Anybody with fabrication skills wanna help?

[the Wizard]

I spent my whole life working in aerospace, and having access to a machine shop. But now I am retired....damn.

So here's what's up. If you look at this photo of the front end of the PC10 you will see a wing adjustment block.

http://forums.autosport.com/topic/114644-penske-pc10/

On my car this is totally missing....both sides....the rod on the wing just sits on that horizontal surface. Obviously that's not quite as bad as it seems cause the last use of the car was just fun lapping....not racing.

Anyway, appears to be two pieces each side.....a housing and a Al block that is threaded. The housing appears to be flat stock bent and welded Al? I suppose this piece could be billet.

Anyone have a mill and wanna help out? That would be very cool. If not, I'll try to find a local machine shop that does small custom jobs.

Thanks!

[the Wizard]

Gee, you could hear a pin drop in here...lol. But I understand, maybe this is a good excuse for me to buy a small mill. Anyone have a $1000 recommendation?

[DanW]

Gee, you could hear a pin drop in here...lol. But I understand, maybe this is a good excuse for me to buy a small mill. Anyone have a $1000 recommendation?

Craigslist, or better, estate sales. The mill part is not the costly part, its the tooling to get started.

[the Wizard]

You mean like the collets and end mills and stuff? I was thinking of going new, but one of these bench-top models just for doing small stuff....

[10rmotor]

I might be able to make them, but I'm not sure that I'm seeing exactly what you're looking for. I see pic number 10 that shows the front wing setup and the wing angle adjuster block with a pin that is located within a threaded adjuster. Is that it? I've got a mill and welder, so between the two I should be able to fab something that would work.

[Pop Chevy]

You draw up a print of what you want I'm sure someone here will step up, maybe me. As far as buying your own mill goes, what Dan W said was right on target. When I bought my Bridgeport I was telling my local machinist about it. He asked how much I paid and he said the same as Dan did. I kinda laughed, but he was totally right. I paid $1800 and spent at least that much on tooling. But it sure is nice to have. Then I went to the local Trade school and took evening classes to learn how to run the thing. I liked it so much I repeated the class----3 times ! My instructor wanted to hire me. Nice guy.

[provamo]

Awesome link!!!!

[Chris Livengood]

Grizzly G0704 is one of if not the best of the small mills. It has an R8 spindle which is the one you really want. If you want bigger, you might as well go full size at that point.

These guys are right. You want to buy used. Buying used usually gets you tooling and that's where you really start to rack up the cash. The machine I bought (a Grizzly G0704 haha) not only came with tooling, but it came with full DRO, a rotary table, a vise, machine oil, and all sorts of other stuff. I paid a third or less of what it was worth new and it was only 5 months old. The guy who sold it upgraded to Bridgeport knee mill as he moved into a bigger space. In my opinion, if you have the space you should just go for the Bridgeport. I do most of my work out of my basement, so that wasn't an option for me.

[Chris Livengood]

You are talking about this photo?



Do you have a drawing of the piece?

[Chris Livengood]

I apologize for bombing this thread multiple times here, but a couple of things came to mind. There are two things worth mentioning about the very small bench top mills like Harbor freight and Little Machine Shop sell. Firstly, it's best to get the R8 shank as I mentioned earlier, and then finally it is best to avoid the tiling column models. Tramming the machine is apparently very difficult and column stability suffers with the tiling models. All of that said, if you don't mind taking your time and making reasonable sized cuts those mills work surprisingly well considering their price, and they make really awesome drill presses haha.

[the Wizard]

Guys....this would be amazing if we pulled this off as a cyber-online-team....lol. Thanks for even considering....10rmotor, Pop Chevy, and Chris. 10rmotor.....yes, what you descibred is the needed piece. On my car that rod just sits on the horizontal surface with no adjustment. I do not yet have a drawing with dimensions, although I have just started a dialogue with Darrell Soppe this morning, and I will ask him. If not, I do know of another PC10 that maybe I could ask the owners. Or we just guess from the photos and measurements I make on the car.

Yes, the photo Chris posted shows the left-side adjuster. It appears to have two pieces. A block and a housing. I assume the block is Al, not sure if the housing might be steel.

The rod you see between the wing and adjuster is actually part of the wing. So that defines a clearance hole in the block. And then it has a threaded hole for the bolt to perform the adjustment. The flat surface the adjuster sits on has a hole that I assume is for the bolt to extend beyond the bottom of the block.

The housing appears to be flat stock that is bent and welded, but I'm wondering if this piece might just be easier to be machined billet?

Sorry about that link....I thought it went directly to that photo...my bad.

[the Wizard]

That Grizzly mill does seem like a hell of a unit for that price.....

[10rmotor]

Yes it does look like a sheet metal enclosure that is formed and welded on the seams with an adjuster nut welded to the top of the enclosure.

I got my variable speed bridgeport clone mill for 500. Right place, right time. Traded building a set of stainless headers for a DRO, and made a rotary phase converter for about 100 bucks. Yes, if you bought tooling all at once its a painful experience, but if you buy tooling over time as the specific jobs require, its less "painful". Cruise craigslist and you'll find a few goodies.

[the Wizard]

I see that the adjuster housing looks like it was made of 3 different pieces of formed sheet metal.....although it's not clear to me why 3. Seems like there could've been a simpler way, but maybe not. Do we assume steel for this part? And I'm not sure I see the welded nut you're talking about. Clearly the floating block would be threaded, but I don't really see a locknut either?

[scorp997]

I would assume the 'box' is made of aluminum, welds look like it as does the metal surface and most of the car is aluminum.

I would also guess that the adjuster 'block' is made of plastic, possibly UHMW, based on the surface texture (doesn't look like metal). UHMW would offer a self lubricating object and if threaded correctly would offer a slight amount of friction to keep the adjuster bolt in place. The bolt may have an 'e' or snap ring under the top surface of the box to keep it in a stationary position so the wing can't rotate 'up'.

[Earley Motorsports]

So you are talking about this part right? That wouldn't be too difficult to make in the same configuration as the original.

[the Wizard]

Yes that is the part that is missing from 005.....both right and left....

Scorp.....very interesting....I'm still gonna try to get a bit more info on this part before forging ahead....waiting on others to get back to me so I can ask....