Paging those who can make anything out of alloy

Got a sprocket cover for the XL, broken it is with a small part missing by
the looks of it.

I'll try to find out Monday if I can still get a cover (fat chance most
likely as they all used to break them) but failing that, does anybody here
know anybody who would be able to machine one (more likely a small batch)
given the broken cover and the engine as a pattern?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Timo Geusch

Getting new covers cast from the original would cost about a tenner a
pop, if you're not in a hurry. The machining... Dunno. I'd have to look.
If it's a one off, then FOC, for more I'm not really up for it, so you'd
have to get a commercial rate. My guess is "lots".

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Well, I've got to find an intact one as a pattern first, but given that
these things are pretty rare and the original is cast this *may* be the way
to go.

I see what you mean - trouble is that the covers are a known weak spot on
the XL250s as the chain takes them out if/when it breaks, so I'd feel a bit
safer having at least one spare.

 

Wicked Uncle Nigel wrote

That seems awfully cheap. Are you sure about that price?

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, steve auvache

Fairly. My local foundry has a minimum charge of a tenner, and there's
very little metal in a sprocket cover. I can get two brake levers cast
for a tenner.

Timo, you don't need a complete one. We could build up the existing one
with body filler, and carve it to shape. It doesn't need to be strong to
act as a casting pattern.

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Actually we don't need to bodge one up, there are two perfectly useable ones
on the way from Dave Silver. Can't say who was more surprised that they had
them in stock - the bloke who took my order or myself.

Still, may be worth getting a couple cast as he basically confirmed that
they're rare as rocking horse poo.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Simian

You need a scrappy you can forage in. These are few and far between
these days. O'Dells near Biggleswade are a fine example of the breed.
You go in, find what you want, excavate it[1] and then pay by the
weight.

Another source *can* be the scrap bin at small engineering works, take
beer and smile a lot.

Ho yuss. If it's a small amount you're after let me know what you need
and I'll have a rummage.

Heh. I've got two...

Depends (of course) on what you want to do. Pretty much everything you
can achieve on a milling machine can be done other ways, but it will
take *much* longer and it's *much* harder to be accurate.

[1] *Waves* to Pip

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, Simian

Practice, dear boy. Practice. One of the model engineering shows a while
back featured a 1" steel cube, accurate and square to a thou on all
faces, with a mirror finish. Made without any power tools at all...

Rule of thumb is that tooling will cost between one and two times the
cost of the machine. So, yes. But more so.

Sorry, don't quite see the problem here...

What are you making, BTW?

--
Wicked Uncle Nigel - Manufacturer of the "Champion-105" range of rearsets

WS* GHPOTHUF#24 APOSTLE#14 DLC#1 COFF#20 BOTAFOT#150 HYPO#0(KoTL) IbW#41
ZZR1100, Enfield 500 Curry House Racer "The Basmati Rice Burner",
Honda GL1000K2 (On its hols) Kawasaki ZN1300 Voyager "Oh, Oh, It's so big"

 

It was somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the

On a related note... was working today for a bloke who used to work on
Concorde yonks back.

He was telling me of this geezer who'd went through all the interview,
orientation, etc and turned up for his first day on the job... to drill
400 holes in a machined flat section, all by hand, using a drilling
guide to mark out the spacings and hole positions.

Great, he was shown what to do and left to get on with it overnight.

Next morning, the next shift comes in and finds the 400 holes all
drilled, and a note saying 'Sorry'.

He'd only had the guide upside down.

He never turned up for work again; not because he was fired, just
embarassment, I suppose.

Oh, that fucked-up section (scrap) cost 150K.

--

Dave

GS 850 x2 / SE 6a
SbS#6 DIAABTCOD#16 APOSTLE#6 FUB#3
FUB KotL OSOS#12? UKRMMA#19 COSOC#10

 

Andy Bonwick says...

I've still got mine.

 

I can't recall the last time I saw mine, disappeared in a move
sometime. Wasted on me really as I had no talent at all for
engineering, so left before finishing my apprenticeship.