Not-a-number

Any day now!

Finished! Bit of machining porn for you!

Its at Fisher and Paykel PML. Not sure of the exact machines but they have some pretty amazing gear. The last photos are on a 4 axis to do the angled cam and exhaust faces + valve guides etc. They can do some seriously good work!

Progressive Castings for iron and Skellerns for the others. (owned by the same people now anyway)

Almost finished! Bores have cleaned up without any defects. Ports look a fraction off on some of the bores though so hopefully I can cut some valve seats that work! Not going to lie, its quite exciting!

That photo is with the bores undersize. They then go in with another tool to size it and do the combustion chamber bowl. Then there is about 4-5mm on the walls. Really prone to cracking so I have thickened things a bit.

Shes a pretty big job. Been at the machine shop for a week. 1 more week to go! Casting is looking good. Yet to find any lumps of sand or porosity apparently!

What an engine! I wish I could say this was my crankcase! Sadly its on loan (like most of the other bits!).

Left hand hanger done. Second time lucky to get this one.

Almost worked. Got quite a bit of shrinkage in one corner on both parts. So I'll have another go and add some big risers to those areas. Other than that it worked really well!

All the patterns and moulds finished for the Spring hanger body. Ready to go to the foundry. The sand isnt great (I think the resin is going off) but its worth pouring it anyway to see how it works.

You can see this one doesnt even have any counter weighting. Its just round! The later ones were counter weighted and weigh about 35kg. Still a monster! Has a multiplate clutch which I guess acts like a flywheel.

Real crank in the lounge. 55kg beast!

Would be nice to find that in a shed!

Bit of CAD. Slowly slowly getting there. Most major parts are detailed. A lot to go.

That's been around a bit over the last few years. Bit expensive for a broken one with no history! I'll sell you one of mine for half that!

Yeah ABS. Ali is LM25 which machines pretty well as it is or can be heat treated. I havnt had any heat treated so dont know the difference in machining. Investment casting is a little different since you have to get all the gas out properly. Im guessing youre casting into the PLA or do you burn/melt it out first?

On the patterns that need a good finish I print at 0.14-0.19, inner patterns that you cant see I do 0.25-0.4. Rip into it with 120grit then I spray it with acetone. Usually you use acetone to make it stronger but in this case it seals the plastic really well so when you spray it with a primer it works mint. Then give it a 600grit. The sand doesnt pick up that much detail so you can be pretty rough with the finish. Then give it a wax mould release and good to go. I havnt used any programs for working out the runner system. Ive got some good casting books that give a couple of formulas and rules. Iv pretty much just done what theyve said and its been working. Ive now got a good ratio for runner size vs volume for iron and ali. This will be the first bronze one.

All the outer moulds made with runner/sprue etc. Time to work on the inner core patterns and hopefully pour one early new year. Working out runner system Lower half of the mould Upper half with sprue and filter

Seriously cool stuff by those guys aye!

Making patterns for the spring hanger. Got a 3D printer! Does work for you while youre at work! So good.

I can imagine! There was 1000hrs in this block. So easy $50k if I paid someone. Who did he get to design/make his patterns? All the patterns for the block cost about $500, casting was $400. All mates rates though. To machine I have had quotes between $6-9000 for the first one, $4000 after that but I should be able to do it on my machine. There are 2 places in Europe who can make blocks and they charge about $17k with a 1 year lead time.

Anything is possible but the amount of time it would take would be huge. So youd need really deep pockets!

Bit of CAD on a T57 front spring hanger.

I used Grade 150. Apparently this is generally what people use these days. If I wanted Bugatti grade I'd have to go melt down some old park benches and frying pans! Did they scratch build the whole engine? Cast the block?