The Chassisworks Factory - Behind The Scenes

[FreddieCougar]

holy crap...billet carbon fiber. Hard to describe how cool THAT is!

[DETON8R]

Originally Posted by Chassisworks

It's really tough on tooling but other than that nothing we hadn't dealt with in the past.

We machine a variety of composite in aerospace, including carbon fiber. The only difference is the smell in the flood coolant for the machine a few days later.

Machining metals and there isn't much biologic activity in the coolant, as the coolant has stabilizers and anti-fungal agents. For some reason the bacteria in the coolant are able to digest the organic material in the glue/binder/resin and after a few days (especially Monday mornings) there is a rather strong smell the first time the coolant is run in the machines. Our machinists don't mind, but it drives the office staff crazy, with never ending complaints of nausea and light headdedness.

Funny that the guys working with it up close and personnel don't mind, but the people half a building away are ready to go home sick. Go figure.....

[Chassisworks]

Originally Posted by DETON8R

We machine a variety of composite in aerospace, including carbon fiber. The only difference is the smell in the flood coolant for the machine a few days later.

Machining metals and there isn't much biologic activity in the coolant, as the coolant has stabilizers and anti-fungal agents. For some reason the bacteria in the coolant are able to digest the organic material in the glue/binder/resin and after a few days (especially Monday mornings) there is a rather strong smell the first time the coolant is run in the machines. Our machinists don't mind, but it drives the office staff crazy, with never ending complaints of nausea and light headdedness.

Funny that the guys working with it up close and personnel don't mind, but the people half a building away are ready to go home sick. Go figure.....

Interesting. All the inside folks, like me, didn't smell anything but the factory smelled like someone was laying up fiberglass for half the day. Our building is pretty well ventilated. I couldn't speak to the condition of the coolant tanks. Just glad I don't have to clean them.

[dstryr]

Originally Posted by DETON8R

Funny that the guys working with it up close and personnel don't mind, but the people half a building away are ready to go home sick. Go figure.....

lol this does not surprise me one bit.

[Vince@Meanstreets]

its all about long term exposure, since the effects don't bother you its numbing you. eventually it will kill you.

If average people are effected by it this should be a warning sign for you.

[Bozeforged]

Everything these guys build is top notch! We built the wheels for their test car and wheels for some of their customers. All their customers we talk to are really happy with their suspension. Every time I call them for technical information on their suspension they're more then helpful with answers!

[DETON8R]

Originally Posted by Chassisworks

Interesting. All the inside folks, like me, didn't smell anything but the factory smelled like someone was laying up fiberglass for half the day. Our building is pretty well ventilated. I couldn't speak to the condition of the coolant tanks. Just glad I don't have to clean them.

Different composites have different smells. We machine many different materials, and different things have different odors, especially when there are many different composites being machined on the same machines. The bactericide in fresh coolant is effective for a while, then eventually gets depleted and the odor takes off.

Originally Posted by Vince@MSperfab

its all about long term exposure, since the effects don't bother you its numbing you. eventually it will kill you.

If average people are effected by it this should be a warning sign for you.

Long term exposure to odors from bacteriological decomposition of organic material won't kill you, and that's what it was. That was the source and composition of the odor causing stuff in the flood coolant. The odor was no different than some of the odors you would smell at a landfill, especially after a really good rain.

Clearly not what you want to smell in an office but not anything that has any sort of short term or long term health concerns. No way, not possible, sorry, it isn't an odor from some sort of unnatural chemical.

As my High School biology teacher taught me, "Life Stinks" now go clean the rat cage, mouse cage, and chicken coups. Ask the average chicken farmer, the smell won't kill you, but the work might.

Some of the office workers were worried about the odor coming from a chemical with long term health concerns, and air testing proved it was nothing more than odor from bacteria.

[Chassisworks]

Wow, it's been a long time since I posted in this thread!

Here's a behind-the-scenes picture of our new gStreet billet aluminum upright. In this pic you can see three phases of machining process: raw billet, first operation, and final operation.

[Chassisworks]

Hmmm, I wonder what these guys in Michigan are up to. We just shipped them two boxes of parts for the early Nova...

[Chassisworks]

Geez, I have been slacking. Here's a couple pics I have snapped over the past several months.

This was actually 4th of July weekend at the Goodguys show in Des Moines, Iowa.


Nothing like a hard day's work! All eight of these factory welded FAB9 housings were shipped to Muscle Car Factory in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. One was still really hot when I took this pic. All of these housings are for Mustangs. Seven of them will have g-Bar or g-Link suspension and the eighth (top center) will have leaf springs. He typically does not order them with the optional backbrace as most of his customers aren't going crazy on the engine builds.



I was going to post some more pictures, but hotlinking is not working right for all the images.