I've been eying that one!!! My Machinists neighbor laughs, but I don't have 20K to invest in real tools~

Every now and then Harbor Freight puts them on sale for $549.00. If they are not on sale you can usually talk the store manager into putting it on sale for you. At least the guy in the Fort Worth store will.
Once I actually make some money from some of my shannanagins I will buy better equipment. But I will buy used and have someone that knows equipment check it out for any health problems.
For me, the limitations of this machine is pretty much equivalent to my personal limitations since I only know enough to be dangerous.
Right now I would not know what to do with a "real" lathe if I had one :)
But when I setup my machines for milling and finishing rotor housings I had 5 machinists at two machine shops consulting me and making the parts and setting everything up. I think the surface grinder that machined the plates I needed was $65,000 new is what they told me.
Some things have to be left to people that know what they are doing. But there are plenty of remedial tasks that these little machines can do and save a shitload of money.

hey i just want to say i like the pics. ok well hole saws work good but if u really want a hole the u can bore to let say .0005 id go wit an adj. boring head u can pick them up for rather cheap from Enco 220-1532 R8 SHANK & 12PC 3/4 3" BORING HEAD PACKAGE W/ 131 $99.95 that tool can bore up to a 3 3/4 in hole they work really well and the carbide bits will cut great i have my own bridge port and i use that boring head alot works just as good as a $400 bridge port setup

hope that helps u a little bit. I have a question how did u figure out where to put the port?

I took measurements off of Ken Scheepers current housings. Those are supposedly done off measurements from the factory Mazda pports.
But since Ken did not get his hands on those I could not confirm it. His best run was 10.87 last season in All Motor class. http://www.nhraimport.com/2002/drivers/k_scheepers.html
The first half of the race season was spent working out the big "bugs" on the new car and the last half was working out little ones. I am not sure how much he will be able to knock off on his time next season but all signs are pointing that it will be faster.

I just made a tube and put it in the housing and now I am going downstairs to take some pics and post them.

That is a great price but my lathe takes a #3 morse taper. The mill head takes an R8 but from henceforth I will refer to this as "cheesy-ass mill" and one of the reasons is because there is not enough room between the head and the table to even get a housing in position to cut :mad:
But as you will see in the pictures that as along as you use cheesy-mill's lathe with a hole saw it seems to work pretty well.
I know this is starting to look like a redneck joke, but humor me until you see the results! ;)
I would never let a little thing like common sense get in the way of trying something that should not work and I am not about to start now! Every now and then even a fool gets lucky :)

You can buy them with a #3 taper could you email me the specs on the hole ryantmoses@yahoo.com

Well here is the unepoxied results. It fits pretty tight and seems to be pretty tight all the way around the tube. I had to use a redneck press (a mallet and block of wood) ;) to put it in.If nothing else I am sure it looks better than most people would have expected.

http://webpages.charter.net/mikeroberts/port37.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/mikeroberts/port39.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/mikeroberts/port41.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/mikeroberts/port43.jpg

I think that looks very good. You are a pioneer!

hey that is looking very good there, and now with pics it doesnt seem so hard after all, I think I will be trying my hand at making my own PP housings now :)

although another thing I have heard, is to have threads cut on the inside of the hole and the outside of the insert, so the insert actually screws into the housing, and then epoxied, making a very good seal, but this may require more specialised tooling.

have you got any idea what the specs are for the inlet timing for opening and closing of the ports? its just to me the port duration of the inlets is very big compared to the exhausts in the current form anyway, dont know if you plan to open out exhaust ports?

I saw where the RB PP's are threaded. It looked to be more trouble than it would be worth. Since they bring the tube through at a different angle there is less suface area of the housing that the tube is in contact with.
As tight as they were to press in I don't think they will be moving even without the epoxy. I had also left a should on the outside that acts as a stop so the tube only goes in so far.
These housings are also going to be thermally sprayed (see my thread on resufacing housings) so "masking" the bis ass hole will be interesting.
The ones that Ken runs now has two one inch beads welded on the outside.
As far as specs on the timing I don't know. I just duplicated the hole he is running now. It looks pretty big to me too. But Ken has been running pretty good times with the port already so he wants to stick to it.

Haha! I'm not a pioneer unless you are referring to age :). I just like getting things done as practical (i.e.- cheap) as possible without sacrificing quality.

what are u goin to do the exhaust port use a race port template from mazdatrixs? looks good same with your respray of the houshing. do u have any idea how much the respary is goin to run us?

I honestly did not pay any attention to Ken's exhaust port so I don't remember what it looked like :doh:
Ken will be doing any of that though.
Right now I am estimating $300 per housing as long as I am having to send them out to be sprayed. If a housing ever has an apex seal break or something scar the housing once it have been sprayed I will be able to re-spray for about $125 though. That is where it really starts looking attractive.
But before we count them chix we need to actually test it ;)

sounds good keep the pics coming

props to you my friend. :) looks good :

how much you gonna charge me if I send ya some housings to PP them?


like.... Four of them. :bigthumb:

I would do them in an unfinished state as here with the tube extending into the housing and unepoxied for $125 each. After I finish the epoxy work and grinding I could determine how much I would do a finished housing.
You could determine the length you wanted the tube to protrude the housing. PM me if you are interested.

for the exhaust port, can't you just drill out the sleeve and port out the inside of the housing to the size of the existing hole?

That would not be good at all. You do not want to bring the exhaust port very much higher than it is because of the timing. You can bring it down lower though.
It is best to have someone who is very familiar with porting rotaries helping you out or have a tried and true housing to copy off of.

http://webpages.charter.net/mikeroberts/port39.jpg

so after this, where would u use/put the epoxy? (water seals area only??)

and how would u cut this off nicely?

-mike

You mark the tube where it needs to be cut and pull it back out. Cut the end of the tube off fairly close to the line.
With the tube still out of the hole use a rotary file or brush to clean the inside of the water passage that the tube passes through.
Put the tube back in the hole and be sure it is aligned correctly. Then put the epoxy in the side passages being sure to force the epoxy into all the crevices as you put it in. You don't have to fill it to the top. The ones I looked at were pretty close to the top but did not require any work to "flush" the surface when the epoxy cured.
Once the epoxy cures is where hopefully you have had some experience porting with rotary files. If not then to be safe you may want to use a less abrasive cutter because not you have to to file the tube flush to the wall.
Try using your rotary tools on a cut off piece of tubing to get the "feel" of how fast it cuts. You need to realize that as quick as aluminum cuts you can be in trouble quick.
You can get cutters that make less aggresive cuts and have more control.
The trick to this is a lot like welding. Get your workpiece and yourself in as comfotable position as possible and have good lighting.
With that in mind just go slow and be patient.... and post pictures! After all they are worth a thousand words ;)

i havn't started my project yet, trying to put everything togther, but i'll be sure to take many many pictures..

-mike

In addition I'd probably retain the tube with a small tig weld on the outside of the housing.

Scalliwag, How do you get the Timing correct? from the guys i've spoken to about my Engine timing and port size makes a huge diffrence?

Also how do you make the Tube flush without damaging the housings Coating?