Been whittling on the lathe and just finished the blower drive. What do you think? Took a gamble on the belt length and just about hit it on the head.
A V-belt blown Chrysler??!! Someone catch me if I faint. For some reason I thought you were running a Pontiac. That is WAY cool, dude. You intend to make a few more?
Not going into production anytime soon. I've got my Dad's VERY tired and Very old American lathe. Took me a while to make but it was fun. Anybody with access to a lathe should be able to cook up a setup like this.
Looks NICE. Is so much under-drive normal for a 6-71 on a HEMI? All I've read about are flathead and 4-71's so just curious.
Thanks for the kind words guys. I'm not going nuts on the boost. I've got a big bore 6/71 and want around 6# so I'm going for a 17% underdrive which should make that with my 365 CID. If I had the small bore 6/71 It'd be a diferent story. The small bore 6/71 moves 339 CI per revolution while the big bore 6/71 moves 411 CI. Anyway, I don't have o-rings in the heads and my wallet is thin so I'm taking it easy on my old hemi. Ha! We'll see how easy I take it on the loud pedal! I put the "file cabinets" on the lathe. They are acually much smaller than file cabinets, the picture kind of skews things. I've got everything from my dial caliper to taps and dies to cutting tools to centers to.... stored in them. I've not moved into all of them yet.
I'm running a Pontiac body but I've got enough parts from different things to appease almost any brand loyal person.
Ok,now get it on the car and drive over here so I can go for a ride. Maybe my "T" needs one for Hamb Drags '07........ Chicken
Oh, I gotcha. I was thinking there was something cool about your car, I thought it was an A powered by a Poncho. Guess it was the shell after all. That Hemi is gonna look great in your Oakland, lol.
I'm still gathering some change for the blower rebuild but I'll have it on this spring. I'll be sure and bring it by to show off. You can help me "tune it" on the road ;-) Oh sure, a blower on the T ???!!! You spank my car bad enough already! BTW The BDS wesite has some good info on final compression ratio and boost numbers at the following link. http://www.blowerdriveservice.com/techcharts.php
Hmmm....I heard through the HAMB Drags grapevine that you were going to a huffer. Looks killer, Nice work. Love the V-drive. By the way, look what just showed up at my house..... Yours gonna be ready for 07? -Abone.
Awe, crap. I thought I had a chance to take you this year. You're always a step ahead of me. Oh well. I still may have a chance. What kind of boost you planning on running? Gonna go with a blower cam when the one you're running goes flat? Yeah, it'll be in the test'n'tune phase this spring.
i been waiting for this post since june pretty soon we'll be hearin you huff n puff down the track Kerry VERY nice work on the lathe man
That's really neat, hopefully the belts will get enough grip, I'd think that 5-6 belts would be about right on a 6-71
I should note I didn't make the snout or the idler arm, They were the cheapest new Ebay ones I could find at the time. All I really did was make some pulleys. The biggest reason I went with three belts was due to space for the lower pulley. With only 6# of boost three should be fine. I'll kep you all posted though.
That is way cool Kerry, I really dig v- belt drives on blowers, I want to do a 4-71 with a belt drive someday, this inspires me, thanks.
Kudo's Mr. Kerry. Looks like you've thought it through well. I'm guessing the three V-belts will be sufficient for the smaller displacement blower. The ol' lathe sure looks big. Big be good . . . I'm standing here looking at some wheels that need the hub center bored out and my lathe is about an inch and a half small. Guess it's time to dig out the mill's boring bar.... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ For those who haven't seen it, here's a couple pics of Kerry's 31 Pontiac coupe mit Hemi.
A real man woulda made it out of a piece of rusty siding off the barn... Looks real nice man! The talent here is amazing....
Thanks again for the kind words. Big is a good description. I can turn things with a diameter of up to 20.5". I've got a monsterous 4 jaw chuck for stuff like that but I've never used it. From the face of this chuck to the right end of the bed is 4 inches short of eight feet. I could turn drive shafts if I had a mind to. I setup a countershaft out of some stuff I had laying to slow things down but it still spins to fast. Need to slow it down some more. I'd trade some big for a mill in a heart beat. Color me jealous. ;-)
Man, the stuff you turn on that lathe sure looks good. You have the opposite problem I have, my lathe is too small to do the things yours takes in stride. I've got most everything else covered so the search is on for a larger lathe. Frank
Wow Kerry, that look's great! You'll be able to make the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs EASY! I hope you have it on by the end of April for the Kansas HAMB-B-Q.
I'll bet you got your aluminum blocks in Wichita. Seems like any place with an aircraft manufacturing presence is Nirvana for hot rodders far as raw materials go. If you haven't already, next time you go look for an aircraft surplus house. Lotsa times they sell out bolts by the pound and you can find some really weird little fasteners as well as threaded backing plates in small sizes that work well for a lot of things. Is the lathe too fast due to a 3450 rpm motor instead of a 1725? Although with the size of that thing it's probably 3 phase so you're stuck with ratio changes. Cool part is, now you can make your own pulleys. And maybe even adapt an engine crank pulley or similar to an aluminum adapter to get where you want to go speed-wise. If the thing spins up way fast, be careful. Chucks can explode at high rpm just like a flywheel can. Fwiw, if you need a smaller chuck I've seen guys knock out a stub shaft for a 6" or so chuck and simply clamp that in a big chuck. Far as a mill goes, I find I use mine on about a 40/1 ratio with the lathe. Sometimes though, nothing else works . . . but, milling on the lathe is a viable proposition. Especially so if your lathe has a carriage with T-slots for the compound slide. Making a vise that clamps to the T-slots and getting a milling cutter holder that goes into the Morse Taper makes for a pretty good milling setup. Although with your large lathe you may want to get a straight shank milling cutter holder and clamp that in the chuck. Clamping the milling cutter directly into the chuck works, but it's hard on the chuck and the milling cutter can end up spinning in the chuck if you're not careful. Keep in mind that bolting the workpiece directly to the carriage's T-slots - with appropriate shims - works well. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Short story: CK had an old friend give him a 13 x 36" lathe and a Bridgeport mill. CK's had lathes before, but never used them for much. He sold the lathe and kept the 1000# mill when we moved here and the poor ol Bridgeport sits on the side of his shop in all it's ignored splendor. Maybe he'll get it set up and use it one day, but I doubt it. For now, it's a cool status symbol for his shop. Maybe he's figuring out that I wasn't kidding when I told him a mill doesn't get used much compared to a lathe. I'm not offended, but it is interesting to watch....
I see what your saying from the picture of you lathe. I worked with an old guy 30 years ago that had a lathe twice as old as yours.That had standard transmission mounted on top of the lathe to speed it up or slow it down. that old guy could fix anthing. He had a 52 ford wrecker that had a flywheel and starter to raise and lower the winch cable. Wish I had pictures of some of the stuff this old guy buildlt.But I was young and only thinking of money and cars and girls and beers.That old guy was slower than slow . But I miss watching that old coot work as moved around his shop always with the next project on his mind mumbling to him self and me saying what what did you say.Oh nothing just talk to my brain again . Your work looks great kerry now how soon can you fill my order.
Now that I've looked a little closer at your lathe pics, you need a sheet metal cover over those man-eating gears & pulleys. Don't put it off. Two finger shifting is a bitch....
I can't wait to see the blower on your poncho Kerry. Looking Good Here's a few more of your coupe. Had to give ya this one
Well Jay, there are a couple of good places in Wichita for that sort of thing. The Yard store is great! Believe it or not, I got the aluminum stock at an aluminum shop in little ol' Buhler Kansas, population 1200, about six miles from home. Pretty handy! The real problem is that I don't have three phase so I can't use the original motor. It's a MONSTER! I'm using one of Harbour Freights cheapest. Can't remember what the RPM is right now. The motor and driving side spin up pretty quick but the flat belt slips plenty on startup so there's no danger there. I've given some thought to setting it up to mill but I don't think it'd be worth the effort. Yeah, the lathe will always see more use but there are some things that only a mill will do. Somewhere there's a tired old mill with my name on it. It'll show up someday. Man, I can see that picture haunting me for the rest of my life. Oh well. I had plenty of good help! Here's a current picture of it
I've heard that honey is a good traction aid for flat belts. It doesn't take a whole lot. You wouldn't want ants in your lathe . . . then again, that thing would smash big dogs so what's an ant or two?
The Jalopy Journal
