I love billet

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comnoz

comnoz

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Something is growing on my mill.

I love billet


I wrote programming over a year ago but never finalized it. Decided now was the time.

I love billet


I love billet


It's looking pretty good so far.

I love billet
 
comnoz said:
It's looking pretty good so far
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That seems like an understatement to me.......I think it's looks down right outstanding !! First rate for sure, and it's gonna look awesome sitting on top of that beautiful new crankcase of yours :^)
 
Like a Billet Halloween craving. Ok what advantages are ya building in or leaving out?
 
hobot said:
Like a Billet Halloween craving. Ok what advantages are ya building in or leaving out?
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Better cooling.
Austentic iron liners for tighter piston clearances.
6 long through bolts.
Roller lifters if I can come up with a billet cam, unfortunately it looks like I will have to build that too.
 
swooshdave said:
So… what would something like that cost? :mrgreen:
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It's too soon to tell.
So far I have 175.00 for a hunk of aluminum and about 8 hours of mill time in it. [plus countless hours of programming] It will probably take another 8 hours of mill time after I build a jig and turn it over.

Then I will have to make the liners from bar stock. Nobody makes ni-resist liners any more since everyone has gone to water cooling and plated bores. Everyone just has grey cast or nodular liners.
Actually I did find one place in UK that will make austentic liners. But they also machine them from bar stock. $$$$
 
Now now swoosheroo we ain't putting you on the spot about how much taxes you claim to owe. At the level Jim is doing his own, if ya even have to ask...
 
Whitworth Ranch said:
Why not nickel silicon carbide on the alloy?
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NSC does not last long plated directly on extruded alloy. It is too soft. If you want it to last you need to use a cast aluminum liner [or a cast barrel.]

Then there is not enough room between the bores and head bolts to use an aluminum liner that is thick enough to have enough strength unless you want to do a small bore.

Plus I have yet to see anyone keep a plated aluminum Norton barrel from distorting when it gets hot. It isn't a good shape for even heat dissipation. Jim
 
Is that one of those new fangled Michaelangelo mills - the ones they use to make those marble statues with no arms ?
 
What alloy are you using, Jim? I've only seen one other Commando cylinder made from billet, done on a manual mill back in the '70s by Ron Fraturelli's machinist (Ron's Cycle Sales in Leominster, Mass.). It was also gorgeous. I recall someone criticizing his choice of alloy as not being the best, because it had a lower thermal conductivity. That sounded kind of funny to me, given that it had to be a whole lot better than cast iron. I don't recall which alloy he used. If I recall correctly, he also used iron liners, not a plating process.

What's next, making your own cylinder head?

Ken
 
lcrken said:
What alloy are you using, Jim? I've only seen one other Commando cylinder made from billet, done on a manual mill back in the '70s by Ron Fraturelli's machinist (Ron's Cycle Sales in Leominster, Mass.). It was also gorgeous. I recall someone criticizing his choice of alloy as not being the best, because it had a lower thermal conductivity. That sounded kind of funny to me, given that it had to be a whole lot better than cast iron. I don't recall which alloy he used. If I recall correctly, he also used iron liners, not a plating process.

What's next, making your own cylinder head?

Ken
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It is 6061. It is the second barrel I have made.
The first was done on a manual machine. It was on my old racebike along with the billet head made on the same manual machine.
I have actually made 3 billet heads. One of them had the cam in it but I couldn't keep it cool.

I have a Fullauto head here this time although another billet head did cross my mind... maybe next year- with extra valves. 8)
 
What bore size have you gone for Jim, 79mm? And what do you think the biggest bore option would be?

A block like that, out to 81mm (if poss) with some specially made Venolia pistons to suit JS long rods, with dished crowns to give good street CR and a tight squish, would look very nice on my bike....!
 
Fast Eddie said:
What bore size have you gone for Jim, 79mm? And what do you think the biggest bore option would be?

A block like that, out to 81mm (if poss) with some specially made Venolia pistons to suit JS long rods, with dished crowns to give good street CR and a tight squish, would look very nice on my bike....!
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...it sounds very interesting...

il looks great Jim, show us the final result as soon as you finish
 
What sort of liners will you be using ? I've often thought a very thin high tensile steel would be OK if the correct piston rings could be found to give satisfactory wear characteristics. Perhaps a high chromium stainless steel tube, might be similar to chrome plated bores ? I really like what you have done with your mill. It makes me feel inadequate.
 
Jim,

That looks awesome.

What mill do you have? I have an old Boss 9 in storage that I'm thinking about putting in my new shop except it's such a big old truck. Would like something a little smaller.

Dennis
 
dennisgb said:
Jim,

That looks awesome.

What mill do you have? I have an old Boss 9 in storage that I'm thinking about putting in my new shop except it's such a big old truck. Would like something a little smaller.

Dennis
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My mill is just a Bridgport series 1 with an Anilam 3300Mk control. I have added a stepper 4th axis and a stepper for rigid tapping. It will do about anything but clean up it's own mess. You can't hurry it -it's not rigid enough to do anything very fast. I wish mine were larger. Jim
 
ludwig said:
Why not nano coating ?

http://papers.sae.org/2008-01-1050/
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Nano coating, like NSC need to be done on cast aluminum such as 356 to be long lived.

Extruded alloys such as 6061 are too soft to provide a good base for coatings. It will work -for a little while. Then the hammering of the rings on the bore near TDC will cause a dent in the soft base material and the coating will fail. Jim
 
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