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- Jun 30, 2012
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Pretty good effort, I think:
http://www.chromjuwelen.com/de/photos-a ... acing.html
http://www.chromjuwelen.com/de/photos-a ... acing.html
If you want one, make it yourself
- Thread starter acotrel
- Start date
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- Joined
- Aug 8, 2006
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I wonder how practical doing something like this could be?
It seems to me that if a person had access to a 5 axis milling center, any stock engine part could be digitized and reproduced as needed.
Something like a head casting could be made entirely by loading a large enough billet, pulling up the program and hitting the GO button.
Turning out something like close tolerance oil pumps wouldn't seem like a very hard thing to accomplish.
Granted, whittling pieces out of billet isn't probably the cheapest option, but I could see the benefit.
No inventory to hold, outside vendors to deal with, etc....
I keep thinking along the lines of the Fullauto head.
I have no idea what it costs to cast his heads, but I can not imagine that it is cheap.
Making the molds, the cores, the furnace, the labor, and I would assume a pretty high rejection rate for such a complex sandcast part
would all play into the end cost.
Chopping a head out of something like 7075 Alloy would make an idea part, free from voids, inclusions, etc......
Seems like a pretty good business idea to me, I just wonder about the dollars and cents pieces of the "business plan".
It seems to me that if a person had access to a 5 axis milling center, any stock engine part could be digitized and reproduced as needed.
Something like a head casting could be made entirely by loading a large enough billet, pulling up the program and hitting the GO button.
Turning out something like close tolerance oil pumps wouldn't seem like a very hard thing to accomplish.
Granted, whittling pieces out of billet isn't probably the cheapest option, but I could see the benefit.
No inventory to hold, outside vendors to deal with, etc....
I keep thinking along the lines of the Fullauto head.
I have no idea what it costs to cast his heads, but I can not imagine that it is cheap.
Making the molds, the cores, the furnace, the labor, and I would assume a pretty high rejection rate for such a complex sandcast part
would all play into the end cost.
Chopping a head out of something like 7075 Alloy would make an idea part, free from voids, inclusions, etc......
Seems like a pretty good business idea to me, I just wonder about the dollars and cents pieces of the "business plan".
- Joined
- Jan 4, 2011
- Messages
- 567
An engineer friend of mine who is into VW's got some type 4 heads and made his own plug then had a mold made by a casting guy, the cast some up.
He sent an unfinished set of to Germany and they are now in a drag car I think.
Making the plug for the molds was the time consuming bit he says, the casting guy thought he was a time waster until he turned up with the plug to make molds of..... they look really nice, I should take some pics. For the limited market its not really worth it, and you can get other ones. Owes him about 5k US for the 3 sets he has made.
He sent an unfinished set of to Germany and they are now in a drag car I think.
Making the plug for the molds was the time consuming bit he says, the casting guy thought he was a time waster until he turned up with the plug to make molds of..... they look really nice, I should take some pics. For the limited market its not really worth it, and you can get other ones. Owes him about 5k US for the 3 sets he has made.