do it the other way around, you would need a bit with a guide bearing on the end of it - which only come in 1/4" diameter or larger. If you dont have any radii smaller than 1/8'' (half the 1/4" dia) then your fine.

Regarding gloves and power equipment. General rule of thumb is to NEVER wear anything that can get caught in a moving part and pull your body parts into the blade. However, with CF, you have that nasty dust and slivers to contend with. Plus the gloves he had on were more likely to tear than pull - but as close as his finger got a few times, I bet he would have ended up with a nasty little chunk taken out of the finger. Personally, I would do it without gloves, or maybe even try some of those rubber sewing thimbles.

ps. Check your local Craigslist before you go buy a new one. A variable speed router would also be very beneficial for projects like this.

[jpoprock]

Originally Posted by JThiessen

The reason he was doing it upside down was so that the non-cutting portion of the bit was acting as the guide. If you wanted to do it the other way around, you would need a bit with a guide bearing on the end of it - which only come in 1/4" diameter or larger. If you dont have any radii smaller than 1/8'' (half the 1/4" dia) then your fine.

Regarding gloves and power equipment. General rule of thumb is to NEVER wear anything that can get caught in a moving part and pull your body parts into the blade. However, with CF, you have that nasty dust and slivers to contend with. Plus the gloves he had on were more likely to tear than pull - but as close as his finger got a few times, I bet he would have ended up with a nasty little chunk taken out of the finger. Personally, I would do it without gloves, or maybe even try some of those rubber sewing thimbles.

ps. Check your local Craigslist before you go buy a new one. A variable speed router would also be very beneficial for projects like this.

Thanks man. Yes... I can't have chunks taken out of my hands... because I play guitar in a band on the weekends. For MONEY. So... I can't be getting hurt!

It just seems strange to have to work upside down like that. I would spend more time worrying about what areas I wasn't getting to, flipping and checking, and maybe wasting time. But over time, I'm sure it will be easier. I have a variable speed DREMEL, but no router/table. I may have one my father in law will give me though, so that will be nice. I have checked Craigslist... and you can get a nice set up for $200. But don't I have to find a router that has a 1/4" or less chuck on it?? Some of them have bigger ones. But then again... that's max size, not minimum size. I'll just use my dremel collet to use the 1/8" bit.

[mistercrash]

I bought CF from Graphite girl also and it was good. But I prefer Full Force RC and Penguin RC. I got the 3 mm thick CF from Full Force and the 2.5 mm CF from Penguin RC for this project.

I have pdf files of the top chassis plate, the middle skid and the front skid doubler I made if anyone wants them. You just print them out and use them as templates. The drawings are pretty accurate and everything should line up nicely.

PM me your email if you want them.

[jpoprock]

Originally Posted by mistercrash

I bought CF from Graphite girl also and it was good. But I prefer Full Force RC and Penguin RC. I got the 3 mm thick CF from Full Force and the 2.5 mm CF from Penguin RC for this project.

I have pdf files of the top chassis plate, the middle skid and the front skid doubler I made if anyone wants them. You just print them out and use them as templates. The drawings are pretty accurate and everything should line up nicely.

Email me if you want the pdf files.

raymondduchesne@sympatico.ca

So... how do you implement using these as templates? Cut them out of whatever and attach your CF to it for routing like in your vid? Or can you actually trace over a CF sheet and rout it out that way? Seems like doing it that way would be LESS accurate, but I don't know.

[mistercrash]

Originally Posted by jpoprock

So... how do you implement using these as templates? Cut them out of whatever and attach your CF to it for routing like in your vid? Or can you actually trace over a CF sheet and rout it out that way? Seems like doing it that way would be LESS accurate, but I don't know.

Here's how I did it. I will explain what is shown in my video. Let's take the top plate for example. I would take the original aluminum top plate from the LST XXL and stick it on the sheet of CF like shown in the video. Then I would use this original stock aluminum plate as a template to make these holes in the CF. The holes that are in red in the pic are the holes that I will use to secure the new CF top plate and by using the original top plate from the LST XXL, you can be sure the holes will be perfect.



Once those holes are done, you can use screws and nuts to secure the stock aluminum top plate to the CF sheet using the holes you just made to run the thing against your bit to cut the CF exactly in the same shape as the original top plate. Like it is shown in the vid.

Then you can use the pdf file that you printed to serve as a guide to make the extra holes needed to make the truck like I did it. The holes and openings in red in this pic.

[JThiessen]

Originally Posted by mistercrash

I have pdf files of the top chassis plate, the middle skid and the front skid doubler I made if anyone wants them. .

If those are the PDF's I gave you, I have updated ones now. The LST2 length chassis plates were good, but the XXL files were off a bit, both on hole locations, and length of chassis.

[mistercrash]

JT the pdf files I have are the ones of the parts I made for my LST XXL so they are not the ones I got from you. But your files helped me make my own though and I thank you. If you have updated files of the stock XXL chassis and you'd like to share them then please do so and thanks again.