Small Machined Parts

[RadoTD]

I'm thinking of buying a small lathe/milling machine and I'm wondering if there is any interest here on small machined parts.

Off the top of my head, I'm thinking turbo flanges/adapters, short shift kits, boost pins, pulley adapters, merge collector tubing (I would send them either as tubing or get them welded by a shop local to me), custom oil drain fittings etc etc in mild steel, stainless, aluminum, maybe some titanium

Comments/suggestions? Pricing would be quite reasonable and I would probably keep a small stock of common parts and would happily make anything I can from CAD drawings.

[funkaholik]

Custom-ground boost pins?  Hmmm... There's an idea.  Is anyone doing this already?  Could be fun experimenting with those.  If you're buying one anyway, I'll bet there's some interest in parts. 

[truckinwagen]

what would be the largest your machine would handle?

[RadoTD]

what would be the largest your machine would handle?

I'll have to check specs tomorrow, but I think it's an 8x14 or 8x18. Unfortunately only 7/8 spindle bore on the lathe, but a quick look at it looked like it could be modified for about a 2" or so bore. I could probably modify the tail stock to hold an IM shaft, but definitely too small for a crankshaft.

Similar to this benchtop lathe/mill, a little bit smaller though http://www.extreme-tool-pros.com/index.html

And I personally don't do enough to justify getting it, but I figured if I could offset the cost a bit then maybe I could go for it.

Regarding the boost pins, the 1.6 pin is nice because it's actually cut with a variable pitch taper, so rotating it you can tune the fuel/boost ratio. I could either turn it on the lathe and have a constant (but custom) pitch or mill like a 4-8 sided with all different pitches. Price would probably be like $30 or so out of a nice high carbon steel.

[truckinwagen]

thats cool, doing the IM shaft would be really great, and that would be a great price for boost pins.

as for the profile, the big diesel guys just cut a ramp in one dimension(no tuning by spinning, but allows for much more pin travel) which would be easy to machine.

-Owen

[booneylander]

I'm in for flanges and boost pin, misc other.

[NintendoKD]

you should setup a no-crap intermediate shaft grinding service, I did mine on a small lathe and it turned out great, would be worth the money to lot's of folks out there to get it done.  custom boost pins are a great idea, I paid to get one from the UK and now I can get a completely custom one from you, awesome.

Kevin

[rabbid79]

I really think boost pins would be the lowest hanging fruit.  I know I'd like one.

I'd like a plate for bolting to a head or block to pressure test them

Not to get off topic because this is a really cool thread, but is this what you were looking for Andrew?http://www.034motorsport.com/product_info.php?products_id=19833&osCsid=vpnnndk0af9pj454lkh2l337g7

[Rabbit on Roids]

I really think boost pins would be the lowest hanging fruit.  I know I'd like one.

I'd like a plate for bolting to a head or block to pressure test them

Not to get off topic because this is a really cool thread, but is this what you were looking for Andrew?http://www.034motorsport.com/product_info.php?products_id=19833&osCsid=vpnnndk0af9pj454lkh2l337g7

he is basically looking for a fake cylinder deck if i understand him right. something that all ten head bolts thread into and blocks off all the water jackets, so he can pressurize them to see of the head holds pressure.

andrew, the way my grandpa taught me to check for cracked heads is to block off all the water ports, then turn the head upside down, so the deck is facing up, and fill it with gasoline. if the head is cracked, the gas slowly leaks out, where as water may not leak from a very small crack, but gas will. this way works good for me, but usually takes over night to tell if the head is dead or not. any light weight oil will work. diesel, gas, paint thinner, anything like that safe for use on aluminum. just the poor mechanics way of checking for cracks.

[RadoTD]

I've been thinking that a boost pin like this would be ideal.  Maximum adjustability but you would need to turn the cone first, then then do a second turning with different centers...  It would be a universal pin that would allow complete adjustment from the most aggressive to least aggressive fuel to boost curve.

A boost pin like that would be nice but has 2 big flaws that I can see.
First - it's very difficult to machine. It would be most easily done one of 3 ways - very meticulously turned with a manual mill/lathe over the course of many hours, filed down by hand or run on done on a CNC mill ($$$)

Second - In order to have an extreme on one end for a well breathing engine, it would only work close to the minimum/maximum. If you set it to the middle but your extreme cut went deeper than half way on the pin, once you hit enough boost, the needle could go past the boost pin, get stuck out and jam the boost pin. Hello, black smoke and rev limiter!

The 1.6TD pin is like a moderate version of what you have there. Not a ton of range, but the same general idea. Unfortunately, they don't go too deep and are hard to find. I could either make a deep one or one with like 4 different settings, but nothing too aggressive.

I'm going to see if I can use a lathe at my old school for a few minutes and turn myself a boost pin and run it in my engine for a while... see how well it works.


For the block pressure tester, that would be pretty big. Talk to a metal supply shop and see if you can get some plate steel for cheap. 1/4" should be enough, then measure it out, cut it with an angle grinder or plasma cutter if possible and drill holes for the head bolts with a drill press. That's exactly how I'd make it.

My biggest hurdle might be finding somewhere to keep/use it. I've got a few friends with shops that would have the space, hopefully one of them would have use for it and let me store it in their shop

[truckinwagen]

this is what I was talking about for a boost pin


no adjustability, but lots of travel

[Powered by Spearco]

Is that boost pin a Cummins "Smokey Boost pin"?

[truckinwagen]

yup.

[RadoTD]

this is what I was talking about for a boost pin


no adjustability, but lots of travel

Yeah.. I've seen one like that before - even more aggressive though.

One interesting thing though, that curve seems backwards to me - it's dumping in more "fuel per psi" in the higher boost ranges, but wouldn't you want it the other way around? Higher pressure = higher reynolds number/viscosity and therefore doubling boost would mean less than double the air in each cylinder. Could be fun experimenting with though!

I'll pull my boost pin out tomorrow morning and see how much travel the needle actually has.

[NintendoKD]

I bought a pugeot pin "sp?" anyways someone could copy the design, there will also be variation between the pumps as the smaller diameter pin lda's will have different travel, to allow, or disallow, the larger diameter lda's being more desirable because of the variation of pins that could be used.  With this advent the pin size will no longer be an issue, and getting the most efficient design will the the most beneficial gain.  Should someone tell the master Jedi? by that I mean giles.  Maybe he could have some useful input on a good design.