hopefully by the end of this year, we need to get it on an engine and do some dyno pulls and then get it in a car.
Day 203 Tuesday 05/08/2012 Steel plates for the fixtures came in today, unfortunately i can't begin to cut them because all our mills are set up running jobs for probably the next week or so . Powder coat line is half way up also. Ohio Mile Went to the first Ohio Mile last week, here is the some footage i shot while there and edited with our new software. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/hJbak_PgE8E" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Steel plates ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Powder Coat system Laying down the furnace walls are up for the 30ft furnace Wash tanks being installed
Great thread! I'm inspired to go and cast something now Just one suggestion though.... Please put a gaurd on that stone
Day 218 Wed 05/23/2012 Cutting the blower fixture We finally have a machine open to cut the fixture, unfortunately our lathe will be tied up for another week or so before i can get my locators and pads cut. We also went down to Nashville, TN this weekend for some powdercoat Schooling by Powder X, i only have a few photo of it but i will upload some videos of some peoples test parts that were coated later on tonight. https://www.facebook.com/powderxcoating ------------------------------------------------------------------------ The 20" x 39" steel plate being loaded onto the machine table. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Machining a straight edge on the side of the plate that can be used to indicate the fixture in when ever it is loaded back onto the machine for production runs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Powder coating school Joey Chrome Powder
Hi Garen, what's the brand of the powder chrome? I've been following your thread and you always impress me. Keep on with the good work. -Fernando
One of my ultimate favorite sounds. What frequency range does it make a person deaf who is prolonged to too much to such a sound? Huh? Regards,
Day 219: 05/24/2012 Keyways are cut on the bottom side and some bolt holes are drilled, unfortunately we have another job in that needs the machine, so i have to tear the fixture off and wait some more . ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Here are the powder coat videos i promised from yesterday <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/QKBZl6bZZ9s" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/oEbdnNSFTxk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/fUCBIEv4QI8" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> <iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/WuhHPQoqoS4" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Day 220: friday 5/25/2012 Blower Pulling the fixture off the machines, its about 40% done but we have a job in that has to get done so it gets priority. Powder coat The electricians will be in next Wednesday to start wiring up the powder coat and finishing up the oven, the paint booth should be in early to mid next month. --------------------------------------------------------- Pulling the fixture off, Now more waiting...
I know it's already been said but... Thanks for taking the time to cover all of this! And also, thanks for taking the time to post so many detailed photos of the whole process. This has been a real eye opener for me when it comes to casting a part. Keep up the great work!
Yes, we just finished machining the fixture locators and pads on the lathe last week. 2 plates need to still be machined and then we will be able to machine the housings. I know this has turned into a long and drawn out process but we have to put our customers work ahead of our projects in the CNC shop and for the past couple of months the machines have been tied up nonstop. Im ready to get this thing done , once DiamondP's sales are to the point where we can sustain a constant stream of design-tooling-casting-machining you will start seeing us coming out with a lot more products a lot faster. Our sales have really picked up this past month though, we've been selling a lot of rear bearing plates. Also, another setback was the leaving of our CNC manager, which was completely unexpected, that became my top priority and i was tasked with keeping all the machines running and programming the machines for any new jobs coming in along with helping the other guys out in the shop figure out our old jobs that no one had any notes or information on. For the past couple of months a lot of my time has been in re-figuring out our jobs that our old manager always setup and programmed. Its getting better though, we have streamlined our processes, started taking down notes, photos and info on ever job we do, showing how to pick up work coords, place the fixtures and hold the part. In the long run this will save us a lot of time in setting up the CNC's and for the customer side, time saved for us will be money saved for you because we will have less cost in the product. Currently i have a few blueprints to go back through, some setup photos to edit, and a job from one of our big customers to quote and as long as the machine stays free i should be back on the blower this week.
I know what your talking about. I work in a small production shop. There are only three of us working in it. We are constantly busy. I have to do all my setups, run the parts, and then break it down and set it up for the next job. I never get to make any cool parts like this, just boring stuff with tight tolerances.
ya, we are lucky enough to have a foundry that does green sand, air-set, permanent mold and die cast so if our machine shop gets slow we can throw people around and hopefully pick up the slack in sales somewhere else. I couldn't image starting up a business from scratch to try and get a product made without some serious money to sustain yourself till the sales can cover the overhead. If DiamondP didn't have a foundry and CNC shop behind it we would have been out of business three years ago .
Wow....!!! This is an amazing thread. Thanks very much for sharing all this. Very eye opening and informative. Wish for you and your family and business all possible success. Just a question- if this really takes off for you guys, would you ever perhaps offer some 'period' looking pieces? I understand not being able to replicate designs that have copyright protection. But some genuine old style esthetic would be fantastic for a change. The reason I ask is, there were some really cool looking speed pieces long ago- the 'swingarm' blower front plates by Delta and Weiand, the multi-rib blower cases by Hampton, Bowers, Ohio George/Pete Robinson curved base blowers...and some timing cover drives and offset distributor bases, etc. It would be neat to be able to get some quality USA made stuff that looks like the old goodies. The FE stuff that I like is unobtanium- about a year ago I was looking for an old FE blower intake, and when I finally got to see it, the guy wanted 6 grand for it! Took almost 2 years to get the one I have now. Well, first things first- get your business on solid ground. I can imagine any car-related business has to sell a few thousand sbc parts to get the money flowing in. But after that....wow....FE stuff, Mopar poly stuff, MEL stuff...this could be super cool. Us obscure engine guys might have a shot at some cool cast bits. Thanks again for sharing your time. I really enjoyed this.
WOW........how impressive is this.......(bullshit).....?? I bet the non or not-so-much machinists on here reading this might be drooling over all this......but GET REAL with this tolerance 'thingie'..... .0005..... MY ASS 0.0001-.001.......WHAT are you smokin? Really within a TENTH? What you are doing is somewhat impressive.....but please spare us the super precision tolerance call outs, it's really not worth the hype and you MUST know better than to think this is any where believable? You're just writing numbers 'right' of the decimal point, but you KNOW its bullshit.......even in a climate controlled room (for starters). There is NO WAY you are machining to those tollerances (especially with re-fixturing) and (re mounting) the part. Are you a real machinist or a marketing mouthpiece that doesn't know his ass from an end mill? Spare us the bullshit.........you and your machines are NOT THAT good. No one's are.... Not even NASA could hold those numbers you are quoting.
You are absolutely right dkmc on the tolerance. Our apologies we seem to have a decimal out of place. We usually cut tooling to within .005. Dzauri is 22 years old and a damn good 22 year old for his experience level and he is also my son. A simple question would have been fine on your part and yes he does know a end mill from his ass. He was also raised to be much more polite than you, obviously. At 22 he runs though things a bit quick as most 22 year old do. I am proud as hell of him with his drive and knowledge at this point. He did make a mistake and probably not the last one. It was not bullshit as you put it, just a kid learning.
I'm sorry you don't like my thread, I don't really remember what it is your quoting exactly, if you could give me a post # i can get a better idea of what you are referring too, I've made a lot of post and its been a long time since I've started this thread. I will say that some of my numbers are probably off in the beginning posts, i was just getting into the programming side of machining then and this was actually my first pattern i designed and CNC cut on my own,(with the guidance of my uncle who has been a pattern maker for 50 years)I've made, molding and cast some patterns with our 3D printer though. Since then though, and if you have read through the entire thread, you probably have seen me state that our CNC manager of 16 years left us about 5-6 months ago, during this time I've been doing nothing but working out in our shop re-figuring out all the jobs we do, programming new work coming into our shop and transferring some of our older work to our newer machines. Going back through all the G-code and mazatrol programs, figuring out where all the WPC are, Adjusting each one to cut within tolerance, maintaining and keeping all the machines running. this is why I haven't been posting much at all on here and we haven't been doing much on the blower. The past couple of months I've probably learned more about machining than everything I've learned since I've been working here, and I started doing this when i was 15. --------------------------------------------------------------- I did find the first post you are referring too, Again, forgive me but i can't really recall this particular day which was about 276 days ago and 5 tens is incorrect but i am either referring too two things. Both of which i probably quoted my uncle on which has been doing this since he was 10-11, he's like 60 or 70 now. 1. I'm referring to an arbitrary tolerance placed inside a CAM software that uses it to better calculate feed-ins, feed-outs and Feedrate of the machine. 2. I'm quoting my uncle which i know would say 0.005" because if he'd slap me across the head for saying 5 tenths, i wouldn't find 5 thousands hard to believe, we where cutting with a .25 ball, only being 3.25" long to control runout, the spindle was only ran at 1500rpms with a feedrate between 3-10IPM cutting renwood(which is the equvilant of some dense styrafoam) at a 2 thousands drop on a 1960's Rambaudi with linear glass scales, each 3" layer on that pattern took around 10-20hours a cut, the entire machine work on it was about a week and a half. And for the second quote, i don't know exactly what im referring too, but i am talking about a boring bar though. i don't know why you would find a couple tens is hard to believe boring, i agree 1 tenth is wrong but a couple isn't impossible boring? We hold +0.0005 -0.0000 all day on all our bearing plates(cut with a boring bar) on a 91' mazak HJV with a CAT-40 spindle, which are checked on a BHN710 Mitutoyo CMM that measures to +-0.00006, if they fail the CMM check they are scraped, and so far we have had 0 fail i believe.
Thank you for your response. Courtesy seems lacking some times. Give your son an "ATTA BOY" from me. Again thank you
Thanks Dirt, I will. Any young man trying to better himself will make mistakes and I think sometimes older guys forget what it was like to be young. I am guilty of it to I just try and think things out a bit before I respond.
If its made from metal we can pretty much make it, preferably aluminum . One thing i would want to make sure of before doing something like that though is to make sure not to create a repop, i know a lot of people on here frown upon it. As a manufacturer knowing the ridiculous amount of work it took to make things back then(because my grandfather did it ) i personally find it disrespectful to try and make a profit off of the nostalgia of a part. I would need to make sure that our parts could readily be differentiated between originals. In the near future(within a year, based on how much i bug my dad ) we will be buying a 3D scanning arm, and these things are freaking awesome! if you've never seen one i suggest you google them and watch a video or two. This, combined with our 3D printer, CAD/CAM software and a fully functioning foundry and CNC shop we will pretty much be able to make anything we want ... I'm going to scan everything!
WOW, just wow. I cant believe you are being so outright rude to these people. WHY?? Not getting into it. Garen and Dad Phillips. Thanks for taking the time for the posts. You Guys are the backbone of this country. Great to see some young blood. This country needs it very badly. Thank you Luke
Very cool to see this going on in my neck of the woods. Keep up the great work, and here is to your continued success.
Day 276 Monday, July 23, 2012 Back on the blower finally, our lathe free'd up about a week and a half ago and we finished up all the fixture locators and riser pads. I've loaded the fixture plate back onto the CNC machine today, tomorrow im going to indicate and pick it up tomorrow are resume cutting it. Im going to try and set up our GoPro camera to get some video cutting it although it won't really be to interesting, just cutting some slots and holes. Once both plates are done we should be ready to machine the housings . -------------------------------------------------------------------- Some locators and pads cut on our lathe. These are some of the piece seen in earlier CAD photos. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Loading the fixture plate back onto our Mazak HJV.
I guess this is the HAMB, I was preparing for an 'attack' of a comeback, not an apology. Sorry if I jumped on your case a bit too roughly. Your Dad explained it....you're a newbee, and obviously learning fast. Didn't say I don't LIKE your thread, it is an impressive project. But when you throw out numbers like those......people tend to think you're all about hype. I was surprised no one else commented on them. Good for you and what you've accomplished so far! (seriously) And the learning of a newbee explains the situation. There automotive aftermarket has it's share of vendors that hype their products with unbelievable claims, and some do it intentionally. I looked at your website and I like what I see...... Great job so far, and best of luck with the completion of the project.
I make youtube videos, this isn't my first time getting flak from someone . I try to look at things in the other persons shoes, i read up on you and saw you had 30 some years of experience, like most of the more experienced guys i work with they tend to forget that there was a time when they didn't know shit either. you are entitled to your opinions and thoughts, I'm not going to attack someone or try and defend myself over the internet though to persuade them. im here for my business, family and every person( & their family) that works for us, im not going to make a bad representation of them to try and defend my pride, ego, whatever you want to call it. i screwed up, it happens(i was also raised that a man admits when he screws up). I also don't put a tremendous amount of time or reversions in these posts. Most of the time i post them when i get home after working 8-10 hours so i just want to get them done and posted as quick as i can. Thanks though, i don't throw the numbers out for hype, i mostly do it to show people im not just salesman or promoter. I want them to know that when they buy a product from us that it's not just some piece of metal or $ signs to us, its a representation of our company and something we have put a extreme amount of time and thought into to make the best part we can. And, more importantly it's a representation of my family and the 65 years of work & dedication it took to bring us to where we are today, it is the reason i have anything and am able to do any of this.
The Jalopy Journal
