Projects Just goofing with a cheap CAD program...carb adapter

This is much better than Paint or Photoshop for giving a visual example of the crazy stuff that goes through my head...I'm somewhat of a Luddite I suppose, and it takes me years to get around to using stuff other people have used and forgot about.

Apparently, this could be printed with a 3D printer, but I don't know if any of the compounds they use would work with fuel running through it...at any rate it's just a carb adapter to put a BG rochester where a Holley 1904 used to sit. It could use some longer carb studs, some grinding on sharp edges and what not to make it flow better, but it was fun to spend way too long with an unfamiliar program trying to design it LoL!



I've actually got the pieces roughed out in 3/8" steel plate, would be nice to have access to a CNC mill or sand casting stuff...some day...

 

Why not? Our Hot Rod fore-fathers did a tremendous amount of thinking-outside-the-box.... and we are so glad they did.
Looks like it would do the job !

 

What program?

 

it's an online one, Tinkercad...but I'm looking for an open source one to download that will let me export the files to a format that will work with printers and such...

 

Thats pretty fucking cool. I made some plates like that by hand converting Weber IDA throats to flathead intake. You cant see the work in this pic, but one side is an oval and it blends to a round hole on the opposite side. My plates are .500 alum. Roughly 2hrs in each one.

 

I manage a rapid prototyping lab where I work. We have a 3D printer, and a Tormach PCNC 770 mill, with a 4th axis attachment, and a CNC router.

I am always looking for an easier CAD program, for the lightweight stuff. Not everything needs full SolidWorks. I need people working, not mired in learning heavy programs.

 

I hear ya...the place I WAS working kept switching programs around, they all had a learning curve that should have been considered before removing access to the old systems that worked.

tinkercad is pretty easy, not sure about the licensing issues if used commercially, or if it would even fit your needs...it works for my projects though...I don't have experience with loading up the "saved as" file types and seeing how they run, but it does have a few options.

 

verrry nice

 

Yeah, we'd have to use something we could buy. My company is a meaty target for a lawsuit.

 

Darn ol' lawsuits...takin' the fun out of everything...

Apparently, there's some kind of fine print that says once I left the company I was with, I can't work for another financial institution for a while...I'd rather work for someone that messes with old car stuff anyway, or at least somewhere that I can have permission to use equipment to make my own stuff when not on the clock LoL...getting hard to find those kinds of gigs anymore

There used to be a site online (I read about it on here) that had an earlier version of an online CAD program that you could use to design stuff that would be laser/water jet cut and shipped to your door...I can't seem to find it online anymore, anyone know about that?

 

Check out the legality of that. In California, non-compete clauses are unenforceable.

eMachineshop http://www.emachineshop.com/

 

Yeah, someone was telling me there's a mileage radius thing about it in Arkansas, I will look into it a little deeper though.

Thanks, on both counts!

 

Anytime.

 

Some of those "free" CAD programs are for limited use only. At some point you will either have to buy it or abandon it. Heaven help the fool that gets an unlicensed CAD program and hooks it up to a PC with internet access.

 

same as autocad, made by the people who created solidworks

https://www.3ds.com/products-services/draftsight-cad-software/free-download/

 

If you guys could point me in the direction a free 2-d program. Not looking for anything great, I just want to draw some lines for parts I want to make. One of the last programs I used was master cam 9.

 

Fusion 360 is working for me right now as I'm learning.
Lots of how to videos on youtube.
I got a One year subscription for $25 Friday, Nice $275 off Black Friday thing.
But you can use it for free, Learning and Start Ups I guess.
And it has T-splines. Making Sleeves for this old Unimog wheel on my cheap printer.
Using a 3d Pen to weld it up. I might smooth it with some tetrahydrofuran maybe.
Going to try some wood-burning tools for detailing it.
At least it will be better than the garden hose

 

There is a free CAD program called eMachineShop. Google it and download. Has an instructional tutorial etc. If you like the part you created they will even make it for you. I made an adapter for a T-5 trans (mustang) to a flathead ford 8-BA. Now I see you can buy an almost identical one commercially.

 

You might look into a free download of the "lite" version of Sketchup Pro 3D modeling software.

http://sketchup-pro.en.softonic.com/

 

We used to use Alebra I believe was the name of it before we went to solidworks. It is a very similar program but a lot cheaper. have solidworks, mastercam and a Haas 3 axis machining center where I work. That's why my small block is covered with polished aluminum

 

Man once you go solidworks you never go back., unless you have like 50 guys doing CAD and need revision checks. Though google sketchup is actually OK for doing some smaller stuff.

As for the part. You could absolutely print the part in PLA and then use it to make a casting in a old metal bucket that is setup for pouring metal and cast it in aluminum at home. Personally I would not do the threads that way. I would cast and with a space you you to insert a threaded rod after you do a bit of cleanup on the mating surfaces.

 

I think they make filament for the lost wax kind of thing.
Not sure. I have seen the Lost PLA Done nice stuff. New filaments everyday..

 

This part would actually be much easier to make as a one piece adapter. I have a 3D printer also, but the plastic selection isn't really gasoline or fuel friendly. I also have a new CNC mill. I can make you a pattern so you can cast them if you'd like to. I seen a lot of people wanting this type of adapter before. What is the 1 BBL bolt pattern and bore size?

 

Yeah, that was just a goof on my part, I just put them in there for visual effect...definitely not anything I would cast in/on or have machined as part of it

 

The 1bbl base pattern I used on this was from a gasket I THOUGHT was for the holley 1904, turns out it was a BC1 Rochester gasket, so I have to go back and change it up. I will get the calipers out tomorrow and measure it..

 

I use e-machine shop as well. It works quite well. You can convert the files to DXF and export them but unfortunately the bend lines don't come through .

 

It's called SketchUp Make. The non-Pro version is free, but excludes certain functions. The software is add-on-oriented, though, so most of the time you'll be able to find add-ons that'll do the things excluded from the free version. Also, older versions are available. The excluded functions change with every new version. You'll just have to get an idea of which functions are excluded from which versions. Then you'll be able to switch between several versions to get different stages of the job done - a PITA but it's free.

SketchUp has limitations as regards its way of handling certain geometries, e.g. though it can represent smooth curves it handles user inputs as if the curves are faceted. If a design is heavy on curves it might be better to set shapes up on something else and then import into SketchUp - which is one of those things that require hopping between different versions.

 

Can you import from other programs, though?

 

I monkeyed around a bit with SketchUp a few years ago but was lucky to even remember now what it was called. For a free app it seemed quite powerful, so much so that it kind of overwhelmed me. At the time it was closely associated with and downloadable thru Google, but it seems to have branched off on its own more recently.