,
And here is the result. The flycut marks on the front were from knocking the 1” thick material down to 0.9” to save a few ounces.
Next, we machined the bearing pocket and after that, a lightening pocket using a ball end mill to add a fillet for strength. While many teams will choose a bushing for their rocker pivot, we chose a somewhat heavy roller bearing. The reasoning was to eliminate stiction. When rockers are set at strange angles, it can be very easy to cause the rocker to try to lift off its pivot (either through imperfect fabrication, or imperfect design). A bushing would stick and cause strange handling. A bearing will not.
Cool indeed. The rib in the middle of the lightening pocket would be cut down later on. The design is very similar to F1 and IndyCar rockers.
The final step was to cut in the slot for the shock, pushrod, and swaybar endlink.
And with a little bit of deburring BAM! We have a rocker. To make two of these took about a day and a half of machine time. Lots of work, but worth the effort.