OSS 'Open Sky System' Motor mount

Hello Paul,

To save you hours in your workshop have you considered asking Cutting Technologies to see what they can do for you. I know they set the machines up and leave them running over night to reduce man hours and save on some of the labour costs. They could obviously mass produce these quite quickly.

Only a thought as we have seen the their work to be very nice but wouldn't understand what files type you use for the machining and if they can use it. Its must be worth a question though. This would elevate some time in the workshop and you can just sit back with your feet up.

As I said, only a thought as I honestly don't know whats involved in the wonderful things you do.

Kind regards,

Tom
 
Hello Paul,

To save you hours in your workshop have you considered asking Cutting Technologies to see what they can do for you. I know they set the machines up and leave them running over night to reduce man hours and save on some of the labour costs. They could obviously mass produce these quite quickly.

Only a thought as we have seen the their work to be very nice but wouldn't understand what files type you use for the machining and if they can use it. Its must be worth a question though. This would elevate some time in the workshop and you can just sit back with your feet up.

As I said, only a thought as I honestly don't know whats involved in the wonderful things you do.

Kind regards,

Tom

Hi Tom
This is not something that can be laser cut as there are lots of the part which is not a ‘through cut’ plus the tolerances involved would not be achieved with metal laser cutting
It’s horses for courses as the saying goes

Now a metal 3D printer would be another way to produce them but with the machines currently at around the £350,000 mark and the aluminium powder at £120kg in the foreseeable future these will be manufactures using old school subtractive manufacturing methods ie machine to you and me, all be it CNC machining
I will be cutting another set tomorrow and getting accurate times and already have a request for quote in with a aluminium supplier for a batch of material sufficient to make 25 sets
The more you buy at one go the cheaper it is and the expressed interest is healthy in the mounts

Cheers
Paul


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OK guys, finally late last week the 8mm Ally plate that I ordered turned up. I had some jobs on Friday and a bit of Saturday, but have made some progress on Saturday afternoon and today

I've had to modify the CNC programs as I programmed originally around using 6mm sheet ally, but as 6mm is the thickest that can be cut on a guillotine it was anything but flat. So I have decided to use 8mm plate which is machine saw and sooooooo much better in terms of flatness.
The thicker plate ally is more expensive, but is worth the little extra and also is slightly harder grade and machines better.
I also invested in some 2 flute milling cutters that are specially made for cutting ally, this as allowed me to increase feeds rates a little and as resulted in the machining time now being just on 4 hours per set. After this there is a fair bit of deburring and tapping of holes and countersinking to suit the fasteners.
All in including delivery to the UK mainland these are looking to work out at £140ea for the first batch. I have bought ally plate that should make 13 or 14 sets, I will work these as a batch of 13 or 14 and they will take some weeks to get finished due to the long machining time involved. I may have other jobs that I need to make on the mill but I will try to fit them in-between the operations on the OSS motor mounts
They are machined in 4 stages, bottom inside (takes around 1 hour), bottom outside (takes around 35 mins), top inside (takes around 1 hour 40 mins) top outside (takes around (50 mins) then the deburring and tapping of holes, countersinking takes around 30 mins

I have tried everything that I can do to keep the cost to the absolute minimum, but these are a bespoke precision machined part made from good quality aluminium, it’s just a pity no one will ever see it once it’s in situ

Cheers,
Paul
 
Great work, if you want to talk about subbing the job out to get the machining times down pm me
1600266076755.jpg
 
Great work, if you want to talk about subbing the job out to get the machining times down pm meView attachment 76152

Great work, if you want to talk about subbing the job out to get the machining times down pm meView attachment 76152

Would be worth doing so if I had orders for say 50 or 100 but at 20 initially (assuming no one pulls out) the it doesn’t seem worth the time and trouble. I have four fully done from the initial match of material and 7 bottoms machined from the new match of material and the first two tops inside machined
In summary I’m getting through them and I suspect that after the initial interest demand will slow to one here and one there
Ok bought some two flute end mills which are much better for ally than the 4 flute ones that I started with so feed rates went up and machining time came down. Win Win

Is that an Hass you have there ?

Cheers. Paul


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OK guys, finally late last week the 8mm Ally plate that I ordered turned up. I had some jobs on Friday and a bit of Saturday, but have made some progress on Saturday afternoon and today

I've had to modify the CNC programs as I programmed originally around using 6mm sheet ally, but as 6mm is the thickest that can be cut on a guillotine it was anything but flat. So I have decided to use 8mm plate which is machine saw and sooooooo much better in terms of flatness.
The thicker plate ally is more expensive, but is worth the little extra and also is slightly harder grade and machines better.
I also invested in some 2 flute milling cutters that are specially made for cutting ally, this as allowed me to increase feeds rates a little and as resulted in the machining time now being just on 4 hours per set. After this there is a fair bit of deburring and tapping of holes and countersinking to suit the fasteners.
All in including delivery to the UK mainland these are looking to work out at £140ea for the first batch. I have bought ally plate that should make 13 or 14 sets, I will work these as a batch of 13 or 14 and they will take some weeks to get finished due to the long machining time involved. I may have other jobs that I need to make on the mill but I will try to fit them in-between the operations on the OSS motor mounts
They are machined in 4 stages, bottom inside (takes around 1 hour), bottom outside (takes around 35 mins), top inside (takes around 1 hour 40 mins) top outside (takes around (50 mins) then the deburring and tapping of holes, countersinking takes around 30 mins

I have tried everything that I can do to keep the cost to the absolute minimum, but these are a bespoke precision machined part made from good quality aluminium, it’s just a pity no one will ever see it once it’s in situ

Cheers,
Paul

That sounds promising. I hope you include all your expenses, by a margin, in your price. I know that postage to Sweden costs more than within England, but I am happy to pay for it. Get in touch with the cost when it's my turn, I look forward to fixing my broken OSS.

Cheers, Stefan
 
Yes I cover my cost but without making a massive margin on things. After all this is a hobby for me not the way I make my living
Once I have the first batch of say 10 ready I will be in touch via PM to everyone in order
Cheers. Paul


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Ok bought some two flute end mills which are much better for ally than the 4 flute ones that I started with so feed rates went up and machining time came down. Win Win

Is that an Hass you have there ?

Cheers. Paul


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Fair enough, I wasnt fishing for work! You should be using ali-specific slot drills, material removal rates can go right up to the limit for dry work, flood with coolant and you can increase it again.

Its a Bridgeport VMC1000/22 from 1994. I have a regular repeat job machining cast alloy wiper motor casings for a supplier to Alstom, who build Virgin Pendolino trains. 18kg each, around 800mm long. It's the big lump above the technicians hands in the pic.

Screenshot_20200916-122530.png
 
Fair enough, I wasnt fishing for work! You should be using ali-specific slot drills, material removal rates can go right up to the limit for dry work, flood with coolant and you can increase it again.

Its a Bridgeport VMC1000/22 from 1994. I have a regular repeat job machining cast alloy wiper motor casings for a supplier to Alstom, who build Virgin Pendolino trains. 18kg each, around 800mm long. It's the big lump above the technicians hands in the pic.

View attachment 76156

Ha yes I remember those machines. We had a few at Baes near new then subcontracted anything less than 5axis milling so all those machines went with the work to a few local subbies for next to nothing
From what I recall of them they are good machines

Cheers. Paul


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I had my OSS replaced by Audi. Works fine so far but I'll be interested in this upgrade too, if it prevents future issues.

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I had my OSS replaced by Audi. Works fine so far but I'll be interested in this upgrade too, if it prevents future issues.

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I’ve added you to the list in post 4

Cheers. Paul


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