Do you need something made for your airplane, motorcycle or car? Have you gone to your local machine shop and been told that it will take them 6 weeks to get around to your part? Or perhaps been told that they won’t even make parts for airplanes?
Fear not, I can make it for you. I have a small but well-equipped machine shop with the ubiquitous Bridgeport vertical mill, and a really nice Graziano SAG12 lathe. I also have access to a Haas CNC vertical mill. So I can make pretty much anything you want. Oh, and I also weld… MIG and TIG.
Examples below:
Rutan Defiant Nose Strut
This is the nose strut for a home-built airplane that a neighbor is building. He had a rough idea what he wanted along with the necessary overall length, but no real knowledge of how a landing gear strut should be designed. The problem was that he also had two expensive parts that were already (partly) made, so I was stuck with having to work my design around those two parts and make it all work.
So I designed a steerable, oleo-pneumatic strut that would work around his existing parts and would fit and function properly in his airplane. And this is what it all looked like after the parts were made…
Suzuki Race Bike Parts
I have a customer that makes replicas of early Suzuki factory race bikes. The custom parts for these bikes were made only for the factory teams so replacements are impossible to find. So I make them for him. The first photo shows two front axles I made, along with an original axle. Can you guess which one is the original?
This next photos shows some footpegs that I made. These were quite tricky to make with the changing diameters and that angle cut. And knurling always involves some trial-and-error and a bit of luck. But I was pleased with how they turned out, and the customer was ecstatic. (The dark footpeg is an original.)
Graziano SAG12 Steady Rest
Here’s a little tool I made… it’s called a Steady Rest. It holds long material while it’s being turned on a lathe so the free end doesn’t whip around. My lathe is a Graziano SAG12 and it originally came with a rest as standard equipment. But there must have been a law that required every Graziano steady rest to be dumped in the ocean because I never seen one… either in use or for sale. I needed one so there was nothing else to do except to make one.
It was pretty simple to make; just a plate of 1-1/2” thick aluminum plate that I had laying around the shop, shaped on my vertical mill. The three bolts are used to center the material so that it runs true. Those pieces on the ends of the bolts are bearing bronze, which is pretty much self-lubricating. All it needs is a drop of oil every minute or so. I’ve used it several times, and I’m quite surprised at how well it works. Anyway, it was just just a fun little project…
