If you could have any metal tool/part fabricated....
 

....what would it be? I have a friend with a killer machine shop, and he's designed and made all sorts of goodies (tools, jigs, brackets, you name it) for his (and my) other passion, the BMW R1100RT motorcycle.

What do you wish you could have?

Will

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'87 Carrera Coupe
'97 993 Carrera S
'96 BMW R1100RT

The little extention for turbo flares when you mount them on pre 74 fenders.

Let's see ... Titanium rocker arms & connecting rods!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa
1992 Dodge Dakota 5.2 4X4 parts hauler

Damn "S", if your gonna go, go BIG right...

Titanium hydraulic lift, in the middle of the 6 car garage, two stories of course.

That little whatchamacallit that fetches the dip stick out of the oil tank. I'd make millions!! Muhahaha

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Robert Stoll
83 SC
83 944

"Let's see ... Titanium rocker arms & connecting rods!"

Warren,
Let's make those ti rocker arms with a roller bearing and roller tip. Shouldn't be too hard with a CNC machine. Surprised I haven't seen any yet. Would be a nice complement with ti valves.

Sherwood Lee
http://members.rennlist.org/911pcars

Sherwood,

I mentioned those same features last night to Kurt B. on ICQ!

I have a nice Titanium 'brick' in my hand at the moment ... that would make exactly 8 rockers ... if my idea of using EDM and a very thin, stainless wire electrode operated by a linear stepper moter on a timer to 'section' the brick works! I would like to eliminate as much of the blue sparks as possible ... even though they are beatiful ... expensive, too, especially when it's MY TITANIUM!!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa
1992 Dodge Dakota 5.2 4X4 parts hauler

Before I even clicked on this post, I was thinking Titanium rocker arms & connecting rods! . . .but I see the word Forged is missing.
Well you asked "anything"
. . .So get to work on those dies. http://www.pelicanparts.com/ultimate/wink.gif

<HR><font color="#CCC4A8" face="Arial Black"><strong>'81 Platinum Metalic SC COUPE</strong></font></p>

Does anyone else have one of those $37 Russian-made Forged Titanium crowbars?

There is enough material in 2 of them to make one connecting rod ... $74 worth of Titanium! Anybody know of a foundry that can work Titanium? Or, how about an email address of some friendly Russian businessman looking for a great oppportunity ... English-conversant, of course?

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa
1992 Dodge Dakota 5.2 4X4 parts hauler

Just last night, I was thumbing through Forbes Aird's "Racer's Encyclopedia of Metals, Fibers and Materials" and was reading about the ti rods used in the Acura NSX. To save costs, Honda processed scrap ti from aerospace-quality remnants in a plasma furnace (whatever that is) and came up with a high strength, reliable product for 6x the price of a comparable steel part. Using virgin aerospace-quality ti stock, the same con rod would have cost them 37X more than steel.

Doesn't Carillo, Saenz and others already make ti con rods? My suggestion is to make me a set of ti rockers to play with.

As I recall, ti is the 4th (?) most common metal on earth, yet it remains very, very, very expensive. I was recently quoted on a 4x8' sheet of thin ti sheet (Grade 5 alloy); about $2800.00 + tax. Yeeoow.

Sherwood Lee

Sherwood,

I don't recall where in the former U.S.S.R. it is mined, but most of the world's supply is there!

They made entire submarine hulls out of it because it is non-magnetic, cost be damned! I wonder what a 1-ton chunk of the recovered [/i]Kirsk[/i] hull would cost?

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa
1992 Dodge Dakota 5.2 4X4 parts hauler

Yeah I saw those Russian-made Forged Titanium crowbars. Thought it would go well with my collection of Ti stuff; but when it come to crowbars nothing beats steel. I hadn't thought of getting it just for the raw material. Hmmm.
As far as forging Ti goes, the landing gear of the SR-71 still holds the record for the largest Ti forging. While the massive amounts of Ti for the SR-71s' (paradoxically)came from Russia; it was built in the USA. . .So did anyone out there work for Kelly Johnson?

<HR><font color="#CCC4A8" face="Arial Black"><strong>'81 Platinum Metalic SC COUPE</strong></font></p>

Sherwood, your spot on about Ti's abundance.
Interestingly, Napoleon had built the worlds lightest at the time (and most expensive to date) set of “silverware.” It was made of Aluminum! The thing is, Ti is now, what Al was then; exceedingly abundant, but expensive to process. The great thing is Ti prices keep coming down.

Aside: Beyond the nice structural proberties of Ti it has really low thermal condutivity for a metal. So, it makes great heatsheilds too (hint, hint) http://www.pelicanparts.com/ultimate/wink.gif
Next time I see deal on Ti sheet at Boeing surplus I'll pick some up for you.


[This message has been edited by island911 (edited 08-25-2001).]

Warren,

I believe the real reason the then-Soviets built submarine hulls from Ti was for strength. I mean, they could dive far deeper than any NATO submarine. The fact that the hull was then non-ferrous was a huge benefit, but probably not the real reason they used it.

Attack subs don't often steam in shallow water (unless they've got cruise missles!). The Alfa submarine has the deepest capability of any known submarine. They specialise in reaming their prey from beneath and behind.

I think the Alfa class (Politovskiiy-class) were the only boats built with titanium hulls. However, I'm not entirely sure that the Oscar-class (ala the Kursk) family of subs weren't.

Hey, didn't Chevrolet use titanium to build the mufflers and exhaust on the new Corvette Z06? I read in Car & Driver that the cost to produce is amazing and they only save around 20 lbs.



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Adam Chaplin
1976 Porsche 911 2.7 Euro
My 911 Website
Pelican Gallery Page
Porsche Owners Gallery Page

Island911,

I just recently finished reading "SR-71 Revealed - The inside story" by Col. Richard Graham.

Talk about a great read! If you guys haven't yet, pick it up! It was like $15 at Borders! Worth every penny if you're the least bit interested in this sort of thing.

AC

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Adam Chaplin
1976 Porsche 911 2.7 Euro
My 911 Website
Pelican Gallery Page
Porsche Owners Gallery Page

Yes, a Ti shield between transaxle and starter cured a rather mysterious heat-soak failure problem on the 908 race cars in 1968!

Of course, Ti axles also created CV-joint failures because of reduced heat conductivity compared to steel half-shafts on the 935s!

Yes, Graham's book is good, but not as good as Kelly Johnson's or Ben Rich's!

[This message has been edited by Early_S_Man (edited 08-25-2001).]

"Aside: Beyond the nice structural proberties of Ti it has really low thermal condutivity for a metal. So, it makes great heatsheilds too (hint, hint) "

Nice jab Island911. I thought about that too, but the thought of keeping my kid's college education fund on the inventory shelf got me to my senses. The cost to the consumer might be prohibitive too. It would be better if it were more visible... like a cool collar. Ti's great at heat insulation, but stainless isn't that shabby; lot's better than nothing in that application.

Regards,
Sherwood Lee

Yes, the Z06 has a $2300 Ti muffler and tailpipe with LOUSY Accoustics ... sounds Tinny, so they said!!! You would think someone would have caught that little boondoggle before it was approved for production!

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Warren Hall
1973 911S Targa
1992 Dodge Dakota 5.2 4X4 parts hauler

I, too, am very interested in obtainable Ti upgrades for the 911. I've found a Chinese manufacturer of Ti products (mostly bicycle parts), who not only sells the raw materials (ingot, sheets, tubing, wire, etc.), but may also custom fabricate Ti pieces. Their prices for bike products are insanely cheap by U.S. standards. Check them out at xacd.com.cn, if anyone's serious about this.

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Nader
87 Carrera