I admit I haven't looked at the project in over 6 months. I had to move shop and that was quite a task.

I wish I had unlimited deep pockets but that's not the case otherwise this would be done. The challenge we are facing now is working out the details of the housing shape from 12A to S4/S5 to S6 and then RX8. There are subtle differences in the shape. Yes I know there is the parametric equation but it leaves questions unanswered. There is some question as to what the factors should be and some of the info here disagrees with the factory papers on the subject. Not only that, from what I understand if you tried to grind from the parametric equation you would be all over the place. For example if we used the equation to grind a new housing, there would be places the tool would not touch and other places where it would plow into the piece. Mazda has done some tweaking to the shape when actually ground.

Anyone know if someone has used the equation and compared it to the actual housing? This is what my source tells me, if someone has additional info that would be helpful.

The solution is to CMM each housing and even then it's subjective to the actual housing used and variances from one new housing to the next. Once this is done we could compare the drawings to the equation but what would be the point, we would already have what we need. It's a lot of work and cost no matter as we will need to CMM 4 - 6 housings accounting for N/A vs turbo, then all the tangential blends need to be done in order to grind from the programs. Not only that the question arises, do we need as many anodes? We are not messing around with cheap experimental anodes, they will be made by professionals to do the best repeatable job possible. Everything has to be just right and there is only 2 way's I know for that to happen. Throw massive amounts of cash at it to get it done and keep throwing $$$$$$ at it to fix any issues or ask all the questions now and pay once for the proper job. Being that I don't have massive amounts of cash to throw at this I'm afraid the slow and steady progression is the only option. I mean realistically think about it, aerospace corporations throw massive amounts of $$$$$ at projects and they still take 10-15 + years IF they ever see the light of day.

We are giving this our attention again now and we will see what happens this year. I don't really care what others think about the timeline, it's easy to say it should be done already when they are not the ones doing it or doling out their money or dealing with the problems/setbacks. Others have tried this for over 35 years and I don't see their product on the market. At least we have proven the concept with working prototypes still in use but there is a big difference from doing one offs to being able to do production qty's.

 

I think my recent post may have answered your question?

 

^Appreciate the update.

 

How detailed a scan do you need? I've gotten some stuff CMM'd at work for free. On another note, blending multiple scans shouldn't be that hard. I would align the dowel pin locations and blend from there. What about doing an initial grind a bit oversize from your model and then chrome and regrind to the correct size?

Anyways, I'm sure it is quite the task.

 

Well, we have our program finished. And it is probably the most accurate rendition of the housing shape on the planet. Next is the anode and we will be ready to proceed. I'll update as soon as I have more details.

Happy Trails

 

Glassman, I can't wait for this to hit the market. Your going about this the right way. I can relate to what your doing as I've personally built something pretty special with my 20b set up and some things, you simply just can't rush. Way to keep at it and not give up.

 

When it is all finished, I would like to know costs and how long it would last.

Sent from my samsung gs4 using RX7Club app

 

Costs - who really cares? Rotaries are still far, far cheaper than piston engines from a reliability/dollar standpoint. Even if they ended up costing the same as new housings (which still exist for many models, so that would logically have to be an upper boundary else it would not make sense to have old housings rechromed) then it's still way cheaper than converting to piston engine and blowing them up several times a year when the Tinkertoys inside go all akilter.

How long will it last? Depending on how early I can get housings to sample, I'll let you know I drive my car a LOT. 20kmi/year is typical.

 

yes price !

 

what ever happened to this?

 

given the cost of new rotor housings ATM and the eventual scarcity as Mazda (probably) walks away from production there are numerous entities working on the solution.... from totally scratch built to rechrome.

some of these are serious efforts.

i do now that Goopy is in the later stages of testing their rechromed housings and is close to offering them at an attractive pricepoint.

Howard

 

I hope the "production" aspect includes 12As... you can still buy some 13B rotor housings but 12A bits are gone gone gone.

I've got a 8' high stack of rotor housings in various states of disrepair waiting for the day that rechroming is possible.

 

We just had Mitutoyo CMM a new housing and I'm waiting to see if the program is what we need. We will machine some plates to compare to the actual housing then if good we can move forward. The trochoid shape was measured in 0.0001" points

We had measured up a few housings and had the shape drawn up but there were issues with the original CMM done (got bumped) so we had to start over rather than try to mess with parts of drawings.

 

I went back a few pages and saw some of the money you guys were dumping into this project. If you guys need more financial assistance, you could try starting a Go-Fund me. I would donate to help speed this up. Like peejay, I got a stack of housings building up too.

 

Yes that is one option for funding. I wasn't aware of this until just recently, I saw a program where a guy did this for a camping cooler he developed.

 

Sorry to dig up an old thread but what happened to this? I have a pile of 12a housings I'd love to be usable again.

 

Like the title says thinking of selling the proceedure and all equipment for rechroming housings. Includes everything from drawings to processes including porous surface process and anode supplier, materials etc etc

$16K