I’m creating this thread in the hopes of getting some advice from people experienced with aluminum fabrication.
My current build consists of a Fliteboard with an Axis mast. The Axis baseplate is bolted onto a 9.5mm Aluminum adapter plate. This works fine (so far), but it’s also very heavy and more clunky than it could be.
For the next iteration of my build I’m hoping to find a lighter solution. Ideally a single piece that fits the Fliteboard and has a neck to attach the Axis mast, eliminating the need for the Axis Baseplate.
I don’t have any experience with metal fabrication or CNCing, hopefully some folks here can give some feedback on how this could be accomplished.
Do you think any of the following options would be feasible?
1.) Create a cad file for an adapter plate including the neck and get it machined. Could that be done for a reasonable cost?
2.) Weld the Axis mast to the Fliteboard aluminum plate and reinforce the joint with a custom “neck” piece.
Welding aluminium wouldn’t work unless you were to heat treat the whole thing afterwards, and even then it will most likely crack.
The most streamlined and elegant solution would be bring the mast through the plate and up to the top of the die cast box. Like a deep tuttle system used on older kite foils.
This introduces lots of issues though as you will need to waterproof the inside of the mast, and the areas around the mast and the bottom plate, but some fancy adhesives should be up to the task.
I’d say it can be machined if you just find the right shop. only problem is you take a bit of a chance on the tolerances, since your diy cad might have some small offsets. ideally you’d find a local machine shop to do it and give the mast to them for fitting
I think the mast hole might need to be done by wire cutting/edm machining
But:
I would build a new mast plate in carbon composite instead, wouldn’t be too hard.
The only real option would be to design a model and then get it cut by a machine shop. They’ll use a CNC. If you look carefully at all the aluminium baseplates they have a very small circle at the rear of the mast slot. They tend to do a final hole to get the rear to fit.
To get the mast profile exactly hold it on top of a scanner and scan it in perfectly. Then trace the shape in a cad program.
At a stretch you could try convince fliteboard to sell you an empty mast and box, but I doubt they will.
You’re right, it wouldn’t heatsink well if that’s the intention of the plate.
Another option would be 3d-printing. Before the ukraine war i had some stuff printed in 316 steel through craftcloud, it was surprisingly affordable then but right now the prices have skyrocketed, let’s hope the inflation goes down with time.
OK thanks. I think I read somewhere that someone had woven metal threads into the CF material to increase its thermal conductivity. Challenging keeping pace with the rate of development and I wondered if this had become common.
I think Flite mounts their VESC right on top of the mast for the heat sink effect.
I didn’t know that you could 3D print stainless either - cool!
We have the same problem, but using GONG mast. We’re thinking of using the 3 central bolts to make a sandwich with the mast + mast baseplate + adaptor plate.
This eliminates the need for a very thick adapter plate. There is the waterproofing issue, but we have that issue with the motor wires going through the sandwich anyway.
There are several threads here on making an “adapter plate” for the Fliteboard that works with Gong mastbase.
Perhaps check them out as the solutions are tested and viable.
The ESC is home made and custom made to fit. The wires will come out in the middle of the adaptor plate and the ESC. I’ll post photos, it will be easier than trying to explain… but we have a plan!
