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[Passenger]

Attack rabbit informed me of a PO to build some cummins 6.7 engine covers, op1's getting done today, need to build fixturing for op2's this week, hopefully have the batch done by the end of the week. (time and other disasters permitting)

Start with the stock, 2.5"x8" 6061 in 12' sticks. No problemo for my trusty Daito bandsaw. This thing is a mofo, 4400lbs, 1.5" blade, 100l coolant capacity. Good little CNC saw.






Mount the pcs on a tombstone I am dedicating to this job:



Make lots of chips:




And some finished first ops:







Just threw on another 4pcs, going home, lettin the machine work the night shift by itself

[PhilStubbs]

SECKS!!!! I like the bandsaw, i really miss having access to something like that

on a side note, do you happen to have a rough price to make a D vtec valve cover?

[ratcityrex]

I like attack rabbit! Valve covers are pretty bitchen too.

[dvst8r]

Less 6.7 valve covers, more see if harland sharp roller rockers clear 6.7 injectors. Biches!

They do look  as always.

[jabberwock]

Figure out how to make aluminum heads for Jeep i6... Make bank.  Hesco = $$$$

[92CXyD]

Figure out how to make aluminum heads for Jeep i6... Make bank.  Hesco = $$$$

Cheaper to cast then to machine out of billet. 

[PhilStubbs]

I just noticed you said "cnc saw" does that mean it feeds the material in automatically?

[Passenger]

Yeah its a proper cnc saw, you program your cut length and how many pcs, or you can program different lengths and qts from the same bar.

I took a video of it running, but can't seem to get the link to work. I fucking hate youtube/google/apple products. What a bunch of worthless, uncapable, convoluted  shit.

The mic6 plate showed up today for the second op fixtures:


And don't worry Brett the rockers clear, they just don't fit the pedestals well.



I wouldn't make a D series valve cover for 5 grand.

[dvst8r]

And don't worry Brett the rockers clear, they just don't fit the pedestals well.

Maybe it is just the picture but, wow does that look close. Are we going to need to do some work to the pedestals? Or new ones all together?

[malichite]

People are willing to pay $5k for a valve cover?

[dvst8r]

People are willing to pay $5k for a valve cover?

No, I think you missed the point.

[Passenger]

I might have to machine new pedestals. Not sure yet, if I can keep the rockers in the same location now I'll just clearance the bushing (harland just did a shitty job on this, they are supposed to fit), if I have to move rocker location to suite the new valve location then I will machine new pedestals. Either way, nothing to worry about, I'll make it fit, and it will be good.


I was being a dick about the 5k, these things retail for like $475ish. I was just saying (especially for a one off) there isn't enough money in the world to get me make one Honda valve cover. But if I had a PO for 50+ I would be interested. Machining blows for making money on low qty car parts.

[PhilStubbs]

i knew there wasnt a market for it, just curious what it would cost if there was.

i cant get enough of machine marks in nice looking parts. i started going to school for machining, but got laid off from a machine shop while i was going to school. kinda killed the motivation to keep going. i miss it though.

[mandrel-bends]

Dave - care to share some #s on the project? Programming time, machine time, estimate costs and final costs? Looks great!

[88dx]

what dose the top of the valve cover look like? And that made in canada takes $475 off the price 

[Passenger]

So I was going to start machining the second op fixtures today but I was looking at the drawings last night and found a bunch of problems (new part time guy working on the drawings). So maybe tomorrow I can get to it. Bummer thing now is that I need to add some through holes through the extra stock on all these first ops, so all the parts gotta go back in the machine

As for costs, the pallets are 5k a piece, and there is one for each op, so x2. The tombstones are around 2k each (again x2). Parts and materials for the fixturing that goes on the tombstones about $1500. Tool holders and tooling for the job about $3-4k. Probably 40-50hrs for programming (parts and fixturing) so maybe $2k there before payroll costs. Had to get some features picked up with a cmm for the parts, I think that cost me $700, deign time maybe 15hrs? $500-600? Then the costs for a machinist to actually machine the tombstones and fixtures, probably 3 days there, call it $1k by the time the its all knocked down to the tenth and and everything is square and machined to center of rotation.

So about $23k. Yes lots of things could be done cheaper bla bla bla. This runs lights out now, and requires no operator to run these parts in the future. It will take 20 minutes for an operator to load first and second ops for the night and they can pull off 4 complete parts in the morning. No fucking around, no adjusting tool offsets, loading and modifying programs, shoveling chips, loading tools, etc etc. Load the raw stock and hit go.

The second op fixtures should turn out pretty cool, and then you will be able to see what the top surfaces look like. Both of these tombstones are designed so that I can run a few different types of valve covers so that will help the costs of the tombstones and pallets.

[mandrel-bends]

Are these for a customer or for a passenger product line? (I'm thinking not a customer part at those $ values). I was trying to figure out what you were bidding on a nightmare like this for a walk in customer. 

So the pallet & tombstone are part specific?

[Passenger]

Are these for a customer or for a passenger product line? (I'm thinking not a customer part at those $ values). I was trying to figure out what you were bidding on a nightmare like this for a walk in customer. 

So the pallet & tombstone are part specific?

Its a Passenger product but this batch is private label for someone else. I've been meaning to do this for a long time but have just been too busy and then this customer gave me a PO which was a kick in the but to actually get it done. If I was only going to build 10-30 of these things one time I wouldn't do anything like I am showing here. But the low qty car parts just don't make enough money to even be worth doing, some desperate machinist will always do it cheaper.

I don't do walk in projects. I do a lot of private label (majority of my work) but I am going to start pushing my Passenger Diesel label hard this year.

The pallets can be used for anything but I am dedicating them to this job, the tombstones will stay permanently mounted to these pallets. The tombstones will be used for at least one other style cover, maybe more.

Finding good machinists and set up guys in western Canada is damn near impossible, the only way to run high volume and or high mix work is to automate. I'm building a bunch of new products for my own line right now and everything is going to be very minimal setup, basically cut stock, load op1, press go, load op2 press go. And as much as possible done overnight only. The cell I have is awesome for high mix work because I have 27 pallets, part probing, tool probing, tool life management, micro fine conveyor, tsc, 162 offsets, macro B with extended variables etc.

I'm not sure if this is how I would do it again, but I'm balls deep at this point so I gotta keep rolling. I like the work, the complexity and capabilities are great, but the pay is shit.

[mandrel-bends]

Sorry to hear of the struggles, that sucks. Nothing worse then busting your ass and making no $. 

For a new product like this, how do you know whether there is sufficient sales volume to ammoritize the cost of the project?

[Passenger]

Mostly I don't its a gamble. I call customers and ask them if its something they would be interested, try to get an idea what volume they can sell, come up with a ball park price and then just go for it.

[rawr]

Why bother with running those parts then? Do you do any medical/aerospace/tech industry parts?

[mandrel-bends]

Dave, just bought one of your 6.0L delete kits. I didn't realise you made these. Website works fine / looks fine. Your print order shows the default magento logo instead of passenger, which you might want to change. It was kinda hard to find your website without a very specific "passenger diesel" search. So maybe some SEO might help a bit in the future.

I'm surprised you don't do better with these kits. One of our customers manufactures a competing kit to yours, and the up-pipe pieces or whatever the 2.0" pipe is called - we ship hundreds of those a month to him and he's always running out. I bet he sells ~6000+ kits a year. Your price is HALF his, and notice what I'm going to install on my F550 (yours).

Adam

[Joseph Davis]

Hard to sell product nobody knows about,

[HiProfile]

Hard to sell product nobody knows about,

I know all about that one.

[rawr]

Tell people about it, then.


Nothing sells itself

[HiProfile]

Dave doesn't have time to scratch his ass, let alone make cold calls to shops/dealers.

My guess is "pushing hard" means he's going to get advertising when his new site is finished. I'm thinking of a different method where I give $50 to anyone that sells a set of injectors for me.

[PhilStubbs]

I just need a set of your injectors in my car and things will move. Every time I tell people about them they always ask if its what's in my car.

[rawr]

Dave doesn't have time to scratch his ass, let alone make cold calls to shops/dealers.

My guess is "pushing hard" means he's going to get advertising when his new site is finished. I'm thinking of a different method where I give $50 to anyone that sells a set of injectors for me.

Doesnt have time means hes doing it wrong. Getting advertising means shit too. If you want some sales ideas, pm me or pm me for a number to text me. Especially with branding and marketing.

[snm95ls]

That pretty badass right there.

[Passenger]

The marketing stuff is getting done, I'm just behind because I had another company working on it that did a horrible job and cost me a bunch of money and lost time. Things will be looking much better in the next few months. The new website will have good seo, pictures, information on our products and processes etc.

I didn't really have any time to work on this project the last few days so I am busting it today.

Because we had to do a major redesign on the second op fixturing I had to cut down those Mic 6 plates a few inches before I even threw them in the machine. I grabbed our beater ghetto tombstone, threw a couple dowels in for the plate to sit on and mounted the Mic 6 plate with some strap clamps:



Probed it out:



And pulled it off and pressed in the dowel liners:





what you see here is the side that will sit on the second operation tombstone. The pockets are just to reduce weight, as these plates will be kinda heavy with the op1 part attached. The second op tombstone will get the dowels to locate off the liners I pressed in on these plates. There are still two more operations to do to these plates. I will have to machine the second op tombstone first.

This is the second op tombstone, I got this used with all these shitty holes in it. I should just miss the existing holes with the ones that I need to put in.








I am hoping that I don't run into any snags today, if its possible I want to machine all the first ops for the mic 6 plates, machine the second op tombstone, machine all the second ops on the mic 6 plates, and then at least machine one third op on the mic 6 plates so that I can just run the rest in the morning. We'll see