Aluminium Chassis?

**patolcott** · 03-08-2013, 05:52 AM

So as my kyp durron build SLOWLY putters along with all of my revisions, and revisions on existing revisions... LOL I was origianally going to go with an RCS chassis, then I saw the build by Caz343 on FX and I REALLY like the Idea of a aluminium chassis. it would give it a nice feel and heft to it.

That being said I have one consern for any of you who have done a aluminum chassis,

HOW do you get your board not to short out? I have been looking at some of sloths aluminium chassis' and I notice he has no heatshrink in there. (i know this is THE slothfurnace we are talking about but still it must be possible)

Any Ideas out there or tutorials I missed?

I will be using erv's awesome new CF V6.1 so I REALLY don't want to mess it up either by shorting it out or by covering it with something that makes it overheat.

**Forgetful Jedi Knight** · 03-08-2013, 10:10 AM

OK, before I get too far into this, which of caz's builds are you referring to? Unless you have heavy machinery (lathe, mill), a lot of intricate chassis will be hard to pull off decently.

As far as Slothfurnace's builds go, there are some tricks he uses, but I'm not going to "go there" - but I would tell you that to do what he does, lathe and mill (and skills) are mandatory toys.

**patolcott** · 03-08-2013, 04:34 PM

I am refering to Caz's what if corran horn... and I am actually contracting to make it for me considering i dont have all of those wonderfull toys.

**Forgetful Jedi Knight** · 03-08-2013, 04:44 PM

Yeah, for something like that you need "heavy machinery". Using aluminum disks and rods and stiff doesn't add that much "heft" to a hilt.

**patolcott** · 03-08-2013, 05:03 PM

well Like i said I am having caz make a chassis for me I was just wondering if there was anything in particular that i needed to do once he was finished. like the chassis will be made when it gets to me i just need tips on not shorting out the board. or is that not possible without the tools?

**Forgetful Jedi Knight** · 03-08-2013, 05:34 PM

Originally Posted by patolcott

well Like i said I am having caz make a chassis for me I was just wondering if there was anything in particular that i needed to do once he was finished. like the chassis will be made when it gets to me i just need tips on not shorting out the board. or is that not possible without the tools?

To quote Erv': "It depends".

I have ways that I use, though the chassis setups I make (and use) are not like caz's. I don't know what he does and what he uses. I could guess, but that wouldn't help you. How you secure your board(s) also makes a difference.

For example, if you look at Madcow's Corran Horn sabers (I own one) he has the PC (or CF) secured in the PVC chassis he uses with little ears, so he doesn't have to line the inside of his saber with a plastic tubing (like I tend to do). In my case, I tend to secure my boards to the battery pack using double sided tape and a narrow band of carefully placed heat shrink to the rods of my chassis, and then the T8 tubing I use adds a layer of protection.

If you look up my Traveller build there might be some pics there to give you an idea (without the tubing).

**patolcott** · 03-08-2013, 06:13 PM

oh ok that makes more sense so there is no real trick. for some reason it just seemed like they were doing something specific. I really like the double sided tape I will probably use the double sided foam tape and figure out a way to secure it well so when I spar with it so it does not move around.

**Forgetful Jedi Knight** · 03-08-2013, 06:21 PM

The "real trick" depends on how you do things. Everyone's solution is a bit different, and like I said earlier, "It depends". I don't exactly know how caz makes his chassis, so I don't know what advice to give you with that. Most people I know either use a PVC chassis or a variant of the disk system that I tend to use. Those who make "full reveal" chassis, usually have the "toys" available to custom make what they need/want. I tend to use "off the shelf stuff" though if I do use aluminum disks, I do need to mod them slightly for the way I like to do things, though the ancient acrylic disks I have have been great for me.