DHX2.0 gas tank (3DPrinted)

Last crawled date: 1 year, 11 months ago

Hey guys,

It's been a super busy 2016, just getting some time now to share some projects. So in 2014/2015, I needed to build a gas tank for my bikes below....
https://grabcad.com/library/dirt-force-motorcycles-dhx-moto-2-0-1

I had tried to build one out of metal but found it extremely time consuming as I didn't have all the right tools (come back to this later) so I decided to try to 3D print one instead...... they turned out great but in the end decided to stick with an all metal design, read on for more details...

For the 3D printed tanks, I printed the tank in two halves, then fibreglassed the inside of each half, I left an recessed strip in the middle where I could put the two halves together and then join them with strips of fibreglass on the outside. I poured resin in as a final precation and to help seal everything... on the outside, I finished with bondo and some paint. All in all, I built two prototype tanks this way and they turned out great, as you can see from the pictures and extremely strong and leak proof.....HOWEVER, I soon realized that although I used "FUEL RESISANT" vinylester resin which was touted as being ok to use in gasoline applications, they failed to mention that it doesn't resist the ethanol content present in most low grade gasolines....so I ended up having issues with the gas getting contaminated and causing all sorts of problems with the bike. Mind you they would probably work ok with 91 octane or anything with ZERO ethanol.....

So in the end, the decision was made to go back to an all metal aluminum tank, but this time with the help of my friend Bryan and his company at Mezco manufacturing Inc. in the US, we were able to bang out a VERY cool and special all aluminum tank design that I'm really proud of...

Here is the link to that project:

https://grabcad.com/library/dhx2-0-gas-tank-updated-aluminum-1

A big thanks to Bryan and his team at Mezco Manufacturing, I wouldn't have been able to pull this off without them, great people and do great work. They are now my go to guys for any sheet metal work.

As always, comments and likes are welcomed, I hope this little research projects can help others in a similar situation.