Chassis Materials

[MTV<=>Operator]

Hello, I am in the process of deciding what to build the chassis of my MTV out of, but I have a few questions:
1) If I were to 3D print the chassis, what is the best filament?
2) I have seen that people build theirs from carbon fiber, but I am not sure how exactly this is done (ex. what types of pieces)
3) What is the best material (excluding balsa wood) that I can build a MTV from

Thanks in advance

[PM2017]

Hello, I am in the process of deciding what to build the chassis of my MTV out of, but I have a few questions:
1) If I were to 3D print the chassis, what is the best filament?
2) I have seen that people build theirs from carbon fiber, but I am not sure how exactly this is done (ex. what types of pieces)
3) What is the best material (excluding balsa wood) that I can build a MTV from

Thanks in advance

1. PLA is probably the easiest and cheapest material. I'm sure you could get some sort of CF reinforced nylon or PLA, but plain old PLA works just fine for me. (I do have some PETG on my old car, since I somehow managed to run out of my PLA back in December. I've since bought two more rolls.)

2. You would order carbon fiber tubes/rods. I've used HobbyKing in the past, but this time I'm trying out a new place (Aloft Hobbies). I'll update this post after it arrives to speak to the quality of their materials.

3. Uhh, this really depends. For my new chassis, I'm using PLA printed parts + CF tubes (plus a tiny bit of aluminum sheet). For my old cars, I was using a 1/8 inch sheet of basswood, though it flexed a lot more than I wanted it to. I've seen a few cars made entirely of aluminum tubes.
The compromise here is strength vs.weight. Using 1/8 aluminum sheet, for example, would be extremely strong, but it would probably be way too heavy for the car to move at any desirable speed.

[MTV<=>Operator]

1. PLA is probably the easiest and cheapest material. I'm sure you could get some sort of CF reinforced nylon or PLA, but plain old PLA works just fine for me. (I do have some PETG on my old car, since I somehow managed to run out of my PLA back in December. I've since bought two more rolls.)

2. You would order carbon fiber tubes/rods. I've used HobbyKing in the past, but this time I'm trying out a new place (Aloft Hobbies). I'll update this post after it arrives to speak to the quality of their materials.

3. Uhh, this really depends. For my new chassis, I'm using PLA printed parts + CF tubes (plus a tiny bit of aluminum sheet). For my old cars, I was using a 1/8 inch sheet of basswood, though it flexed a lot more than I wanted it to. I've seen a few cars made entirely of aluminum tubes.
The compromise here is strength vs.weight. Using 1/8 aluminum sheet, for example, would be extremely strong, but it would probably be way too heavy for the car to move at any desirable speed.

Thank you. Just wondering, how did you cut the carbon fiber tubes? (I've heard that the dust produced when cutting cf is toxic)

[PM2017]

1. PLA is probably the easiest and cheapest material. I'm sure you could get some sort of CF reinforced nylon or PLA, but plain old PLA works just fine for me. (I do have some PETG on my old car, since I somehow managed to run out of my PLA back in December. I've since bought two more rolls.)

2. You would order carbon fiber tubes/rods. I've used HobbyKing in the past, but this time I'm trying out a new place (Aloft Hobbies). I'll update this post after it arrives to speak to the quality of their materials.

3. Uhh, this really depends. For my new chassis, I'm using PLA printed parts + CF tubes (plus a tiny bit of aluminum sheet). For my old cars, I was using a 1/8 inch sheet of basswood, though it flexed a lot more than I wanted it to. I've seen a few cars made entirely of aluminum tubes.
The compromise here is strength vs.weight. Using 1/8 aluminum sheet, for example, would be extremely strong, but it would probably be way too heavy for the car to move at any desirable speed.

Thank you. Just wondering, how did you cut the carbon fiber tubes? (I've heard that the dust produced when cutting cf is toxic)

I wear a dust mask, put a few layers of masking tape around the part to be cut, and keep a shop-vac turned on, pointed at the part being cut. (We use a Dremel to actually cut the thing.)

[MTV<=>Operator]

Thanks