New Fabrication Project

[Red Rider]

Oh geez, what's he making now?

I've been spending countless hours out in the garage lately, and many hours tossing & turning in bed, while my mind spins on how to tackle this new project. I came up with a plan of attack to overcome the few hurdles, that I could foresee, but as is life, some are unforeseen. It seems like the majority of my time is being spent on the tooling process. Here's the progress so far.

Who knew a router, with carbide bits, would make such nice cuts in 6061 aluminum?

So, tell me, what am I making now? :wondering Oh, and it's not cool heads.

[ironchop]

....
Who knew a router, with carbide bits, would make such nice cuts in 6061 aluminum?
...

I did.. sometimes if we have a customer who wants a roman ogee or a corner radius cut and we need a tool fast, we'll buy carbide router bits as its the same as what we use to machine aluminum (2 flute bit)

A circular saw with a carbide-tipped blade will easily cut aluminum too and sheet steel

So you said it's not a head.....what about a custom quick change clutch cover?

Beadlock rings?



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[Red Rider]

I did.. sometimes if we have a customer who wants a roman ogee or a corner radius cut and we need a tool fast, we'll buy carbide router bits as its the same as what we use to machine aluminum (2 flute bit)

A circular saw with a carbide-tipped blade will easily cut aluminum too and sheet steelYeah, I've used my compound miter saw, with a carbide tipped blade, to cut thin extruded aluminum before, which is exactly what got me wondering how the router would do, and now I know. If you take it slow, and don't try to remove too much material at once, it does a beautiful job.


So you said it's not a head.....what about a custom quick change clutch cover?

Beadlock rings?Nice guesses, but no on both accounts. Now you've got my mind spooling up on new ideas! :wondering

[RoscoW]

Best cutting is solid carbide up-cut spiral, 1/2" diameter.

Ross..

[Aulbaugh]

while my mind spins on how to tackle this new project.

A spacer for something?

[El Camexican]

Guessing something to do with a Tecate?

[fieldy]

Start of a Tecate water pump impeller.

[Red Rider]

A spacer for something?No, not quite.


Guessing something to do with a Tecate?No, Tecates don’t need hop up parts as they are too fast already. These are for a 250R.


Start of a Tecate water pump impeller.I can see how it may look like the precursor to an impeller, but if you knew the dimensions, you’d know why I’m laughing right now. Those circles are about 6” in diameter.

Wow, 6” in diameter. Hmmm, are they extra large Tecate impellers for better cooling?

Nice guesses guys, keep ‘em coming. More progress pics to come in a few days.

[DAM shop]

Something to do with either a front or rear brake?

[El Camexican]

Rear sprocket protector?

[Red Rider]

Something to do with either a front or rear brake?That DAM shop guy is onto something!


Rear sprocket protector?Thats a negatory Mr. Suave.

[DAM shop]

[QUOTE=Red Rider;1474855]That DAM shop guy is onto something!

You are converting a drum brake system on something to a disc brake system and this is a part you need..

[NeverLift]

Brake rotor adapter for inverts?

[Red Rider]

You are converting a drum brake system on something to a disc brake system and this is a part you need..No, sorry.


Brake rotor adapter for inverts?Precisely!

[oldskool83]

modified clutch case to do a quick change out of clutch rather then take entire side case off.

[3 Wheel Drive]

https://youtu.be/lvatKTq9LXo

[Red Rider]

modified clutch case to do a quick change out of clutch rather then take entire side case off.NeverLift already figured it out in post #13.

[Red Rider]

Now that we all know I'm making a pair of brake disc adapters for my brother's 250R's inverted forks, and mine as well, here's the background story. My brother needed me to scan my custom front wave rotor. I had gotten this rotor from an eBay seller, that was making custom ones for 250R's, back in 2002. By the time my brother decided he wanted one, we couldn't find the seller on eBay anymore. Basically, my bother wanted a scan of my disc, to give him some design ideas for some custom discs that he was planning on having made. Now, when I first did the inverted forks on my 250R many years ago, I kind of rushed the front caliper mounting setup. I used the same KTM Brembo caliper, that Billy Golightly used on his Tri-Z's inverted fork setup, because it looked like it would work well for my application also. When I mounted the caliper, I couldn't quite get it in the ideal postion for total pad coverage, but it was good enough for the time being. Because of my haste, I knew as the pads wore down, they would eventually touch together, and no longer be able to apply clamping pressure to the disc. I had planned on coming back, to correct that issue, at a later time. Instead, I got lazy, and left it alone.

While removing my front disc, and seeing my pad's wear pattern, I was reminded of this misstep all those years ago, and it bugged me. Sure the pads were barely worn, and would probably never touch together in my lifetime, but it still bugged me. It must be that, attention to detail, OCD thing, that I have. One of the easiest ways to correct this, was to go with a larger, off-the-shelf, wave rotor from Galfer. I would then make a relocation bracket for the caliper to mount to (kind of like the oversize wave rotor kits for dirt bikes). First, I searched Galfer's website for disc dimensions. The stock 250R disc is 203mm OD, but I needed something slightly larger. I found a few 205mm, and 210mm discs, but they were a bit thin (3mm). There were quite a few 220mm OD discs, and as a bonus, they were 4mm thick. I made a wood disc that was 220mm OD, and bolted it up to check caliper-to-wheel clearance, and then caliper bracket-to-forkleg mounting clearance.

The 1st pic shows the brake pad's wear, due to my hasty, improper caliper mounting.
The 2nd pic shows the caliper clamped onto the 220mm wood disc (in the proper position for total pad coverage), so I could check caliper to wheel clearance.
The 3rd pic shows the caliper attached to the 220mm wood disc, and then rotated up into position, to determine caliper relocation bracket's design.
The 4th pic shows the caliper relocation bracket.

[Red Rider]

Now that the guessing game is over, here's the progress pics to date. Most of the work, that has been done so far, involves designing jigs & guides to make the desired symmetrical arcing cuts. Once they're made though, they make the rest of the work somewhat simple.

The 1st pic shows the arcing cuts made by the router. These cuts, recess the disc into adapter plate, so that the front of the disc is flush with the adapter plate.

The 2nd pic shows the jig, with the adapter plate bolted to it. The jig has a pin, located off-center, between all of the bolts, that allow the jig to pivot at the proper radius for the desired cuts.

The 3rd pic shows the Galfer wave rotor bolted to the adapter plate.

[ironchop]

Nice work, Router Master!

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[NeverLift]

End mills are for sissy's.:p Great ingenuity.

[Red Rider]

Nice work, Router Master!Thanks! Cool, a new nickname. In high school, my wood shop classmates called me mohogany man.


End mills are for sissy's.:p Great ingenuity.Well yeah, there's that, but the main reason is, I don't have one. Thanks!

[Red Rider]

A little more progress the last few days. I came up with a design for the adapters. The design incorporates an alternating short spoke & longer, swept spoke around the circumference, for a total of 6 spokes, which should blend into the wave rotor nicely. The design was sketched on cardboard, then a 1/3 "pie slice" was cut out, and transferred onto 1/8" thick aluminum sheet. This design was then carefully cut out to use as a router guide template. The aluminum template was then bolted to each adapter 3 times, and the design traced all the way around the circumference of the adapters. Once the design was traced onto the adapters, the template was removed, and the design was "roughly" cut out. Once an adapter is roughly cut out, the aluminum guide plate will be bolted onto the adapter once again, and the trimming bit will be installed in the router. This trimming bit has a ball bearing, that rides against the aluminum guide template, thus accurately cutting away the aluminum of the adapter, flush with the guide template.

The 1st pic shows a "roughly" cut adapter.

The 2nd pic shows the aluminum guide template, and an adapter that is 2/3 of the way through the final trimming process.

The 3rd pic shows the aluminum guide template bolted to an adapter, prior to final trimming of the last 2 spokes.

The 4th pic shows a completely trimmed adapter & wave rotor combo.

Now, I need to do the same to the other adapter.

[Red Rider]

A bit more progress today. Both adapters have been cut out & trimmed down to size with the router. The router has done such a nice job, I decided to round off the outside edges, both front side & back side, as the edges were pretty sharp, after being trimmed down to size with the router. Once again, I used a bit, with a ball-bearing guide. Except this time, the bearing was run against the adapter itself, as there is no need for the aluminum guide template anymore. The 3 mounting holes have been drilled, and I've gotten started on boring out the center hole with, once again, you guessed it, the router. Here's the progress to date.

[ironchop]

Oh HELL YEAH

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[big specht]

Hell yea that good work there! That would be hard to do even with a mill unless you had cnc programming I've tried lol251464

[Red Rider]

Hell yea that good work there! That would be hard to do even with a mill unless you had cnc programming I've tried lol251464Thank you. Your project would have been a breeze with the method I used. Just drill the holes out in your new piece of aluminum, roughly cut it out, bolt it to your reed valve, then trim it down to the final size by letting the ball-bearing guide bit trace around the outside edge of your reed valve, and you'd have a perfect duplicate of that outside profile.

[big specht]

Do you have a pic of the cutter you used. Man I haven't used a router sence I was in high school lol

[ironchop]

Hell yea that good work there! That would be hard to do even with a mill unless you had cnc programming I've tried lol...

Not bad for a manual mill. Hard to crank on two handles at the same time freehand. A little sanding and it probably cleaned up nicely


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[Red Rider]

Do you have a pic of the cutter you used. Man I haven't used a router sence I was in high school lolI sure do. It will bring back good memories of your high school days, unless of course you lost a finger in woodshop, or something. :eek: Here ya go. From left to right:

Left Bit: 23/32" Flute Straight - Used with a jig to make the arcing cuts in pics#1 & 2 of post #19.
Middle Bit: 1/8" Radius Roundover w/bearing - Used to round the edges in the only pic of post #24.
Right Bit: 1/2" Flush Trim w/bearing - Used with the aluminum template to make the outside profile cuts in the only pic of post #24.

Keep in mind, all of the work done on this, is with the router mounted to a router table, and these are carbide bits.

[Red Rider]

I have a few days off now, so I finally got to finish up the rotor adapters. I finished cutting the center holes on the router table. A made a jig that allowed me to adjust the radius of the cutting. Using the left bit in the pic on post #30, I kept adjusting the radius, until I had the proper ID (47mm), then continued adjusting the depth of the cut (about 1/16" at a time), until I was about 7/16" into the 1/2" thick adapter. From there, I took the adapters to the drill press, and used a 1 3/4" hole saw to remove the last bit of material holding the centers in. Then, back to the router table, where I switched to the Flush Trim bit (right bit in post #30) to bring the entire hole to 47mm ID. I decided a rounded edge would look good on the outside surface of the holes, so I did that as well, once again using the center bit in post #30.

Next up, I needed to remove a lot of material from the backside of the adapters, to allow the discs to align properly with the calipers. So, once again I used the same jig, that I used earlier in this post, and kept adjusting the ID of the cutting, until I had the proper ID, then I kept cutting deeper, until I had achieved the appropriate depth. When that was done, I finished off the outside of the ID with a 1/2" diameter Round Nose router bit.

[ironchop]

Again, nice work

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[yaegerb]

I have a few days off now, so I finally got to finish up the rotor adapters. I finished cutting the center holes on the router table. A made a jig that allowed me to adjust the radius of the cutting. Using the left bit in the pic on post #30, I kept adjusting the radius, until I had the proper ID (47mm), then continued adjusting the depth of the cut (about 1/16" at a time), until I was about 7/16" into the 1/2" thick adapter. From there, I took the adapters to the drill press, and used a 1 3/4" hole saw to remove the last bit of material holding the centers in. Then, back to the router table, where I switched to the Flush Trim bit (right bit in post #30) to bring the entire hole to 47mm ID. I decided a rounded edge would look good on the outside surface of the holes, so I did that as well, once again using the center bit in post #30.

Next up, I needed to remove a lot of material from the backside of the adapters, to allow the discs to align properly with the calipers. So, once again I used the same jig, that I used earlier in this post, and kept adjusting the ID of the cutting, until I had the proper ID, then I kept cutting deeper, until I had achieved the appropriate depth. When that was done, I finished off the outside of the ID with a 1/2" diameter Round Nose router bit.


Don't know how I missed this thread. Damn mad scientist at it again!

[Red Rider]

Don't know how I missed this thread. Damn mad scientist at it again!I've had this happen to me many times. I see a new thread, but based on the title, I never look at it. After I keep seeing lots of activity on the thread, I figure something interesting must be going on, and I finally decide to give it a look.

P.S. This is the project I was starting, when we talked on the phone.

[yaegerb]

I've had this happen to me many times. I see a new thread, but based on the title, I never look at it. After I keep seeing lots of activity on the thread, I figure something interesting must be going on, and I finally decide to give it a look.

P.S. This is the project I was starting, when we talked on the phone.

Ahhh, this is very neat fab work!

[Louis Mielke]

Very awesome work Red Rider!

[HairyJR]

Now that's some handy out-of-the-box machine work. Where I worked maintenance often needed in-place machining to repair equipment and it always amazed me what types of materials / tools / equipment / set ups used to complete the task. Now having said that I have racked my brain trying to imagine the set up you used. A couple pic's of the fixtures, rotor table or locating pins used would clear up and maybe allow others to perform something similar.

"HJ" 251525 :beer

[Red Rider]

...I have racked my brain trying to imagine the set up you used. A couple pic's of the fixtures, rotor table or locating pins used would clear up and maybe allow others to perform something similar.Thanks Harry. As requested, here's a pic of my router table setup. This white jig, in the center of the router table, was what I used for the majority of the work. In the center of the jig's circle is a 1/4" bolt. Both raw pieces of aluminum had 1/4" holes in the centers of them as well. The hole in the aluminum was slid over the bolt, then secured with a washer & nut. Then the aluminum was rotated around the bolt, resulting in round cuts. The green arrow points to the router bit. Adjusting the fence, at the back of the router table, changes the radius of the cuts, by moving the jig closer to, or further from, the cutting bit. The pieces of oak, on either side of the jig, are there to hold the jig centered, yet still allowing the jig to slide forward & aft (red arrow). The other jig & guide I used was shown in posts #19 & 23.

Here's the new rotor, and caliper relocation bracket mounted up.

[yaegerb]

Thanks Harry. As requested, here's a pic of my router table setup. This white jig, in the center of the router table, was what I used for the majority of the work. In the center of the jig's circle is a 1/4" bolt. Both raw pieces of aluminum had 1/4" holes in the centers of them as well. The hole in the aluminum was slid over the bolt, then secured with a washer & nut. Then the aluminum was rotated around the bolt, resulting in round cuts. The green arrow points to the router bit. Adjusting the fence, at the back of the router table, changes the radius of the cuts, by moving the jig closer to, or further from, the cutting bit. The pieces of oak, on either side of the jig, are there to hold the jig centered, yet still allowing the jig to slide forward & aft (red arrow). The other jig & guide I used was shown in posts #19 & 23.

Here's the new rotor, and caliper relocation bracket mounted up.

Fantastic!!!

[Red Rider]

I'm going to check this project off as, "complete."

On a side note, new computer purchase recently, and very fricken annoying that my "portrait" pics now post as "landscape" on here, regardless of how they are oriented on my computer.

Ok, I figured out my pic problem. Even though the pic is oriented properly on my computer, I went ahead and edited the pic by rotating it 180 degrees (which made it upside down), saved it, and then edited it again by rotating it another 180 degrees (which made it right side up again). Then I reloaded the pic to 3ww, and the edited pic is now oriented properly. Your necks will thank me later. :welcome:

[yaegerb]

Turned out fantastic

[ironchop]

Red anodize is a nice touch.

Great looking machine with some cool features

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