Billet A-arms?

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rdc

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I have a 1997 Toyota Tacoma mini 2WD. I am think about having solid billet upper and lower A-arms made for my truck. I dont have quite enough money to have some fabbed for me but I can design them on CAD and have a guy that I know who owns a machine shop make them for me. Do you guys think this is a better idea??

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ntsqd

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Why ?

TS

"It only seems kinky the first time"
-- Bumpersticker seen in Lost Wages
 
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Mike_HKmtrsprts

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if you get the geom. right and its cheaper I say do it yourself....

everyone thinks they are superman when the camera is pointed at them...untill they land!!!
 
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cleartoy

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Alluminium or 4130?

85 Toyota xtracab 4x4(for sale)
94 Toyota stdcab 2x4
99 Yamaha YZ250

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ntsqd

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Why go to the trouble. Billet does not equate being stronger. Within a given material the strength is mostly in the design, not nearly the method of fabrication. The only reason I can see that the Herbst Truggy uses billet uppers is because of the upper steering/suspension joint design. If it were a std Uniball I'd guess that they would have gone with a weldment.
Think about it this way, if there were a species of wood strong enough would you rather hog it out of a big board, or would you rather cut strips and laminate it together ? I'd rather go laminated. Hogging it out of a board cuts the grain of the wood which makes for gnarly shear planes. Metal really isn't much different.

TS

"It only seems kinky the first time"
-- Bumpersticker seen in Lost Wages
 
Dave_G

Dave_G

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RE: I am think about having solid billet upper and lower A-arms made for my truck.

You mean like these? ;-)


Dave

"I know it all, but I can't remember most of it..."
 

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Jerry Zaiden

Jerry Zaiden

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Dave,

Those are nice. Herbst upper for the 4x4 Trophy truck. Nice work!
 
Dave_G

Dave_G

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Jerry,
They look even better on the car! ;-) Prim will be the first race on them.

Dave

"I know it all, but I can't remember most of it..."
 
Waldo

Waldo

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Dave, how long have you been making some of the Herbst race parts. An old H.S. friend of mine made their first billet a-arms on their Truggy and some other suspension parts as well. He owns a company called Tovel which is right next door to the Herbst race shop. Do you make most of their "one-off" and specialty parts? I haven't talked with him in a couple of years.

BRAAAAAAAAP!
 
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Greg

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Dave, what machine did you use to tap the 1.25 thrreaded holes on the end of those arms? And, what material (6061 or 7075) did you make those from?

Greg
rockdevil.gif
 
Dave_G

Dave_G

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RE: Do you make most of their "one-off" and specialty parts?

We've been doing stuff for them for about the past five years. A lot of the stuff we redesign and manufacture like the A arms. We started out making the bypass shocks for them and later on more stuff like transmission parts for the Truggy and TT, T-cases, drive lines etc. We are only one of several shops that make components for them.

Dave

"I know it all, but I can't remember most of it..."
 
Dave_G

Dave_G

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RE: "what machine did you use to tap the 1.25 thrreaded holes on the end of those arms?"

Greg,
We stood them up in the VA-55 vertical CNC and helical interpolated the threads with a thread mill. A tap that size isn't practical for us in that application.

RE:"what material (6061 or 7075) did you make those from?"

None of the above ;-) They are made from 2024 T3 plate. The 2024 offers good strength and better fatigue life than the 7075. Corrosion resistance is also better than 7075.

Dave

"I know it all, but I can't remember most of it..."
 
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Greg

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I figured you had to hang them off the machine. If you need to do stuff like that again, my shop is only 5 min from yours and we have 4 horizontal mills that would make those arms look like tiny. I'm sure I could save you time. As a bonus I could brag to all my friends "ya know, I built part of that TT over there!!!". haha, that'd be funny.

Greg
rockdevil.gif
 
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sirhk100

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Okay, I gotta ask what's helical interpolated? Put it in lame general terms like "thingy" and "do hicky" so us non-machinist will have a clue.

Khris

'92 Ford Exploder (work in progress)
 
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Donahoe

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DIm a-arms sure are perdy!!!!

NEVER LIFT!!!!!
 
Dave_G

Dave_G

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RE: "Okay, I gotta ask what's helical interpolated? "

All three axis move at the same time (X and Y) to form a circular motion and Z feeding up or down.

For example......
if you were thread milling a 12 pitch thread Z axis would feed down .08333 per one complete revolution of the X and Y axis circular move. If you ever want to know the feed per thread the formula is simple. It's 1divided by the pitch. If it's a 12 pitch thread it's 1divided by 12 = .08333

Damn, I actually remembered that....

Dave

"I know it all, but I can't remember most of it..."
 
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