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Derek

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Everything posted by Derek

  1. Anyone have any idea what the start times are for the events? I'm mostly interested in the car show. I looked here http://flza.com/agenda.htm but there are no times listed. Thanks Derek
  2. Well at the rate I'm going on my patterns I'm sure you'll have me beat as well. Great work!!! Derek
  3. Thanks Paul your timing is perfect. I was hosting my pictures on my earthlink account and I'm changing providers. I followed your instructions and it worked like a charm. Great work Derek
  4. Well I managed to get a little more work done on the patterns. Unfortunately work keeps getting in the way. I hate when that happens. This is the top side of the front manifold. I switched from corian as the pattern material to urethane tooling board. It carves a lot faster than the corian and it's a lot easier to work with. This is a shot of the roughing cut with a 1/2†cutter. Here's a shot of the finished piece after about 12 hours of machining. The square blocks on top of the throttle shaft bosses are so I can locate the center of the boss for machining. After I have the manifold casting clamped in the mill I'll map out the location of each block with an edge finder and then use that data to program in the machine ops. At this point I'm going to finish up the core box for the front manifold and go ahead and cast and machine it. This way If I have to make some changes I'll only have to modify one pattern. Derek
  5. I use bees wax for saw blades, spray cooking oil (Pam) for sanding disks and Tap magic for aluminum on burrs. The wax on burrs has a tendency to load up the tool. Derek
  6. I'm not familiar with that method to enlarge the pattern. But there's a lot about pattern making I'm not familiar with!!! All of my plates and core boxes are indexed so I can get them back in the machine quickly. I then re carve only the area's that need work. If its a large fix like when I totally screw up (yea it happens) It's usually quicker to start over with fresh material. I have 2 CNC machines and I don't mind running them 24 hours straight so I tend to let the machines do the work if I can. Plus they do a much better job than I could. I'd starve as a pattern maker If I had to do it by hand. Derek
  7. I think I'll stop working on my manifold and start making a pattern for a valve cover!!! Derek
  8. http://www.smooth-on.com/ Is what I use. Derek
  9. Thanks Yea shrink can be a real problem. Sand casting metal is still a black art. There are many areas that can affect the size of the part. I usually use 3/16†per foot for shrinkage. Old school “saw and sand†pattern makers use shrink rules that are oversize rulers. I simply scale my model in 3D space and I'm good to go. Hitting all six ports on the first try with a single manifold would be tough. On something like that I would put in extra money to adjust the core box after we poured a few. This is why I'm casting mine in two separate pieces. I also made the final diameter where the port meets the head a little smaller. I'm going to machine a jig plate out of steel that will match the ports and bolt pattern of the head. I'll clamp that to the manifold and use it to drill the mounting holes and match the ports. If I cast anymore manifolds to sell I'll adjust the core boxes accordingly. Most patterns need a little adjustment after the first pour. I do a lot of replacement parts for old cigar making machinery. The plans I get are from the 40's. I'll make the pattern exactly like the print and the final part will always be off a little. I think there were a lot of changes made on machines back then that were never reflected on the plans. Probably a case of the machinist walking over to the pattern maker and saying “ move this boss over .050†and never telling engineering! Derek
  10. I've been abusing a Syncrowave 250 that I bought used about 15 years ago and it's never missed a beat. Derek
  11. Hi Sven I would normally charge around $5000.00 minimum for a set of tooling of this complexity. Probably more considering I'm doing all of the concept and design work as well. But everything is relative in that I'll have a ton of time in this before I'm finished. I'm lucky in that I have enough free time on the machines that I can sneak it in a little at a time. Fortunately the first set of castings are free because I'm friends with the foundry. After that I'm not sure what they're going to charge. Before I started doing patterns I assumed I needed to pour my own metal because none of the foundries would want to mess with me. Then I came to find that there are quite a few small foundries that are more than happy to pour small runs. Especially if you pay cash! The only thing is they can be leery of working with novice pattern makers. If he gives you a price on a piece and they have to ram it up 3 or 4 times just to get a good mold they're not going to be very happy. Most small foundries are hurting right now so you won't have much trouble finding one that will work with you. Derek
  12. Thanks I used a 1/4†ball mill for the finish pass. I used Rhino to design the part and Visual Mill for the cam programing. Derek
  13. That's great Tony The most important thing to look at is “are they pouring scrap or ingotâ€. If there's piles of old wheels and pots and pans around then use caution. The two main foundries I work with use nothing but virgin ingot. This plays a big part in end quality and machineability. Nothing worse than putting a few hours into finishing a casting only to hit a piece of crap. Derek
  14. Here is the pattern after the finish passes. Your looking at about 7 hours of machining time just for the finish machining. You CNC types out there might be interested to know there's over 300,000 lines of code! I still need to fill and sand a couple spots but I'm really pleased with the way it turned out. I'll rework my cutting strategies for the top sides so I have a better finish. Here's a shot of the bosses. The large one is for the throttle shaft bearing. The smaller ones on either side of it are for the idle air bleed fittings and the outer ones are for a heat shield. I put drill points on the smaller ones because I don't plan on doing a bottom setup on the machining so I'll use a hand drill on those. Derek PS You may notice the Corian colors don't match the first picture. Well I had a bit of a problem with a cutter and it was just easier to start all over.
  15. Your looking at the bottom of the front manifold. This is the final roughing cut ready for the finish passes. The pattern is mounted to a sacrificial bottom plate. I'm using corian scraps (free) for the pattern material. Derek
  16. I would second what het976 says. Although I haven't installed my stuff yet I did a ton of research and came up with the same conclusions. Rick was a great guy to deal with ant the price was great. Derek
  17. The guy doing the molding has over 30 years molding experience. He doses awesome work. This is such a declining industry so good hand molders are just not that common anymore. I won't have any prices until I get the first one cast. Derek
  18. The pattern is plastic on wood which would put it in the low production category. The foundry I'm using on this job molds with Olivine sand which will give me a really fine finish. The cores will be done cold box with a Furan bound sand. He's going to hand work the core seams before he pours so the part line on the inside of the throttle body will be minimal. If there's interest I'll make the raw castings available. I'm not set up to do production machining so I'll only be offering unfinished castings. Derek
  19. Actually I just looked down at the bottom and it now says "you may post attachments" and it used to say "you may not post attachments" so I'll try to edit the post. Thanks for making me look! Derek
  20. Now that I have a design that I like I'm starting the casting process. I've started a new link here: http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?p=763007#post763007 Derek
  21. Now that the design stage is done It's time to start the casting process. If you need to come up to speed on this here is the original post. http://forums.hybridz.org/showthread.php?t=121021 I''m going to make a separate pattern for the front manifold and a separate pattern for the rear manifold. I'll also make a core box for each as well. Here's a picture of the cope (upper) side of the pattern. And here's a shot of the drag (lower) side The gold colored areas are the core prints and cores. Cores are what makes a casting hollow. Prints are what holds the cores in position. The magenta areas are gates and runners. Normally I try to put these in the drag portion of the mold but because of the orientation of the part I need to have them in the cope. Most foundries like to do their own gating so I'm not sure if this will be the final design. Sometimes you have to pour one to see what you get. The metal will enter in the magenta section just behind the head flange. I'll cut this pattern with a ball end mill so all joints will have a fillet. For that reason I don't take the time to draw them in. As a side note can any one tell me why I can't post attachments? I've sent several messages through the contact link at the bottom but haven't received a reply. Thanks Derek
  22. As far as the air bleed valves go can I put one end of the valve in the bottom of the throttle body in front of the butterfly and run a tube to a fitting behind the butterfly? Or do I need to bleed in air from outside the system. Thanks Derek
  23. Oh you smart guys that actually want their stuff to perform. Don't you know it's supposed to look cool. I think what I'll do is hook it up with a “T†fitting in between the two manifolds. And feed it in there. I'll also add a boss to the underside of each throttle body in case I have to go with individual tubes. Yes but look at how cool they look!!! (Don't laugh. You'd be a little rough around the edges If you were under a tarp for the last ten years!) The large (some might even say cartoonie looking!) bells are going to double as an air cleaner housing. Internally the #1 and #6 tubes have a slight curve between the butterfly and the port to help even them out. The air valves for air bleeds sounds like a great way to go. Do you have a part number handy for the style your using. Thanks for all your suggestions on this I may sound a little flip but I'm definitely listening!!!! Derek
  24. For all practical purposes I agree with you. The complexity of the center linkage is what's pushing me towards driving from the #6 throttle body. For the butterflies I'm using 1/4†stainless shafts mounted between sealed bearings top and bottom. I'm using spherical rod ends for the linkage so there shouldn't be much flex there. I think I'll probably go with this design and put a couple dial indicators on the #1 and #6 shaft arms and check the flex. If there is a noticeable amount then I'll design a system to drive it from the center. Thanks Derek
  25. Ok here's the latest changes. I added webbing with an integral balance/vacuum tube. The two manifolds will be connected with stainless braid hose. I straightened out the linkages. I added bosses on the bottom for a heat shield. I did away with my construction flange and added the final intake flange. You can't see this but I curved the portion just behind the butterflies on #1 and #6 internally to allow for a smoother transition into the port. I ordered a set of stock injector hold downs and as soon as they arrive I can model the injector bosses. I made the vacuum port 1/2†diameter. Any opinions if this will be large enough for power brakes and an idle valve? At this point I plan to drive the linkages from the #6 butterfly. Anyone see any problems with that? I'm going to start making the models into patterns working out the core and parting line issues. I also need to add any first grab flanges for the machining process. I'll post some pics of these as well. Thanks again Derek
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